The pause between Summer and Autumn

Decided I would like to do a lesson from Effy Wild this past weekend featuring a Hare. Didn't get to do it as part of the Moonshine Lite lesson in March, but felt appropriate for Easter. Begun with festive colours.

I had wiped off dark paint on the right page previously, but it will be fine I think. Stencils, stamps, a mask and glazes : 

Then a delay due to a couple of very social days with friends and family ♥  It's no longer Easter, but I wanted to celebrate the pause between Summer and Autumn - we are still enjoying lovely warm weather, with just the occasional rainy cooler day, but daylight savings is over so the nights are coming earlier. I glued some gelli printed paper to a carrier sheet and printed my words through my printer.

I get Moonshine Lite lessons as part of my Patreon membership which also includes A Year of Mary. You can sign up any time.

Creative focus for 2021

I've been much less productive than I'd like for the last couple of months as I was consumed by work commitments. I know that November-December is always stressful and overwhelming, but it was made more so this year by not having my usual reserves of energy. I am therefore especially grateful that I have started my Summer holidays today! I now have time to create, and rest, spend time with my family and friends, and recharge from now until the end of January. After a very tough year I am counting my blessings, and thought I'd share what I'm looking forward to creatively over the next few weeks and into 2021. I'll be closing my year and finding my word using the free offerings I shared HERE.

And there are a couple of new ones to share this week : I'll be exploring some of Ivy Newport's free lessons in her 12 days of creativity : FREE videos, creative inspiration and discounted classes :

I never do watch all the lesson from Amber's online retreats, but I always find something I enjoy. Tamara Laporte and Kiala Givehand are 2 names you might recognise who are offering sessions.

Sign up here - begins 20 December.

And looking ahead to classes for 2021

I am already joined up for Wanderlust 2021 since I got in quick with the special US$99 pricing. You can still join HERE but it's now US$175 and only available to purchase until 31 December 2020. I've never done this before and I am looking forward to learning from some new teachers and getting a new class for inspiration every week. 

I purchased Kaleidoscope 2020 and didn't manage to do much with it this year so will be making time for that over my Christmas holidays and hopefully beyond. I've watched a few lessons and it's gorgeous and I'm not at all sorry I signed up, just sorry I didn't have the time and energy to do it with other class participants. Life time access....

I've also got other classes I've purchased in the past which I've never completed - this makes me hesitate over purchasing anything else new EXCEPT that

I have long been a fan of Effy Wild and can't imagine doing a year without some kind of class from her. See her current offerings HERE. In the past I've participated in both Book of Days and Moonshine and much more. For 2021 I've decided to do something a bit different and joined her Patreon - there are several levels and I'm going for the top US$20/month. For this I will get Moonshine : The Cafe (The Lite version of Moonshine 2021)

and A Year of Mary which will feature twelve paintings using the ‘lip up’ technique inspired by the poetry of Mary Oliver. This is also available at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) Patreon levels if you just want that. Starting 15th January the below is an Effy example of this technique. 

Bonus - I'll also receive the Darling Human Planner (also available separately from Patreon) which will support my written journaling.

I'm also a member of Effy's Wilderhood FB group which is for students and friends of Effy Wild, including alumni, patrons, etc. 

In 2020 this included Journal 52 prompts, links to Journal Jams and monthly workbooks including daily prompts for written journaling and occasional bonus lessons. 

I also would like to return to a more regular written journaling practice. My Inner Work journal which I began in September 2019 changed a bit this year. While my mixed media work sustained me in my time fighting breast cancer, I found it too challenging to write too much about what was going on. Instead I printed out messages and emails about what was happening in my week

and continued to keep a record of what I was reading and watching each month and the art I had produced over the course of the month

This is a view of my journal from the side - each tab is a month. 

I've purchased a new journal and you'll see I printed a list from the computer that I did when I was still in the thick of work. Also lots of lovely photos to remind me of the highlights of the first couple of weeks of December.

I need to set up this new journal for written journaling. I think I will probably use Susannah Conway's offerings to start this one. 

Only thing I'm not sure of at present is what I'm going to do for mixed media and stitched projects. I'm sure something will come to me at the right time. I need something like Klimt in the garden with Rumi (2019) or the Journal 52 weekly cards I've done this year. Maybe not a weekly commitment though....

I'm getting excited about my plans and I'd love to hear what you're doing creatively in 2021. Hope you are finding ways to make this a special time of year for you, despite the continuing challenges being faced, especially by my overseas readers. Sending you some extra wishes for a safe and joyful season 🌟 

Believe in Magic

Another journal spread at last. I've been busy since I last shared with you. Will go into detail in my October monthly review but believe me, I haven't been idle!  This spread began by challenging myself to scrape on some colours that are not my usual

Then I felt moved to add some feather stencils in gold

Another several days passed wondering what I wanted next... I decided to try Effy's latest lesson in Moonshine - creating a 'lip up' face

and then I quickly moved on to adding more stencils around 

I sprayed her face with workable fixative to set the Stabilo pencil. Once dry, I was ready to start adding colour - I'm liking the dappled evening feel and think that apart from her face we'll just need some white/light highlights and words to be done. Let's see if that happens. First I needed more gold stenciling to blend out those hard lines of dark blue... which in turn led to gold highlights on those feathers (click on any photo to see it larger)

The dragonfly and words came to me next

Then the face....I've not tried to make her perfect. She's a bit raw - a bit fierce ♥

Once again I love all the stencil layers and textures. Although I tried to start in a different place with my colours, somehow she ended up back in my comfort zone. I guess that's my own style coming through. And here's the finished spread

The photo really doesn't pick up all the gorgeous glimmer from the gold - it glows over the dark behind it. Wishing you a creative and happy week. If you want to see the rest of my art in this altered book, check out my Flickr Album.

Moonshine : Full Moon Gratitude February

Oh hi - I missed you. I haven't been well...I'll give you full update about what's been going on when I do my end of the month review, but for now, I'm back - YAY ♥ Sharing my latest art journal spread. Full Moon is for being with what is - to celebrate or express gratitude for what has come to fruition or to acknowledge something being good/right in my life. My New Moon intentions were about nourishing my body (food as fuel), and how I can nurture my Inner Wild Child. I celebrated the Wild child at New Moon. Full Moon in Virgo : "Be in your body this full moon, enjoy your sensual self". I've made a huge shift this month in how I feel about my body and it's time to celebrate that. I'm returning to a lesson from last year that inspired me to create this binder cover embodied :

One of our themes for February is Devotion and in that wonderful way the universe has of synchronicity, I have been reading Mary Oliver's Upstream and found this perfect quote : "Attention is the beginning of Devotion". With all of that in mind, here's how my journal page evolved. 

I'm being challenged by my new smaller altered journal size, but it pushed me to try a different silhouette ♥

I stenciled the hearts in titanium white before adding the glaze. 

Using some of my favourite stencils in the background and then the words completed my page. 

So glad to be back creating again. Talk to you again soon 

Moonshine : New Moon February

New Moons are for setting intentions. I'm thinking about nourishing my body (food as fuel), and how I can nurture my Inner Wild Child. Above some of my original gatherings - a photo of me and a dress tag - not included in the end but how perfect ♥ Will have to use it in a future spread. I was inspired by the memory of a page created in my art journal from 2015 using paint over collage and a printed photo of me as a child

I was also thinking about self-portraits....This is the result of those combined inspirations. I began with a lovely background of my favourite colours and a photo of myself (posed for this page) printed on copy paper for the paint over collage technique.

The angle of my original wasn't quite right so I added more hair and made the eyes larger and reframed the mouth so not open....I still know it's me under there!

Love adding paper serviettes as collage elements in my art. 

And this is my spread all finished - loving the colours ♥

You can find out more about Moonshine with Effy Wild HERE.

Moonshine : Full Moon Gratitude

My next spread in my art journal this year is inspired by the first two lessons in Effy's Moonshine class. Full Moon is for being with what is - to celebrate/express gratitude for what has come to fruition or to acknowledge something being good/right in my life. For me at the moment I have enormous gratitude for my holiday time to be creative, all the beautiful ways in which my year has started, and the wonderful scent and look of the stem of Lilies my mum gave me which are sitting on my dining room table ♥

Because I am working in an old book, the pages have a browner tinge than I am used to. For this lesson I wanted to go light so began by brayering on some gesso. I hope some of the text still shows through by the time I've completed the spread.

I began with yellow for our summer sunshine and tore some favourite Tim Holtz tissue since it includes butterflies (a recurring symbol for me) as well as words about memory and travel, before brayering fine silver over it all

Time to add the blood moon and masked lily shapes

Detailing added to lilies by lining with white ink applied with fantastix, followed by dots with posca and finished with gold uniball signo

While thinking about how to finish the page, I sprayed it with workable fixative so that gold pen doesn't move with any future additions

I think I need a little more background stencil detail, maybe some splatter, 

and definitely some words....I decided to cut words out of the lovely poem by Victoria Erickson that I shared when I explained about my word for 2019.

Here's my completed spread - in gratitude ♥

You can join Moonshine or any of Effy's other 2019 offerings HERE.