Something new is about to happen...

Dear friends,

A little birdie told me that there is something new on the way...something great and exciting.

So watch this space ....

Hello again!

Hi there lovelies,

It has been a year since I last wrote a blog post. Time has flied! I had to let go of some of my interests for a bit as we moved to Saudi Arabia for a time to teach English. It was a crazy time for me and I was just not able to cope with teaching full time again and all the other things I used to do. Who new.

I am also just human and not a robot. :) Maybe something I also needed to realize. We tend to see ourselves as super woman and want to do it all. We just cannot. I am not sure if I would want to write a post about my Saudi adventure but even though I feel like it was the worst six months of my life, it also held some special moments and some new adventures. Emotionally I am still detoxing and trying to make sense of it all.

Due to all the sudden changes, I went through, I also just took a lot of time resting and doing absolutely nothing as much as I could. Well not nothing but in my mind, I was not being very productive. I spent time with my family and my husband. I caught up on lots and lots of sleep...not that you can really get back the lost sleep. Stress and lack of sleep took its toll on my body, so obviously, my mind also needed to rest. In the meantime, I read up a lot and did research on all the things that interest me. Including arty things of course.

Then one day I suddenly felt like sketching again.

I did a couple of artworks that I would like to share with you. I hope you like it. Just the fact that I took the time to do these has made me emotionally detach from the negative experiences I recently had. Art is such a wonderful way of dealing with emotional loads that drag you down. I can truly recommend it.

First sketch: Baby in bloom - I used watercolors, gelatos and pencil. This was just a little warm-up, but I am quite happy with it.

Second sketch: Firewood - also mixed media. I added oil crayons to this one too. 

Third sketch: Hope flutters

A couple of days later I did the third sketch: This one I loved doing so much. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink and stencils that I cut with the Silhouette die cutting machine a while back. I also used my butterfly stamp that I love so much. I used pastels and watercolor for the rest. Just love the outcome. 

My first self portrait:

I have always shied away from doing real portraits. My impressionistic style suits me better and I think I was just afraid that I would be really bad at it. Once again I needed to remind myself that any artist should only compare themselves with their own progress and not to compare it with anyone else.

So the final sketch was a self portrait. I thought that if I would try it, I should at least start with drawing myself. If it went south, I could blame it on the difficulty of drawing a true likeness of oneself. If it was a success, it would give me confidence to try other realistic portraits. 

So here goes....

First just the pencil.... 

then the color version: 

Products used:
1. Paper: Daler Rowney Mixed Media Papier Multi-Techniques
2. Jovi Watercolor set
3. Colorbox Petal Point pigment - purple
4. Tim Holtz Distress Ink minis: tumbled glass, ripe persimmon, crushed olive 
5. Rolfes Soft Pastels
6. Mix and Match gelatos and brushes by Faber Castell
7. Butterfly stamp
8. Snow white acrylic paint by Americana
9. Rolfes oil crayons and Pritt kids art crayons
10. Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (Indian ink) - Black 199***
11. Steadler Wopex HB pencil
12. Derwent pastel pencils: burnt carmine P610, carbon black P710, crimson P160, saffron P050, titanium white P720
13. Cretacolor Marino - tan light 241 31, cyclamen 241 34
14. Artline 440XF Paint marker - white 1.2 mm

All products can be purchased at Jimnettes in Lynwoodroad, Pretoria. 


Till next time ...
Beeeee blessed

Lovely Little Art Blocks

Hi there lovelies,

So here they are. My four little art blocks that were part of the Saxonwold Art Gallery event during end of October up to 2nd of November 2014. I was so proud to be part of this event. A great experience in general. 

Homeward Bound - 25cm x 25cm on canvas

Hold On - 25cm x 25cm on canvas

Homeward Hope - 25cm x 25cm on canvas

Strong Against The Wind - 25cm x 25cm on canvas

Creative Art Block Exhibition

Hi there lovelies,

I am very excited to announce that I am taking part in the Marlise Le Roux Saxonwold Art Events Gallery Creative Art Block Exhibition in Johannesburg at the end of this month.

I am doing 4 pieces for this event.

For more info, please contact artist and owner, Marlise Le Roux. 

art@marliseleroux.com

Hope to see some of you there.

Scrapbook layouts, markets, artworks in the making and life in progress!

Hi there lovelies,

October already and I have tried to blog more often but yet again time has gone buy quicker than expected and I am now finally forcing myself to at least do this post now. It is midnight already but it is now or never.

So our Willows Night Market has come and gone. The coldest night of the year and we decide to go out and participate in the madness. You have to be either crazy or very very determined. All I can say it was pretty cool, and by that I mean freeeeeeeeeeeezing! Thank you to everyone who supported us!

We also did a food stall and I felt very proud when a "food connoisseur" gave me the greatest compliment ever: "So, do you have your own restaurant?" she asked. This was my first try. Not to bad for a first try if someone who owns her own restaurant spots some kind of talent in you. Maybe someday I will open that little restaurant and feed the world. :)

What have I been up to?
First of all, I had to recuperate from the market experience. It took me almost two weeks to feel like I have the guts to tackle another project.

I have been organizing my studio again because clutter stresses me out and then I can't focus on any of the trillion projects I want to do. I still have a couple that is unfinished but at least I can now see them again.

I love scrapbooking but as of late I have not been able to attend to it as much as I have planned to. At least I finished this double page layout I have been working on. I still need to do some journaling but plan to just type it up and add it later. I left space for the journaling on both pages. These are photos I printed for my childhood album. On the right, I had doubles and decided to use them all to build the page. I like the way it came out. I found a little swimsuit sticker and it fit in nicely. In this design I am celebrating having friends and cousins and thinking about years have gone and where we are today…being married, having different lives of our own. I don’t have contact with the friends on the right as we moved away and never had the privilege to get to know each other as adults. At least I have some contact still with my cousins on the left.

I had to add this sentiment. I love kids but I wanted to remind myself that I use to be one and as such, the fact that we were born is a blessing in itself. God never makes mistakes. I also still hope and pray for my own babies someday. Can't wait to love them to bits and scrapbook it all! I did a couple of project life layouts for this album but will leave that for another post.

My husband’s birthday:

I decided to make him a couple of things for his birthday. The Silhouette cutting machine is a joy. I don’t even have the latest model but I love the freedom it gives me. I can cut my own designs or stuff I downloaded for free. This was a really quick card that happened in minutes.

I made a couple of things I knew my husband would like or that represented him. He loves lamas, landrovers, adventure, bicycles, photography, aeroplanes, he has a moustache, always looking for his glasses or looking after it. He is very particular that it should never be scratched or smudged…and then I found a little silhouette figure that represents one of his stances. I have so many photographs of him standing in this way. I also made a little pouch for all his memorabilia to go straight to the scrapbook afterwards so it wouldn’t get lost or damaged. During the birthday week, I hung it up with string in the living room. He loved that idea!

At the moment I am working on some new art that is for a show held at the Marelise Le Roux Saxonwold Art gallery in Johannesburg at the end of the month. I had the privilege to meet her a couple of weeks back. (Not name dropping but I found out I married her husband's cousin or is it she married my husband's cousin. Anyway, it doesn't matter because I love having a creative family and adding her to the list is a pleasure) What a lovely lady and so talented. She invited me to take part in an Art block exhibition with various other artists. I am very excited about this. I will blog about the event some later on. Her idea came from the Art Block exhibition held at the Spier wine farm in the Western Cape. I had the privilege to see it last year in August when we attended a family wedding. The various artists' work together makes for a lovely display. Here is a sneak peek on some of my ideas for the art blocks. I am going to do only four and have given my sister and fellow artist the opportunity to do the other four.



This is my favourite:


I just love these little paper bows! I also used the Silhouette to cut the owl. This machine makes card making so much easier and cards look much more rounded and professional.

		August Birthday card with owl and bow VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Sometimes it feels like I am in a slump. So many ideas and projects I want to see happen but it feels like I am either overwhelmed by it all or stuck because their ideas are too many and the time too little. Being married, managing relationships and life and home is a tall order for anyone. Then I remember that I am just human and not super human and that it is O.K. to LIVE the life I have been given before I plan to scrapbook it.  When I look back on the last couple of months since August, I realise that I have been living it. Even if it is at a much slower pace now than when I was younger and working as a fulltime teacher, but at least now I get to do other things I wasn’t able when I had a fulltime job outside of my home life. I love my art and being able to create when ever the inspiration hits me. I love that I can be available for my family and have the energy and time to be a wife to my husband. We sometimes let our jobs and work and the things we want to do, steal the time we need to spend with our loved ones. I realise still, that I need to make it a priority daily.

Finally, I want to make a statement about the month of October. I am a Christian and follower of Jesus Christ. I do not celebrate Halloween and do believe it to be a pagan celebration. I am against it and will always discourage others from it. I urge you to get educated about the roots of this so called “holiday”. It is absolute evil and I hope none of you gets sucked in with the hype of it. I will never design or use designs or paper with this theme. I take a stand on this because I believe it to be important to stand against things like this and speak out.

For me, October is the month my sister has her birthday and all the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom in Pretoria. So it will always be a month of love and colour. This is a work done by my sister. Mixed media on a wood block.

Happy Jacaranda Season to you all. May your allergies survive it!