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November 19, 2021

Book of Days & Make a Journal ep.8

By Dan Tanner  |   in art journal  | Tags: art musings , art journal , tamara laporte , Willowing Arts  

How are you over there? Are you settling into the end of the 2021 year? To be honest with you: it’s all been a bit of a blur to me, still so much is going on with the pandemic and general turmoil; I’ve been pretty down/ blue with it all. At times I just want to stay in bed for days on end while feeding myself chocolate and cheese and watch repeats of The Office and New Girl (OMG don’t you just love Nick Miller?!).

But, life continues to demand that ‘I get up out of bed’ for some reason 😆, so I do and I go and I live my thing. In it all I’ve realised over and over again that a few things support me with the crazy of it all, here is my list:

  • Community/ chatting with friends/ family about how we feel.
  • Feeling my feelings, really.
  • Therapy.
  • Hugs.
  • Art, music, art, music.
  • Self care, pausing, resting.
  • Some kind of spiritual practice.

I keep coming back to art as it hits quite a few of the above: through art and journalling I can feel my feelings, go into a therapeutic space, do self care and experience it at as a sacred spiritual practice too. Amazing how one activity can be so soothing in so many ways.

Speaking of which: I wanted to let you know that I will be teaching on Book of Days again next year. Most of you know that I rarely have the opportunity to join other year long course due to my crazy schedule, but I always join Effy Wild for her Book of Days course because it’s where we get to go deep into the art journalling process and we get to go deeply into our feelings and deeply into our spiritual practice, plus there is a like-minded community too! Effy is truly a master at ‘meeting herself on the page‘ in her words. I hope you’ll come and join us for Book of Days 2022 for an art journalling deep dive!

If you need some new inspiration: I just uploaded a new episode of Finish A Journal (on my youtube channel) in which I create an expressive watercolour portrait. Come check it out here. I include a voice-over in which I chitter chatter about my creative and emotional process. Hope you find it inspiring!

Call for compassionate sponsors! ❤️ 

We have just counted the amount of scholarship applicants we’ve had for Life Book 2022. We’ve had over 550 applicants this year, GULP! This is more than double what we usually get! We at Willowing Arts are upping our scholarships offers from 10 to 20 to get as many people on Life Book 2022, but sadly we cannot offer scholarships to all 550 people!

If you are able and willing and feel called to sponsor any additional people who struggle financially and are not able to join Life Book without financial support/ a scholarship, please contact us on hello@willowing.org or click the buttons below to donate. With your support we will be able to offer more scholarships to more people! Please help if you can! Thank you in advance to anyone who is willing/ able to sponsor a person in need! We are SO deeply grateful to those donors who have already donated scholarships for Life Book 2022. You have our undying gratitude!

Click to donate a space on Life Book 2022
Click to donate an amount of your choice
If you love making art too and want to dive really deeply into all things creativity and wellbeing and really support yourself with self care and kindness, then do join us on Life Book 2022. You can currently join it with 30% off! Use: ARTJOY30 at the checkout! (Payment plans are available). Let’s make 2022 a year of self love and self care through creativity.Please enjoy the rest of this email with some of my ‘favourites this month’ and some other updates, you are loved!

Much love, Tam 💕

You may also like:

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Tamara Laporte

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Mixed media artist, teacher and author. I don’t see all IG msgs. For enq pls email hello@willowing.org - Join A Year of Magic & Fairy Tales:

Posting this one again now that I`ve properly scanned it! --> I’ve been playing with chiaroscuro lately — that dramatic dance between light and dark you see in old black-and-white portraits. Never painted just in black and white before (well, a little indigo crept in 👀). I love how moody it feels!

Open
Posting this one again now that I've properly scanned it! --> I’ve been playing with chiaroscuro lately — that dramatic dance between light and dark you see in old black-and-white portraits. Never painted just in black and white before (well, a little indigo crept in 👀). I love how moody it feels!

For my next Year of Light lesson we are exploring `chiaroscuro` (which is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition). I`ve always loved the black and white photos of people like Marlene Ditriech and wanted to try achieve that type of effect in a painting! I don`t think I`ve EVER painted just in black and white before, but really loved doing it! (Well, I say black and white, but this also contains indigo blue and paynes gray). 😊 Really pleased with it, it has such a `vibe` (as my teen kids would say haha). ♥️♥️♥️

Open
For my next Year of Light lesson we are exploring 'chiaroscuro' (which is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition). I've always loved the black and white photos of people like Marlene Ditriech and wanted to try achieve that type of effect in a painting! I don't think I've EVER painted just in black and white before, but really loved doing it! (Well, I say black and white, but this also contains indigo blue and paynes gray). 😊 Really pleased with it, it has such a 'vibe' (as my teen kids would say haha). ♥️♥️♥️

The wonderful Jennifer (@therapistsanctuary) and I filmed another episode for our series on the tubes (up soon!). Here are some of the pages that came out of that session for me. 😊 Loved working with fluorescent pink and in the end adding in the teal! 😍😍😍

Open
The wonderful Jennifer (@therapistsanctuary) and I filmed another episode for our series on the tubes (up soon!). Here are some of the pages that came out of that session for me. 😊 Loved working with fluorescent pink and in the end adding in the teal! 😍😍😍

Art Oasis! Another fun free art event!

Hello my friends! Exciting news!

I know we’ve literally just finished the tasters for A Year of Magic & Fairy Tales but I wanted to let you know about another amazing free art event I’m sure you’d love to join and it’s starting in only 2 days! 😊

So, I’m super excited to let you know that I am part of Art Oasis, a FREE online creative retreat starting October 18 2025. Yay! 🥳🎉🎊 (organised by the amazing Jessica Swift).

For 7 days, artists (including me!) will be sharing lessons, stories, and creative inspiration to help you slow down, refill your creative well, and remember how good it feels to make art just for YOU.

Here’s what you can expect each day:

💕 Fresh, inspiring art lessons (all levels welcome)
💕 Cozy Conversations – real, heartfelt chats with artists about our creative journeys
💕 Daily creative prompts to keep your ideas flowing
💕A friendly, global, online community of fellow creatives

How It Works

🎨 Watch online – anytime, anywhere, at your own pace. Watch one lesson or all of them – there are no rules and no risk. It’s completely FREE!
🎨 Fit it into your schedule however works best for you!
🎨 Grab inspiring free gifts from the featured artists.
🎨 Want to extend your stay in the Oasis? Grab the VIP Pass!

I’ll be teaching a session on ‘play and the inner child’! Attached is the painting you`ll make with me (or something like it) 😊

… and I’d love for you to join me! ♥️

To join click here:

https://bit.ly/ArtOasisTamx (or find link in story/ bio/ linktree)

This event is all about permission; to play, to explore, to create without pressure. If you’re craving that kind of creative joy, I hope I’ll see you inside the Oasis!

Much Love,

Tam 💕

PS – After you sign up, you’ll have the option to upgrade to the VIP Pass – this gives you forever access to every lesson (including mine!) and some incredible bonus content. If you grab it during registration, you’ll get the lowest price.

Open
Art Oasis! Another fun free art event! 

Hello my friends! Exciting news! 

I know we’ve literally just finished the tasters for A Year of Magic & Fairy Tales but I wanted to let you know about another amazing free art event I’m sure you’d love to join and it’s starting in only 2 days! 😊

So, I’m super excited to let you know that I am part of Art Oasis, a FREE online creative retreat starting October 18 2025. Yay! 🥳🎉🎊 (organised by the amazing Jessica Swift). 

For 7 days, artists (including me!) will be sharing lessons, stories, and creative inspiration to help you slow down, refill your creative well, and remember how good it feels to make art just for YOU.

Here’s what you can expect each day:

💕 Fresh, inspiring art lessons (all levels welcome)
💕 Cozy Conversations – real, heartfelt chats with artists about our creative journeys
💕 Daily creative prompts to keep your ideas flowing
💕A friendly, global, online community of fellow creatives

How It Works

🎨 Watch online – anytime, anywhere, at your own pace. Watch one lesson or all of them – there are no rules and no risk. It’s completely FREE!
🎨 Fit it into your schedule however works best for you!
🎨 Grab inspiring free gifts from the featured artists.
🎨 Want to extend your stay in the Oasis? Grab the VIP Pass!

I’ll be teaching a session on ‘play and the inner child’! Attached is the painting you'll make with me (or something like it) 😊 

… and I’d love for you to join me! ♥️

To join click here: 

https://bit.ly/ArtOasisTamx (or find link in story/ bio/ linktree) 

This event is all about permission; to play, to explore, to create without pressure. If you’re craving that kind of creative joy, I hope I’ll see you inside the Oasis!

Much Love,

Tam 💕 

PS – After you sign up, you’ll have the option to upgrade to the VIP Pass – this gives you forever access to every lesson (including mine!) and some incredible bonus content. If you grab it during registration, you’ll get the lowest price.

Haven’t done any abstract in a while and it called me this evening! I’m loving the combination of red and teal! 😍😍😍

Open
Haven’t done any abstract in a while and it called me this evening! I’m loving the combination of red and teal! 😍😍😍
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