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Whimsical / Stylised / Folk Art The Kiss
Create 2 paintings inspired by Gustav Klimt's most popular paintings!
Create a painting inspired by one of Gustav Klimt’s most popular paintings: The Kiss! Plus join Tam as she creates a beautiful painting in an analogous colour scheme inspired by the painting “The 3 Ages of Woman” by Gustav Klimt.
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Faces / Portraits Expressive Soul Portraits
Join Tam in her newest SOLO course and paint a series of Expressive Soul Portraits with her!
Join Tam in her newest SOLO course and paint a series of Expressive Soul Portraits with her!
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Faces / Portraits Hallowed Grounds
Create a beautiful autumnal painting!
Create a beautiful autumnal painting! -
Faces / Portraits Elizabeth Bennet
Create a painting inspired by Jane Austen’s character ‘Elizabeth Bennet’!
Create a painting inspired by Jane Austen’s character ‘Elizabeth Bennet’! -
Faces / Portraits Garden of Gratitude
Paint a high contrast portrait!
Paint a high contrast portrait! -
Males / Boys Dreamscapes and Shadows: A Journey with Morpheus
Create a beautiful painting of the Deity Morpheus!
New
Create a beautiful painting of the Deity Morpheus! -
Faces / Portraits The High Priestess
Create a painting inspired by The High Priestess archetype!
Create a painting inspired by The High Priestess archetype! -
Animals The Sacred Sea Turtle
Create the exquisite beauty and essence of the sea turtle!
Create the exquisite beauty and essence of the sea turtle! -
Life Book 2023
Registration Now Open! Come join this popular course which lasts for the entire year! You'll learn wonderful art techniques and how to become a happier person in a huge group of like minded people! :)
“Life Book, a celebration and honouring of YOU” is a year-long mixed media art class organised by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts. Tam is joined by incredible art teachers & wellness experts who are all gearing up to share their art & wellbeing techniques, tips and tricks with YOU! Themed around self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! You will have a wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life!
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Life Book 2024
Registration Now Open! Come join this popular course which lasts for the entire year! You'll learn wonderful art techniques and how to become a happier person in a huge group of like minded people! :)
“Life Book, a celebration and honouring of YOU” is a year-long mixed media art class organised by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts. Tam is joined by incredible art teachers & wellness experts who are all gearing up to share their art & wellbeing techniques, tips and tricks with YOU! Themed around self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! You will have a wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life!
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Creativity and Wellbeing A Year of Light 2025
Registration Now Open! Come join this popular course which lasts for the entire year! You'll learn wonderful art techniques and how to become a happier person in a huge group of like minded people! :)
NewA Year of Light is a year-long, immersive mixed media art course which explores the myriad aspects of light, both literal and metaphorical. This course is hosted by renowned artist and author; Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts. She is joined by 30 incredible artists to provide you with an illuminating new creative experience! On this course, we dive deeply into the concept of light and its profound implications in art, emotion and expression.
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Animals The Spirited Snow Leopard
Create a beautiful snow leopard!
Create a beautiful snow leopard!
Products
Creating Cuties
Join Tam in her newest SOLO course and paint a series of super cute cutie pies! 😃 Learn to paint sweet, cute, adorable animal characters full of joy and innocence!
Join Tam in her newest SOLO course and paint a series of super cute cutie pies! 😃 Learn to paint sweet, cute, adorable animal characters full of joy and innocence!
Expressive Soul Portraits
Join Tam in her newest SOLO course and paint a series of Expressive Soul Portraits with her!
Join Tam in her newest SOLO course and paint a series of Expressive Soul Portraits with her!
Mastering Mixed Media – Expo – 2025 – VIP
Purchase your VIP - All Access Pass for Mastering Mixed Media!
Mastering Mixed Media – Expo 2025 is a two-week, online mixed media art event celebrating the joy of creative play, experimentation, and expression. Hosted by renowned artist and author Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts, this event brings together 35+ inspiring mixed media artists from around the world. Together, they’ll share a wide variety of lessons exploring texture, layering, colour, and mixed media magic to spark your creativity and expand your skills. – Life long and downloadable access available for VIP students!
"Kitty Love & Whimsy" - I ran my very first online art course in early 2009. It was called World of Whimsy, and I think I had around 100 sign-ups, which felt absolutely amazing at the time!
I was pregnant with my first son Dylan and had just left a job in market research to follow this new path. Back then, hardly anyone was running online art classes. Online events with video were still rare. YouTube was just starting to become known, and the idea of watching anything online felt brand new and exciting.
Compare that to how things are now with so many people doing this kind of work! Crazy how things change!
What drew me to running online classes was how they brought together so many of the things I loved and was (sort of) good at: teaching, making art, editing video, Photoshopping, building website. I’ve always enjoyed tech, which is unusual for an artist! Just two years before that, I had been teaching art, music, and drama at a British international school in Sri Lanka. And beyond all that, I loved that I could support people’s mental health through creativity, it was a win-win-win-win-win kind of thing for me haha. 😊
The painting I’m sharing today was the promotional image for World of Whimsy, the course. It has that sweet, quirky charm I loved at the time that helped me so much to get reconnected to that inner child space and heal some of the trauma wounds that were still lingering.
I was enchanted by the idea of a cat-like creature walking its pet mouse on a leash. And if you’re wondering about the words in the background; they’re the lyrics to “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat” from The Aristocats. 🐾🎶
This is day 7 of a ‘gentle return to social media’ read more about this practice here: http://bit.ly/3IHFxir 🌱
“I cry glitter.” ✨
A lyrical quote from a song by Antony and the Johnsons (now Anohni and the Johnsons), whose music I was utterly obsessed with; so vulnerable, poetic, and soul-baring. One of my favourites, Bird Guhl, is from their hauntingly beautiful album I Am a Bird Now. Anohni’s is one of my favourites; full of ache, truth, and beauty.
This painting, also titled Bird Guhl, was part of my early Paint Over Collage series published in Somerset Studio (2013). I enlarged it in photoshop today and was struck by the wild abandon in the marks I made back then; loose, expressive, instinctive.
It reminded me of beginner’s mind; that freedom we have when we start creating, before perfectionism creeps in. Funny how we spend years striving to “improve,” only to realise that joy lives in the unlearning. As Picasso said:
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
I often feel torn between the illustrator and the painter in me; one seeks polish, the other freedom. But I’m learning that spontaneity has its own kind of perfection.
Thanks for reading. 💗
I’d love to hear if you’ve ever tried to return to that playful, messy, beautiful beginner’s mind in your own creative journey.
#BirdGuhl #Anohni #MixedMediaArt #BeginnerMind #ExpressiveArt #CollageArt #ArtMusings #Willowing #arthealing This is day 6 of a ‘gentle return to social media’ read more about this practice here: http://bit.ly/3IHFxir 🌱
Healing Hands. ❤️🩹🙌 This painting was created in 2014 for my very first free course, Art, Heart & Healing.
Unlike what marketing gurus preach these days, I didn’t make this free course as a “lead magnet” or a “low-barrier offer to increase conversions.” I created it because, after running my very first paid course (World of Whimsy – more about this in days to come), I received an email from someone who told me her daughter was living in her attic, struggling with deep depression. She believed my art course could really help her, but they simply couldn’t afford it.
That broke my heart a lot and her email stuck with me. So I decided to offer something for free; not as a tactic, but as a gift to those who truly needed it. There was no sales funnel, no hidden agenda. The only thing I asked what that participants share the course on social media if they felt moved to, but that was it.
Art, Heart & Healing was born out of love, compassion, and the belief that art can be healing and accessible to everyone.
The course attracted a lot of people and introduced many people to the healing power of art.
This course also planted the seed for Life Book (my year long art and healing course I ran for 13 years, more about that soon).
This angel painting is close to my heart. I love the simple colour scheme and gentle expression on her face. I used a lot of extra mixed media supplies in this painting too, which was so fun. It includes texture paste, collage and even glitter! I love the hearts on her hands, like healing hands. Or hands that send out love, like mine. I always hoped that the art my hands created, sent out love the world, one way or another.
Thank you for being here with me today frens.
Happy Sunday.
This is day 5 of a ‘gentle return to social media’ read more about this practice here: http://bit.ly/3IHFxir 🌱
