Hello Everybody! It is time to announce the winner for the Angels In My Studio giveaway -drum roll puuurrrllleease!

There were 141 entries and we used random.org to pick the winner. Number 44 won which is:

Alison Quick!

She said:

Congratulations Alison, please get in contact with Tam or Gracie at gracie {at} willowing.org :-) Yay!

Thank you all so much for entering the giveaway! I hope to see many of you on the course, if you want to sign up, registration opens tomorrow! You can sign up here or find out more information.

Lots of love! x

Hi Guys! I’m super  excited to let you know that I will be teaching on Angels In My Studio this year! I will be joining the other FAB Angels In My Studio teachers in teaching on this magical 5 month online course.  The course starts July 22nd, and registration will open on June 8th. And guess what? I can give away one spot on the course, awesomesauce right?

I love angels and what they represent. The unconditional love and acceptance they exude, the notion that they are there to guide us, can heal us, light our paths and protect us. I love capturing their essence in my paintings and journalling too and now I get to teach an angel painting too, yay! :)

In my lesson on Angels In My Studio we will be calling upon our inner guardian (angel) through connecting with our inherent angel or healing energy. I like to believe we have all we need to know, to help us heal and grow within us. I will lead you through a healing exercise which will inform a mixed media art piece incorporating collage, paint, drawing and words. I will also cover how to draw/ paint a creature with wings representing your inner guardian angel, similar to the one below (though new and updated, mais bien sur!). We will explore a variety of materials like acrylics, water-soluble crayons, moulding paste, collage and much more!

To find out more in depth information about the course and read about the other teachers click HERE :-)

So, as I said, I also have a FREE SPOT on the course to giveaway woohoo! To enter for your chance to win this free spot on the Angels In My Studio course, let me know in the comment section: why you want to win a place on the course. Let me know your answers by 5th June.

 I will be announcing the winner on 6th June. Good luck!

Hello creative amigo. :-) The question I get asked the most, next to ‘how do you print your prints‘ is: ‘How do you create your own style?’ And for many years I was confused about this question myself. I used to uhm and errh and sort of look the other way, as the question, concept and even execution of it eluded me. Until recently. My friends, I’ve had a bit of an epiphany. Hallelujah!

It all started when Gracie and I were in the car a while back and I let her listen to a song that I had recorded. It had quite some harmonies in it and ‘echoes’ too and she said: “hey, you really do like ‘layering’ don’t you?” She remarked on how I like layering in my art, but even in music, I too, like to ‘layer’. I considered it and yes; I like layering paint, collage and other materials and I like layering harmonies and sounds too, a lot in fact.

I kind of let it go at that point, but a few weeks later I was listening to my iTunes playlist and noticed that some [nay most] of the songs that popped up, lyrically speaking, were vague, mysterious, poetic and ‘layered’ in style (hello Flightless Bird, American Mouth?). Gosh, this layering thing was becoming a real theme. I suddenly noticed, that the concept of ‘layering’ popped up in all kinds of areas in my life. And by ‘popping up’ I mean that whenever something was ‘layered’ be it art, music or lyrics and poetry, I enjoyed it the most. The enjoyment bit is important, I’ll get to it in a sec, hang on.

Fast forward to a few weeks later and I started another painting. I sat down and had a strong desire to do a female portrait/ character. As I’d sketched the portrait/ character down, I noticed how doing “just a portrait” was simply “too boring” for me. It needed more, it needed mystery, I wanted people to think: “errh, what? Why? Mmh, interesting”. I wanted the painting to evoke some kind of awe but also: questions. I wanted the painting to make people think about the painting, but also about life and love and beauty. (Notice the layering theme again?). Collage and paint over, grunge and layers of paint achieve an effect of mystery for me. Also: odd elements in strange places (like a bird’s nest as a hat) do that too. But, another strong desire when creating that always comes to me is this: I don’t want my painting to be too depressing or somehow too sad. Melancholy ok, but sad: no. So, whimsy, innocence, light and child-like elements must accompany the mystery. Hence; I like adding in whimsical creatures like elephants, bunnies, birds etc. The whimsical aspects are also captured by drawing child-like clouds, stars, hearts and houses. Finally uplifting slogans or words sending out positive messages represents how I continue to feel optimistic about life. That all is ok, in the end.

“The Uncaged Soul” – Original Sold – Prints Available Here

And I noticed: once I’ve achieved all that in one painting, ie: the mystery, the physical/ emotional/ mental layering combined with a light-hearted whimsy and positive messages: I feel the most, the most, happy. When a painting of mine combines all those elements: everything falls into place for me, it’s feels ‘perfect’ and exactly how it should be. It lights me up inside, it’s in tune with my soul, with the purest part of me! It communicates some of my essence, my deepest passion and love. So, I’ve come to a point now to believe that this way of creating is in actual fact ‘my style’! Hurrah! I finally found the answer to this ‘holy grail’ of questions and based on this experience and my many years of creating art, pondering the style question and being an artist, I have some tips on how you too can find your own artist style. Get ready for the ride:

1. Ask the right question: My friend, first up: you’re asking yourself the wrong question. Don’t ask yourself: “how can I create my own style?” No: ask yourself: “what do I love creating so much it makes my soul light up?” What am I passionately, utterly, irrevocably IN LOVE with right now? What do I keep wanting to create, over and over and over? What feels good to my body, heart, soul and mind? Start there. When you follow your deepest passion (and do note: passions change), you align yourself with your purpose, with the vibration of the universe. It’s like a puzzle piece falling into place.

2. Explore what you love:  If you don’t know what your passion is, that’s ok and understandable! The way to find out is to: look around, browse other artists’ works, take a variety of online art classes, try out all sorts of styles, techniques, materials. And then, let your inner knowing, let your inner passion magnet guide you (yes that’s right I said: ‘inner passion magnet’ there is such a thing). You’ll notice that at some point you may feel super attracted to a particular type of art, let’s say: whimsical art and then you go crazy drawing a 1000 whimsical girls. Or you love the look of abstract art and you’ll immerse yourself in abstract paintings for months. Whatever it is, let your inner knowing and passion magnet guide you to what it is you utterly and irrevocably love. 

3. Go crazy creating: Then when you’ve figured out what you love: do a lot of it. Create create create to your heart’s content. Make painting after painting, fill journal after journal, paint on the walls, just paint! And then: play with your new found love, add and subtract, mix and change it up. Evolve with the subject of your passion. Learn to know your subject deeply and then mix it all up, play, try, adjust, change!

4. Expect your passion to change: Continue to follow your heart. If it’s been months of whimsy and all of a sudden your heart says: “flowers, I can’t stop painting flowers”, then go after those flowers and don’t let go. Paint flowers as if your life depends on it. Then, months later, you may suddenly feel really drawn to experimenting with mermaids and you draw and paint them in all their glory, or you love washi tape and you collect hundreds of them and you try out all the ways you can use washi tape or you love gelli prints and you become obsessed with the intricacies of the print effect. The beauty of following your passions, as different as they may be, is that eventually, aspects of each of your passions will re-emerge and you’ll combine them all into one and that ladies and jellyspoons is where your style is created. I dare say: your own personal style is (or will be) a combination of several aspects of your deepest loves and passions which you’ve explored over the years. It’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

5. Amigo, you gotta give it time: You won’t necessarily know where your deepest passions lie yet. You need time to seek, to play, to develop, grow, mature. Like a very good cheese, or perhaps wine is the more beautiful metaphor here. Don’t be hasty, let your heart take its time. It can be distracted by all sorts of important matters in life, so give yourself, your heart, your passion magnet time. It will all become beautifully clear to you at some point dear one. :-)

“Bird’s Nest” – Original Sold – Prints Available Here

Do I now think that my style is ‘set in stone’? And that I can ONLY make art that is as I described above? Hell no! I will continue to follow my passions and create paintings that make me light up inside. If next week I suddenly feel utterly attracted to drawing leprechauns: I will do so with all my heart and I bet you that elements of my other passions will sneak in too! I am not a big fan of the myth that an artist must ‘stick to one or other style’ at all (SO boring!), but I do think that if you keep doing what your heart, your passion, your soul asks you to do, an essence of your style will always be recognised in your work. It is YOU who created it, after all. :-) 

Hello, my name is Tam. I’m a girl with feelings, happies, sads, annoyances just like you and generally, I’m fumbling through life just as you are. :) Why am I telling you this?

The other day I had a spare moment and absent-mindedly started browsing the intarwebs and I stumbled upon a public chat room on a ning site in which a few people were chatting. I think the people did not realise that the chat room was public and that anyone browsing (like me) could read their conversations because they were writing some things about other people (“high profile” online people in my circle of peers) that I assume most people wouldn’t simply share so blatantly if they knew anyone could read it. They were so blasé about it, as if talking about which shoes they did or did not like, rather than people. This was pretty shocking to me.

Then another thing happened just a couple of days ago. A Facebook acquaintance got the wrong end of the stick and thought I deleted a comment of hers (I hadn’t), she seemed upset in general. A lot of comments on my posts come through while I’m asleep (as I’m UK based), so I wasn’t able to attend to her being upset straight away (I usually do if someone is upset on a thread of mine; I care).

So when I woke up in the morning and looked at the thread I noticed she was upset and checked out her profile page to see if she was ok. Then, I was about to send her a personal message when I scrolled down her page and noticed she had written an angry post about me with stuff in there that would make most people hide in a corner and cry for a week; according to her I was narcissistic, constantly shared videos of myself singing, over-shared my ‘nauseating life’, loved being ‘fawned over my groupies’, produced crap art and a whole bunch of other quite horrible accusations and judgements I won’t elaborate on. So that was super fun.

While I was fairly able to look underneath all the judgments and see her pain and how this was *her* stuff, (when someone really goes overboard on judging you, it’s actually easier to see that it’s ‘their stuff’, lol, if the accusations are more subtle you can make it all about yourself more easily, so I have to thank her for that, ha), I was still blown away by how some people just seem to forget that ‘people you know online’ are people with feelings too. (I’m sure she didn’t mean for me to read it, she must’ve thought the post was protected, but even still, I wouldn’t ever dream of writing something similar to what she wrote about me anywhere about anyone, protected, public or private).

I know I live my life quite publicly and have acquired a fairly large “following” over time. (I put ‘following’ in inverted commas because to me each and every person who reads my stuff, or is part of my ning network, is an FB friend/ acquaintance,  takes my classes, watches me on youtube etc etc is a beautiful, flesh and blood, alive with feelings and needs human being to me. No, I’m not always able to connect with each and every person personally, but I respect and love them all the same.)

Sometimes when you’re seen to become more ‘high profile’ (whatever that is!) or more successful, and have a larger network of people ‘following’ you, it triggers stuff in people. Sometimes it’s jealousy, sometimes it’s admiration, sometimes it’s celebration and sometimes it means that people forget that a ‘successful person’ is just like you; a person with feelings and needs who can hurt just like you.

It’s almost as if becoming more successful makes people feel that they have permission to bash you around more than they would with someone who is less in the public eye. It’s like that with celebrities. When you see what people write in the newspapers or online about celebrities it can be so mean and judgemental, like they’re not people anymore, but just some sort of public property that can be bashed about and judged.

And I’m not putting my success/ growth/ “fame” on the same level as celebrities (lol, I’m glad it’s not like that, I’m scared to imagine the ‘shit’ I’d have to deal with!), but Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Obama, Angelina Jolie, Eddie Izzard, Tony Blair, Me, You, The Homeless Person on Your Street and your Neighbour: all the same. All flesh, blood, human, with feelings, needs, sads, happies and ambition and dreams and hopes and inspiration and insomnia and whatever. We’re all just people, people. No better, no worse than anyone else. Human. And need to be treated as human, not as shoes.

The other thing I want to bring up is this. When you ‘follow’ someone online, however way you do it: FB/ their blog/ youtube, whatever. The only thing you glean from their lives is a mere snippet. Some people share more, some people share less. Even the person who shares deeply in depth stuff about their lives is still someone whose story is incomplete: you do not know them fully. There is so much more to a person than their online output. Notice how your own brain tries to fill in the blanks. The assumptions we make about others based on snapshots and snippets of that which they do share. And notice how those filled-in blanks are highly influenced by your own story, your own baggage, your own life choices. It’s what some people call ‘projection’. When we know only some stuff about others we project the rest and ‘the rest’ is very biased by you.

When someone triggers you, online or elsewhere, it’s a good idea to dig deep inside and look at what it is about you that is triggering you so much. I do it. Whenever I’m browsing online and someone or something somewhere triggers me, I don’t go to the next chat room bashing this person or thing about, instead, I look inward and I own my shit. Then, when I’ve identified what is up for me around that person or that post or that image, I empathise with myself and then, I actively send love to that person/ post or image that triggered me in the first place. This is how I like to make the world a more peaceful and non-violent place: by owning my shit and working it out. Sure, at times I go off on one and judge and blame internally, and still: I always come back to owning it. Why was this so painful for me? Why did that person trigger me so. What inside of me needs love and attention?

To quote Miki Kashtan:

One of the core milestones on the path of consciousness transformation is the moment when we can fully integrate the radical awareness that our emotional responses to the world and to things that happen to us are never caused by another person. This awareness stands in stark contrast to our habitual speech, which states that we feel what we feel because of what someone else did. Instead, we learn, if we apply ourselves deeply to this practice, that our emotions are only caused by the meaning we assign to what someone did, and that meaning is generated from within us, not by the actions.

 

But mostly, I just wish that people remember that whoever you’re dealing with, online, offline, ‘famous’, local, whoever; we are all people that need to be treated with care, respect, love and understanding. And I want people to know that I’m just a girl with all the usual problems that girls have and I have ups and downs and lefts and rights and yays and omgs and glitter and broccoli in my life; just like you, just. like. you. :) I often don’t shower, have bed hair, wear dirty socks, drink too much carbonated soft drinks and can be a beautiful mess. And sometimes I shine and love my life and have epiphanies with rainbows and moonbeams and happy stuff. Me, you, them; we’re all connected and the same.

And sometimes, seeing how people treat people online makes me want to hide away, skulk, dim my light, just live quietly, diminish, grow quiet, be afraid. And then something inside me roars and says: No. No matter how much someone else is triggered and is incapable of owning their own shit: I will not hide my voice. I am here. I am here to stay. I will shine, share, be who I am and how I need to be, want to be. And I will continue to try and connect, even with those who attack. And I will retreat or disconnect in peace from those who insist on not connecting. And I will continue to offer what I have to offer to those who want it and I will encourage others to shine their light and share their voice as well. I’m not going to censor who I am. Hi! I am Tam. I’m here to stay. :)

 Thank you for listening and being here. I appreciate you. <3

MAKE ART, GET HEALTHY!

Are you, like me, fed up with not being as healthy as you could be?

Fed up with making poor food choices?

Fed up with being an emotional overeater?

Fed up not committing to an exercise routine?

And do you want change all that?! (Yes?! Me Too!)

Then join this program and let’s get healthy together!

Using a comprehensive workbook (approx 95 pages), the transformative power of art, support through daily emails, meditation and an encouraging community of like-minded people, we will create health in our lives together!! YaY!! :-)

Registration now closed. I will run another Radical Wellness Course later this year :)

Watch the promo video: 

Program/ Course Details

Begins: 20th May 2013

Registration Opens: 19th April 2013

Registration Closes: 19th May 2013

(You won’t be able to sign up while the course is running, it’s not designed that way)

Introduction

Hello, I am Tam and I want to get healthier! :) I work a lot on mental, emotional and spiritual health on my courses, but the physical side is always a struggle for me. I ‘use’ food for all the ‘wrong’ reasons and would love to change that. I’d love to begin using food for nutritional reasons only! I’ll be more specific: for many years, I’ve struggled with making healthy food choices. I’ve somehow conditioned my brain to think that food can be used as a great strategy to sort out things like: anger, sadness, depression, anxiety, tiredness and a whole host of other emotional states. It’s frustrating me that it’s so hard to overcome this behaviour and I’ve finally come to a point that I want to tackle this problem head on! This kind of behaviour needs careful love and attention to overcome.

I have had ups and downs, better and worse times when it came to managing this behaviour. Over the years, I’ve found a few things helpful:

1. Living a conscious and mindful life

2. Cultivating self-respect, self-love and self-empathy

3. Conscious planning/ decision making (meal plans and other)

4. Acknowledging self-empowerment
   (I am the one making the choices)

5. Practising radical self-care

6. Being in touch with and processing my emotions

This program was created to help me become more mindful and aware of my daily behaviour, experiences, feelings and needs. I have found that by filling in this workbook/ journal daily and by doing the exercises as outlined I am able to make more life and health-enriching choices.

It is my hope that this program will help you too somehow!

Registration now closed. We will run another Radical Wellness later this year :)

This program has a different layout to my usual courses. See the schedule below to learn more about the exact schedule and layout of the course:

Week 1. Prep Week

In week 1 we’ll be preparing ourselves for the 28 days of implementing our health plan into our lives. Week 1 contains several information videos (talking ones, not art ones) in which I will be explaining how to go about filling in the daily pages. There will also be videos of myself and Gracie in dialogue and Andy too will provide some useful insights in some of the topics we’ll examine in the first week.

Specifically we will be dealing with the following topics this week:

Day 1. Reasons why we want to become healthier: your whys.

Day 2. Exploring limiting beliefs which may hinder your health plan and noting down current common behaviour/ responses/ problems that hinder your health plan.

Day 3. Thanking the body.

Day 4. Planning your health, exercise, self care and food plans, some goal setting.

Day 5. Saying goodbye to unwanted behaviours/ thanking the unwanted behaviours/ writing a letter of love, encouragement, empathy and understanding to yourself before you start on your 28 day journey.

Week 2 – 5. The 28 day program: Implementing and Living Your Health Plan

During week 2 to 5 we will actually be living and practising our health plan. To support you, you will receive:

• A 95 page workbook (also used during prep week) – in which you can fill in daily (and weekly) pages

• 5 x 5 minute meditations (to be used at the start of the day to help you ground)

• Daily encouraging/ inspiring emails

• 1 Weekly art video (step by step) that explains a healing art journal technique

• 1 supporting PDF explaining the healing art journal technique

• 1 Weekly art video fast forwarded of a project I did that week

Art wise, we’ll focus on creating beautiful journal pages which incorporate some kind of healing/ feelings processing element. We’ll include fabulous artsy concepts into our journal pages like portraits, animals, whimsical characters, collage etc.

Both the art and health side of things are very comprehensive on this course!

Here is a little peek into the workbook! :)) –>

Printer paper for workbook and ring binder:

Please print out the workbook and put the pages in a ring binder. The workbook is best printed out onto slightly heavier paper than regular printer paper. I’d go for 90gsm and if possible, print the workbook out double-sided to save paper!

(The workbook is a lot of pages).

Paper (for Arting on):

A dedicated art journal. Start a new journal specifically for this program. The idea is that you’ll do all your emotional processing in this journal. Get one that has thick sturdy paper, preferably 140lbs in weight. I like hot pressed paper, but cold pressed or mixed media paper is fine too.

Paints:

Water-soluble crayons – Caran D’ache Neocolor II
Acrylic Paints – Daler Rowney/ Golden/ Winsor Newton
Golden Fluid Acrylics (optional)

Pencils:

Watercolour pencils: Derwent Inktense/ Caran D’ache Supracolor (optional)
Graphite pencils: 2b & heavier
Graphite crayons are fun but optional

Mediums:

Gel Medium: Golden or Liquitex I have both heavy and soft. If you just want to buy 1 go for soft matte. Cheaper gel medium to use as an adhesive: Daler- Rowney Impasto Gel Matt/ Golden Matte Medium

Collage:

Variety of patterned scrapbooking papers, magazine pages, book pages and photos.

Tools:

Brayer/ Palette Knives/ Scissors/ Rulers
Heat gun or Hair Dryer

Markers:

Aquamarkers Letraset
Posca pens or posterpaint pens

Inks/ Sprays:

Dylusions Ink Sprays
Daler-Rowney Liquid Acrylics

Other:
White Gesso & Clear Gesso
Gelli Plate (optional)Washi
Tape (optional)

Please assume that the list above is tentative and that you may need a few more bits here and there (although it’s unlikely I’ll suddenly come in with a new product!) or certain materials on the list might not get used. It’s also not always necessary to use the exact same materials as I list above. Certain materials can easily be replaced by similar or other materials.

So if you’re on a budget, don’t go mad buying lots of new materials.

This programme is not solely about weight loss. While in order for some of us to become health(ier), weight loss is a good idea, this programme was not written to focus solely on weight loss. Instead, the course is about an overall holistic approach to creating health and well being in our lives. A likely side-effect of achieving this is weight loss. I don’t want the focus of this programme to be weight loss only as I think that misses the point and is going to make it less likely for us to actually become healthier. Additionally, extra weight is (in most cases) a side effect of an unhealthy approach to food. You’ll agree that it’s much more effective to treat the cause of an unwanted something in our lives than the symptom itself. In this case, the symptom is ‘too much weight’ and the cause is: unhealthy living. So, let’s focus on ‘living healthily’ instead of weight loss and the weight loss will come too! :0)

I am not a professional nutritionist/ therapist or psychologist. This programme is offered based solely on my own personal experiences and learnings in life. If you suffer from an eating disorder like Bulimia or Anorexia (or other mental ailment like depression), this is probably not the programme for you unless you follow it with the support of an experienced therapist.

Though I would love to be able to support you on a one-to-one level, I am unable to do so due to time constraints and other commitments in life. So, if this type of programme easily triggers or upsets you, I strongly recommend you withdraw from the programme or only follow it while having the emotional support of family, friends or trained professionals.

Recommended reading and apps:

• ‘Eating Less: Say Goodbye to Overeating’ by Gillan Riley

• ‘Eat by Choice, Not by Habit’ by Sylvia Haskvitz

• iPhone app for tracking calorie intake and exercise: NutraCheck

The video files are hosted on vimeo.com and can both be watched online and be downloaded to your machine. The video files will be in either .mov or .mp4 file formats. Both file types can be watched in VLC player or Quicktime which can be downloaded off the internet for free.

Your PDF files can be read through a variety of programs, the most common one being Adobe Reader.

Always make sure that your flash player is up to date as out of date flash players can cause some of the videos not to play correctly or at all. You can update your flash player here.

For browsers I recommend you use Firefox, though Chrome and Internet Explorer work fine too.

To download the video files you need to have a high speed internet connection (broadband). If you don’t have a high speed connection you can stream the videos online (or the downloads will simply take a longer time).

1. Can I download and keep all the materials? Yes you can. You can download the videos and watch them at your own pace in your own time, over and over.

    

2. Do I have to participate in the healing/ health exercises? You don’t have to, but the main focus of this course is creating health, so you would miss out on a huge element of the course if you didn’t take part. It’s cool though if you only want to join in on the art exercises.

    

3. Do I have to upload my work? No. Uploading work and interacting/ giving feedback is entirely optional.

    

4. Will I get a DVD for this course? No, DVDs are not included on the live course.

    

5. How long will the videos and PDFs be available for? Until the end of December 2013.

    

6. Can people continue to sign up throughout the course? No, as the program is very specific and because the course is likely to bring up quite a bit of emotion, registration will close before the course starts. I will run another few sessions of this program later in the year.

    

7. Can I get a refund half way through the program? No. Refunds can be given before the course starts but not when the course has already started.

    

8. Can I share the videos and PDFs with other people who are not on the course? No. If your neighbour or friend wants to take part in the course, they have to purchase a course space themselves as should you. Please do not share the course videos and PDFs with anyone else.

    

9. I don’t know how to download the videos, can you help? A description of how to download videos is given alongside every video posted. If that description is still too confusing you can email me and I will try to help you. Please note however that detailed advice and lessons on how to navigate IT cannot be offered. You will need to have basic IT knowledge to be part of the course.
   
   
   

I hope you’ll join me on this exciting journey. Let’s art ourselves healthy, yay! :)

Registration now closed. I will run another Radical Wellness Course later this year :)

Hello the world. :) Today, I parallel parked my car. Booya. I know this might seem like nothing to you seasoned, experienced and kick ass car parkers, but to me that is a big deal. So there, it’s worthy of mentioning or indeed celebrating, which I did with chocolates. :-)

I’m also shaking my fist at mercury retrograding. Not sure if it’s indeed the cause for all the havoc, mayhem and Britney spears emails in my inbox about weight loss, but if it is: I’d like it to stop retrograding and start calming-thefork-downo-grading. Enough chaos and emotional turmoil already Mercury, thankyouverymuch.

You know, I love my life with children, but in the last month or so have really been struggling with them too. Dylan is high energy, Elliot is high energy, put them together in room and it’s high energy + high tension while all I want, all I NEED is some quiet time. I re-read this paragraph and understand that it doesn’t read as bad as it sometimes can be, but let me just say: exhaustion, screaming, shouting, door slamming and big crying sessions have been involved. (Before anyone jumps in with advice: no thank you, lots of love and empathy however: yes please). :)

Anyway, we keep plodding along and of course; it’s not all bad, but I do feel that having children should be advertised with more reality and less romance thrown in there. It should say: “oh yes, having children is wonderful, they’ll delight you and make you stare in awe at their cuteness and growth, but you’ll also completely lose any semblance of self, won’t ever sleep properly again, will be sucked dry of any energy, you will rarely shower, your hair will go greasy and clumpy and you won’t be able to find a quiet moment alone ever again. It’s just hard you guys. However way you raise children, super nanny style or hippy breastfeed until they’re 8 style; it’s seriously hard stuff. Not for the faint-hearted. Not for anyone who values their freedom and sanity and personal hygiene.

And of course, then there is also this:

There is so much fun and beauty. And there is so much hard and terrible. And sometimes, often, the balance is off. I want a bit more fun & beauty and a lot less hard & terrible. But working on it. I know this time is the hardest time and this too will pass. :-) Thanks for listening, the world, you are a good listener! ;)

In other news. Behind the scenes I’m preparing for new online courses (some mini, some full on courses) and alsoooooooo; art retreats and in-person workshops! :-) Very excited about all of this, I feel electrified, in fact! Would you like to come and meet me and have in person tuition? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to meet you tooooo! :D

I’ve not had a lot of time to art lately, but when I catch bits here and there I mosey about in my journal. Here are some snippets of some recent pages:

Those should really be posted in reverse order but I can’t be bothered re-arranging them sorry mah babies. :-)

Ok and lastly, I have the winner of the Jane Davenport Stencil give away! :) There were 137 entries and number 121 , Susan Sanchez won! Yay!!! Please contact me with your email address! Congratulations Susan! :)

Hello friends! Wow, lately it’s blog hop central over here! I love getting involved in testing out new products, giving out shout outs to awesome artists and shops and share with you how I create my art! :) (If you’re a supplier of art supplies and ever want me to demo them for you or be part of a blog hop, do email me! (willowing AT gmail.com).

So without further ado! I was invited to be part of a blog hop to show off the fabulous new stencils produced by www.artistcellar.com. These specific stencils are the ‘Artistcellar Signature Series” designed by Jane Davenport! Jane is a good friend of mine, a fabulous artist and also teaches on Life Book this year! Her lessons are SO super popular. :) Her lesson went up only 2 weeks ago. :) (Just a reminder that you can still sign up to Life Book – there is enough time to catch up!)

Anyhoo, I personally love her art too and was delighted to hear that she had some stencils out. You get 4 of them in a pack and they feature faces and facial features in her style that you can use and play with in your art journal (or in a painting). The cool thing is that even though the designs are clearly and recognisably Jane’s, when I started working over the stencils, I found the faces came out ‘me’ looking. :) So you can still make the faces really your own and not be too worried that the face is ‘too someone else’s style’ if you know what I mean!? :) I did a little video of the process below.

BTW!

Artistcellar are giving a way 1 set of the stencils to one of you! 

If you want a chance to win, leave a comment below telling me why you’d love to own a set of Jane stencils!

(Give away will close on 14th March 2013 – Winner announced on 15th March 2013)

Here are the other artists taking part in the blog hop, do check out what they’ve done with the stencils! It’s fun to see how everyone else is using them! :)

Sunday 3/3 – Artistcellar  (www.artistcellar.com/wp)
Monday 3/4 – Teesha Moore  (www.teeshascircus.blogspot.com)
Tuesday 3/5 – Jeanette House  (http://www.jeanettehouse.co.uk/blog/)
Wednesday 3/6 – Dawn Sokol  (http://www.dblogala.com/)
Thursday 3/7 – Tamara Laporte (www.willowing.org/blog)
Friday 3/8 – Effy Wild  (http://effywild.com)
Saturday 3/9 – Kass Hall (http://www.kasshall.com/)
Sunday 3/10 – Mindy Lacefield  (http://www.timssally.com/)
Monday 3/11 – Jane Davenport (http://www.janedavenport.com/

And if you have the stencils and you’re doing some art with them do leave a link to your blog post in the comments too! I’ve love to see how you use the stencils! :-)

Hello my creative comrades! I had a total art block for a while and was uhming and ah-ing over what to do. So one morning I was looking through my own flickr account and came across some of my ‘paint over collage’ paintings and felt inspired to do another painting like it! And I’m so happy that I did because this painting might well be one of my favourite ones of mine ever! I documented the process so you can try it too.

If you want more in depth guidance on how to create art like this; I run a mini workshop called: “Collage, Paint and Soul” which you can sign up to here (clicky clicky) if you want! :)

But for now here are the progress shots with instructions of how I made  ‘Essence of Angel’. :) Hope you enjoy and if you create something in response, do link to your blog post in the comments, I’d love to see your work! :)

Step 1. Create a pleasing to you collage. I used a variety of scrapbooking papers/ book pages and magazine papers. Choose a face from a magazine over which you will paint another face later.

Step 2. Use clear/ transparent gesso and go over your collage. Let dry. Once it’s dry, paint over the face and add extra things like hair or crowns or whatever else to make the face your own.

Step 3. Continue building up the layers. Add colour with watersoluble paints/ crayons/ pencils to the background. I also brayered over the background and continued to build layers.

Step 4. Continue building up your layers and add interesting elements to the body element (or other depending on your design). I added a bird, a big hand, a house/ castle and some butterfly wings at the bottom of her body.

Step 5. Once you are happy with the entire piece, add quotes or lyrics that you love to the background. I used Rumi quotes. I also added little doodles like hearts, stars, moons, suns etc. :)

And here is the final painting (again, ha):

Hope you enjoyed seeing the progress shots and remember that if you want to get more in depth guidance on this technique, sign up to my mini course (super affordable) here:

1 Space on Collage, Paint & Soul

(self study group)

£14.99 GBP

Hello groovy art gang! :)

The awesome Dawn Devries Sokol has a new book out called ‘Art Doodle Love’. It’s a wonderful book which is created to inspire and encourage you to create! It’s filled with colourful pages and inspiring prompts. You can make art and doodle on all the pages. I’m completely in love with the book and Gracie (my fabulous assistant) saw it too and has already ordered two, one for herself and the other for her 11 year old daughter.

It’s a really great book for delving deeper into yourself and connect with yourself through the prompts and the art making. I highly recommend this book! :) Watch me play in it, I am drawing bunnies lately: