Studio time

A short little blog post on where I spend arty time when I get the chance and some paintings I've recently finished.

 

This is where I create. I LOVE this space. It is actually the garage outside, but I park my car in the carport and have this amazing space to use for art & craft. There was already a long piece of timber running along the garage, so we've put nails along this so I can hang my canvas and paint, paint, rotate, paint, paint ;) Love it out here!

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a painting I've recently finished, I think it's titled Dove Love. Meh, I'm so hopeless at naming a painting. I have completed this during the course time of Flora Bowley's Bloom True e-course, which I've already blogged about here and here. Just loved it. Happy with how this one has come together. From memory it's roughly 24x24" square?

 

 

This last painting is mixed media and 8x8" square. Love the quote I've

graffitied over the girls face. Just-be-you (tiful)  xx

 

 

 

That's all for today. Hope you like my art.

 

Mel xxx

Flora Love

I have been very busy lately, between looking after my darling children, work, moving house and I'm also trying to fit in a little me time.

My past art teacher from the coast, Julie Sydenham, introduced me to an artist called Flora Bowley, so at Christmas, having no art classes in my new town I ordered Flora's Book. I received the book and read from start to finish in one sitting, I was just in love :)

I've recently enrolled into the AH-MAZING online art course with Flora Bowley. It's only a short 5 week course, but I'm just loving it. Flora Bowley is just so very talented & I love her intuitive style incorporating so many layers. It is quite abstract painting, incorporating many layers, which is such a forgiving process and relaxing, as I'm able to just get into the flow not worrying too much about the outcome in the early stages. We also have our own online group from all over the world, where we share our layers and where we're at in the course. It's so nice to have such a supportive network of artists around the world and it provides so much inspiration. It is safe to say I'm very much enjoying this course!!

Here's a couple of photo's of where I'm at.... I'm up to about layer 6 in both of these paintings.... no idea where they are headed, but having fun!!

 

 

 

They may look a little wild.... but that's okay by me.

Here's a video share of Flora Bowley at work. Love this clip :)
http://vimeo.com/58224937

Anyhow, better get out and into some more layering.

Until next time,
Mel xx

Babies sleeping

Thismorning has been a hard one, mainly because we're all tired after a restless nights sleep! Kids were playing up and I had little patience. After about 1000 of my beads were spilt on the ground by Master William, we all packed up and went for a shop and play at the park. Bliss :)

Now they are both tired out and down for a nap, so I'm starting a new painting for some relaxation!

Thought I'd post a few pics from yesterday & today.

All dressed up waiting for the trick or treaters

 

A picture of an artwork through the layers - (still in progress)

 

 

Horse watching ;)

 

Happy boy playing at the park!! love.

 

 

 

Just starting some underlayers for the next artwork. (going to be a green frog! lol)

 

 

After a quick blog post, I might go and put the next layer on the painting. I have a beautiful crochet piece I've found - so going to try painting it and stamping into painting for some pattern. Not sure how it will turn out yet. I'll post a photo if it works!!

 

Mel x

Kate the great transforming

Another fun night at art on Wednesday and 'Kate the great' is transforming.

Update of where she's up to now along with the abstract fish thingy.. I'm yet to decide where it will take me? I'm thinking along the lines of painting a fish over the top... Must find picture of a nice fish.. Maybe red or orange?

I've just had a hard couple of days work and looking forward to some R&R this weekend with my fam. We have swimming lessons in the morning and some beach time planned, nice and relaxing!

Not sure what crafty things I will get up to this weekend. Maybe a bit of drawing or sewing!? I have been meaning to sew William a bucket hat for a while, so wouldn't mind tackling that project (seems as though he loses a million hats lol).

Anyway, hope you have a fabulous weekend. I'm out for a rest. (or maybe downtime pinning! ha)

Mel x

Busy Weekend.

What a weekend! It's Sunday night now and we're all tired in this household. I've managed to fit so much in this weekend, lots of family time, kids swimming lessons, park trips & lots of art and creative time for me :)

Friday night involved watching some tv with Brent whilst I had a wine and painted some undercoat layers on some canvases. I think having a wine made me a bit more free with the painting... kind of along the lines of 'be brave, be bold' which my art tutor tells us :) It's not often I paint at home, apart from my 2.5 hours every Wednesday night, but I think since I have started this blog it's made me more aware to keep creating.. *go me* haha.

I was hating on one canvas I've recently started, so I pulled out some mod podge, some hot pink, magenta, gold & white paints and an old magazine. This is the old canvas I started with:

 

 

 Here's the final product with a bit of 'beautifying' from an iphone app. I shall call this print,

Kate the Great

 



 



Final two canvases primed and layered up ready for something to take over:

 

 

For lunch today, we went down to South Molly park for a picnic lunch with the kids and a play. Here's a shot from the park:

 

 

 

So we wore them out well and truly; both having a big two hour nap thisafternoon *Woo!* This gave me some time to be a little creative at my workbench doing some jewellery :) Here's a few items I came up with today whilst the kids had a sleep.

 

 

 

So I've definately added enough arm swag to keep me going :)

 

I was planning on this one for my mum, but she is a gold wearer, so might keep this one for myself and work on her present ;)

 

 

This is a 38 inch necklace, sits nice and long.

 

 

And that's about it for the weekend, very productive on the creative side and lots of fun with my family. I hope all of you had a great weekend too. For now, I'm off to bed, ready for another busy week ahead.

 

Night,

Melissa x

My first ever blog post!

Hello out there to anyone that reads this and welcome :) I'm very new to the blogging world and not sure what I'm doing here but thought I would give it a go in order to journal what I'm up to. Now I'd first like to start with an apology as I'm not good with words or grammar.. Hence probably why I studied accountancy and numbers at Uni as opposed to something English related! Anyway moving along.... I'm Mel ;) you can see some info in the about me section above.

I'm just typing this first little introductory blog post in bed on the iPad at 11pm while everyone is sleeping. It's the quietest in our household at this time of day (until one of our babies wakes and wanders into our bed!). I'm also just back from my regular Wednesday night art class with a fun bunch of girls.. We sit, chat, gossip, drink tea and paint (or ceramics, draw, collage..whatever we have in mind really). Wednesday's is my favourite day of the week as I have mothers group in the mornings followed by art at night. Oh and I also did a fabulous silversmithing class last night at Mogo so it's been a fun 24 hours for me!! More on the silversmithing later.

I think I'll use this blog to post whatever I have in mind... whether it be clothes or shoes I'm loving on, art or creative things and family happenings. I might leave you with a little sneak peak of a few underlayers I'm currently working on for a painting for hubby.. it's obviously going to be fish related as he loves his spearfishing here on the south coast!!

Apart from that, I have also listed a few of the paintings I've completed recently at the artworks tab. I also like to do some sewing or jewellery making for friends and family, some of the things I've been working on are here under project gallery. When I get better at this blogging thing, I will share some of my patterns and tutorials for how to make things... maybe if you tell me what you like best, I can work on adding that tutorial first :)

Lastly, we have just received Williams first school photos. They look very cute and I just couldn't resist sharing. He is 2.5 years old, and of course I think very handsome ;)

That's it for me today, I hope you all have a fun weekend.