How I'm going with lifebook - April 2018

This is my 2nd year of doing the 'art course' Lifebook, I wasn't sure whether to take it again as last year I pretty much dropped out of the second half of the year. The thing that swayed me was lifelong access to the lessons, so even if I don't complete things through the year I can go back anytime and watch the videos and have a go.

One thing I'm doing differently this year is I'm not visiting the facebook group or posting my work to it - though I am posting on instagram. So I'm less influenced by the work other lifebookers are doing, and I'm not comparing my work to theirs. This year I'm much more on my own journey. Sometimes I follow the instructions closely. Sometimes I watch the first video and then go off on my own tangent and never watch the end of the lessson!! What matters to me is that I'm doing some art and trying new approaches.

I'm lagging behind, I've just started my week 12 piece, when the week 16 lesson is now available, and there are lots of lessons I've missed, some because they needed equipment I don't have- a gelliplate, or encaustic wax materials - some because another lesson grabbed my attention more. Some weeks there are 2 lessons. So as the year unfolds there's a real smorgasbord to choose from, you'd have to be very dedicated to do them all!!

The week 6 lesson was one where I went my own way - A heart full of happy with Tamara Laporte- was a whimsical girl in w/c and markers. The face was in 3/4 pose and I have a photo of my mum in that pose on my desk, so I used that as a reference for my piece, and it turned out very different in style and feeling to the lesson. Sometimes I think I'm just contrary, and that if the lesson had been to work from a photo of a family member I'd have decided to do something completely different.

The week 9 lesson - Friends are the flowers in life's garden with Effy Wild- was one that I followed closely except I left out the lettering.

Week 10 was a lovely lesson with (Aussie!) Laura Horn, laying down a loose background and then drawing in natural elements in ink using a satay stick. I loved the unexpected expressive mark making that reults from drawing with a stick, and I've been inspired to make some cards and do some sketchbook work based on this lesson...it's exciting to feel inspired!!!

The week 11 lesson was Grateful Heart with Annie Hamman. Annie was probably my favourite teacher from last year, and this was another lovely lesson. It's a very simple composition, but the texture and layering bring such richness to the piece. Her philosophy is to allow the piece to unfold, that once you start intuition and the expression of feelings will change the direction the work goes in. As she says - let's be brave and go ahead.

Lifebook 2017 - week 5 - abstract

This weeks lesson was a many layered abstract with Wendy Brightbill. Mine has watercolours, acrylics and coloured pencils. I missed out the layers of inks and gel pens because I don't have them.

I don't often work in abstract - the figure and moments from my life are really at the heart of what makes me paint... so it was hard not to turn these shapes into leaves, flowers, etc! I'm not sure if it works as a whole composition, but there are details that I love, and it was a lot of fun to do. I'd love to get this kind of  richness of layering into my normal painting.

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying working on paper (instead of canvas). I'm using a heavyweight cartridge paper 220gsm, it's surprisingly sturdy - it buckles a bit with very wet watercolour but seems to flatten out once it's dry. Once you start adding layers of gesso, collage, acrylics, etc, it becomes leather tough.

I have just added these 3 little still life paintings to my etsy shop. They are tiny 4x4 inch canvases I did last year. Have a great Sunday.

Hello 2017, hello lifebook

2017 has got off to a creative start! The first Lifebook 2017 lessons arrived on the 1st - a beautiful guided meditation, a warm up lesson, and a full lesson. The pieces are about setting your intention for the year, the negative things you want to leave behind and positive things you want to carry forward with you.

The main lesson was 5x 40 minute videos, one of the big challenges for me will be to slow down and allow myself the time to watch and then do the artwork. This week I've been on holiday from work, so I  watched a video a day and worked on the piece each day, but I wonder how I'll sqeeze it all in once the kids are back at school and all the normal routines kick in....

There is a bit of me that feels - why do I need to do this? I've been artmaking for 25 or more years, I should beable to just get on with my stuff. But I've been very uninspired in 2016 to the point where art was one more chore I should do... So it's wonderful to feel inspired about art making, to be learning new techniques and approaches. I want to feel whole- hearted about doing the course and see where it takes me.

2017 is shaping up to be a year of change, there has been restructuring at work and I will be made redundant at the end of January. And my oldest son has been working and saving hard for a year now, and is planning to move down south in a couple of months time.

Lifebook may well be a lifeboat for me through these changes!!!

One of the blogs that inspired me to join Lifebook was Inky Dinky Doodle - do follow the link to see her post about her week one artworks.

Happy New Year 😊