Sunshine!

We have had a whole weekend of sunshine, it makes such a difference, I hung my washing outside to dry this morning for the first time in months and I even did a bit or gardening this weekend.  When I say gardening that’s not really what I mean, I am not much good with plants.  But if you have a patch of ground that needs clearing of everything, then I’m your (wo)man ;-).  I also mowed the weed patch and I am still of the opinion that we need to get rid of the grassy areas.  T is only interested in growing vegetables, fruit and flowers so the grass gets neglected and more and more weeds grow there.  Paving or something that doesn’t grow seem much appealing .

I’ve been practicing faces because I need to have a face I’ve drawn for the next stage of the Mermaid Circus.  Having drawn the face we then copy it, cut it out and collage it onto a page of our book to create another mermaid.  So far my faces are not up to much, although I can see some improvement on my first attempt.  Several artists have told me that to learn a new skill, you just have to keep doing the work.  Like maybe if you do it 100 times at the end of that you will be creating some good work.  I don’t think I have time to do 100 faces but I am trying to do one a day.  I don’t feel ready to share them just yet.

Here is another mandala from my Circles of Wisdom book.  Sometimes words are not necessary.

Have a great week and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Nonsense!

Hello friends!

I am so happy, my art journaling workshop is now fully subscribed!  So in just over a week’s time I will be sharing my love of art journaling, and especially the style of Teesha Moore, with 12 lovely ladies.  Gosh!

The Mermaid Circus online workshop is now into it’s second week and we have already been given loads of stuff to work on.  This is really taking me out of my comfort zone in so many ways, I am finding it quite a challenge, but I am also enjoying it very much.   Teesha and Jane both have a similar philosophy to encouraging people to be creative and both are very generous in sharing their knowledge.   This week’s challenge is drawing faces, something I would normally avoid doing, because that annoying little voice in my head tells me I can’t draw faces.  Well I’ll show you!

I would be enjoying the Mermaid Circus a lot more if my computer didn’t misbehave all the time. 

This evening when I got home from work T said to me “If I can’t fix your computer I’m going to buy you a new one, no-one should have to struggle like that with technology”.  He is on holiday from work this week and he logged on to my computer today to quickly (or so he thought) print something and couldn’t believe how problematic everything was. 

I did get a slight reprimand from him too, he said “You know your computer is like your art room – it’s just full of clutter and rubbish”!   I honestly thought that the maintenance software I have cleared out all the rubbish, but apparently it doesn’t.  T has cleaned up a lot of things for me and it does seem slightly better this evening, but I still think I might get a new machine for my birthday in a few weeks time.  (Fingers crossed)

The page above is another page from my third Teesha inspired journal with a wonderful quote by Dr Seuss.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

Opportunity

Hello friends

It’s Sunday again already!  It’s late and I’m tired, but I didn’t want you thinking I’d lost interest in my blog, as I didn’t post anything mid week.  This will just be a quick post before I go to bed.  If there are any typos it’s because I am too tired to proof read properly.

Wow what a busy week!  On Monday the online workshop Mermaid Circus with Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport opened at 6am.  I was there at my computer ready and waiting.  I started to watch the first video and my ‘pig’ of a computer crashed!  Since then I’ve been doing loads of maintenance to keep the damn thing working and have finally managed to see all of this week’s videos.  I bought some good quality paper from the local art shop, made my shaped book and have now started to illustrate it with Mermaids.  This is a huge challenge to me as I don’t really have any interest in Mermaids, but I am kind of liking the way things are turning out.  In any case it’s always good to try things that are out of your comfort zone.

As well as giving ‘life support’ to my computer this week and making art I also had to write a report on my local history group’s activities to deliver at a meeting on Saturday morning.  It all went well and we had a good meeting with an excellent talk by Suzanne Whitewood on Girl Guiding on the Isle of Wight.  Afterwards I wanted to go and help my friends set up the display boards for our next exhibition which goes up in the local library next week, but instead I had to help T put up some wallpaper.  I thought it was a real chore, but he was so sweet when he said “I really like doing things with you it makes me feel more motivated than when I work on my own”.

Today I went ‘all the way over to the other side of the Island’ (which is only about 25 miles from here – to us Island folk that seems like a long way, I’ve no idea why that is) to meet up with my friend H and we went for a long walk up on some hills with fantastic views.  It was great and I was thankful for the opportunity to get out in the fresh air and get some much needed exercise.  I really do spend far too much time in my room and in front of this computer.

I am very tired now and off to bed soon, but I just wanted to post another page from my Circles of Wisdom book, this time with a quote by one of my favourite people ever – Mr Albert Einstein.

Have a good week and I’ll see you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

Embrace your Uniqueness

Hello friends!

It’s Sunday night and I am just about ready for bed, I’ve been fighting with my computer for a large part of the day and it is driving me slightly nuts.  I wanted to post this image earlier but for some reason my computer couldn’t find my scanner.  The scanner was switched on, plugged in to the computer and clearly working but the computer refused to acknowledge its existence.  Several reboots of the system didn’t sort it out, so I gave up in disgust and switched everything off.

Now a few hours later I have come back switched everything back on and it’s working fine.  I don’t understand ;-| ?

This page is another from my third Teesha Moore inspired journal.

Teesha’s and Jane Davenport’s online workshop starts tomorrow and I am really looking forward to it.  I just hope my computer doesn’t decide to finally give up the ghost before the workshop is finished.  Keep your fingers crossed for me 🙂

It’s been a busy weekend.  Yesterday we had a sunny and fairly warm day for a change.  This was fortunate as my friends and I spent the whole day from early morning until late afternoon at the Pier Head where there was a ‘Party on the Pier’ and we had our exhibition on the history of the pier on display.  We had a great day and spoke to lots of lovely people.

Today it has been sunny but colder.  I took Mum and Dad out for a drive and a walk this afternoon.

It’s late and I am tired so I’m off to bed now.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

A wonky Mandala :-)

Hello friends!

OK so symmetry isn’t everything and I went a bit ‘off centre’ when I drew this one, but I love the colours which are Inktense Watercolours (mainly) and it’s a reflection of my Universe at that time 🙂

I hope your week is going well, I’m back at work now and enjoying my boring job but having some concerns about some of my colleagues who are very stressed by their workloads.

I heard a radio programme about chanting the other day so I thought I would give it a go.  I’m using the Buddhist chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo but I haven’t learnt how you breath and chant at the same time yet – I keep running out of oxygen!  I don’t think it’s supposed to make you light headed is it?  I doubt I will keep it up but for the time being it’s an interesting exercise.

The Mermaid Circus starts next week and I am so excited about it.  I’ve also ordered a copy of Art Journaling magazine because it has 10 pages by Teesha Moore and I just had to have it.  I got an email today telling me it’s on it’s way, so I hope Postie does not delay with the delivery.

I was wondering how I would remember all the stages and all the things I want to share with the participants on my Art Journaling workshop on 27 April, so at the weekend I sat down and drew a map fo the workshop on a sheet of A3 paper.   Of course I am bound to take a few diversions off the map, but if I stick mainly to the route it will all get done in the right order.  Yesterday I ordered the last of the pens I need for the participants to use and they too are on their way to me.  By the time of the workshop I should have 5 journals completed in the style we are using so there should be plenty for people to look at and hopefully get some inspiration from.  I have also made up welcome packs of goodies to give to the people who come along.   So I think I am just about ready to Rock ‘n’ Roll now.  I am feeling slightly nervous and very excited to be running my own workshop.

Hopefully on Monday evening I will get the names of all the people who have enrolled (if not on Monday then it won’t be until Saturday 13 April which is the first time I will be able to get back to the Library).   As soon as I have that information I will contact everyone to share some more information about the event.

I hope you are all having a lovely week and are keeping warm.  It is still cold here and we even had a flurry of snow today.   I keep thinking about that lovely tropical island paradise of Tobago and how much I’d like to be chillin’ out under a palm tree on the beach at Castara Village:

It’s always hot in Tobago and this is about as crowded as the beach at Castara ever gets …. Happy Days 🙂

See you all soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Confusion Reigns & the Universe Delivers

Hello friends!

Because I work full time having bank holidays is a special treat and this weekend especially as we had Friday and today (Monday) off work.  But the change of pattern confuses my brain.  In the UK we changed to British Summer Time this weekend, the clocks were supposed to go forward on Saturday night, but in this house we put them forward on Friday night.  I think this was because Friday felt like Saturday to me and I convinced T to alter the clocks.  Consequently we spent the whole day on Saturday in a different time zone to everyone else!

I’ve had a busy weekend though.  Lots of art on Friday, on Saturday we went to the local DIY store.  We couldn’t understand why there was hardly anyone there, but now realise it was because we arrived just after it had opened.  Then I spent the rest of the day breaking up a large lump of concrete so we can replace the rotten wooden gate post with a concrete one.  Oh my that was hard work!  It totally wore me out and I had a hot bath and realy night that day.  Yesterday I also felt exhausted all day but I went to a Cemetery Open Day in another town on the Island and then visited my parents in the afternoon.  T had a go at breaking up the other piece of concrete holding in the other gate post, but it was too difficult for him.  We have been wondering if any of our friends have a pneumatic drill, it doesn’t seem likely does it?  Today I’ve had time for more art :-).

The weather this long weekend has been bright and sunny, but still very, very cold, I’m beginning to think I’d like to emigrate to a warmer climate, but then there are the cats to consider…

Talking of the cats, the Bengal Boys were three years old this weekend and had a special fish supper to celebrate.  For the past 6 months there has been a bit of a power struggle going on between them as to who is Top Cat.  I wish they would sort it out because I don’t like it when they squabble.  They are both still very sweet, but not with each other.

Early this afternoon we were visited by our friend Russ who we have known for at least 30 years but hardly ever see.  He said, “I was just passing so I thought I’d drop in and see you”.  He stopped and had a cup of tea with us and said he noticed we had been breaking out the concrete by the gate posts.  T explained what problems we are having and  Russ said “I’ve got a pneumatic drill I can lend you”, he went away and has just called back to deliver it.  It seems so unlikely that that could happen all I can say is “Thank you Universe and Russ”!!!

The page above is the from my third Teesha Moore inspired journal.  I also got some inspiration from the sculpures of one of my favourite artists Jean Miro.

Have a good week and I’ll see you all soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂