☆ Zodiac Girls - Final Reveal {friday art}

Tweet

week 9, 2015

So I am at the end of sharing with you my zodiac girls paintings. 

If you have missed any of the previous posts you can see:

• CAPRICORN, AQUARIUS + PISCES here
  
• ARIES, TAURUS + GEMINI here
  
• CANCER, LEO + VIRGO here

☆☆ LIBRA ☆☆

Libra

AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE

Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2″

Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Tactful, Romantic, Charming, Just, Diplomatic + Balanced

☆☆ SCORPIO ☆☆

Scorpio
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE
Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2″
Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Focused, Brave, Balanced, Faithful, Ambitious + Intuitive

☆☆ SAGITTARIUS ☆☆

Sagittarius
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE
Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2″
Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Positive, Straight Forward, Intellectual, Philosophical, Large-hearted + Adventurous

This was such a fun series to paint. I am so please with how they turned out 

Zodiac Girls Art Print Available here

And they are all available for purchase. The individual paintings can be found in my etsy store here and these awesome prints can be purchased through my Society 6 shop here

Zodiac Girls Art Print
Vertical setting
Available here

I hope you have enjoyed the Zodiac Girls series as much as I loved painting them. I was so excited to share these as desktop calendars with the people on my studio snippets emails.

Next week I have a Trio of Unicorns to share with you. 

Have a great weekend

Tweet

☆ Collections, Sea Urchins and Beautiful Memories

Tweet

From the end of February I am moving! 

Unfortunately I will no longer post here but can be found here instead.

 I hope that you will continue to join me over on my new LilliBean Designs blog.

I has dawned on me over the last ten years that I am a collector. 

I collect shit. A lot of shit.

Not in a hoardy kinda way - I mean I don't have 34 vegetable peelers, 10 foot massagers, or stacks of newspapers in the hallways. But I have my collections.

The things I typically collect include really nice writing pens, cute notebooks, (keep me outta the stationery departments!), feathers, glass bottles, books, hearts, dream catchers and sea shells. 

And my very favourite sea shell to collect are sea urchins.

 

I collect them whole or broken. With spines or not, or even just the spines. 

I love their colours, their roughness combined with the beautiful round shape. 

So you may have seen on instragram over the weekend this photo.

I rediscovered these late last year when I moved my studio space upstairs. And they have been sitting on my desk, precariously stacked on an ice cream bucket (full of rocks by the way!) They have been taunting me. 

What could I do with them? I wanted to see them every day because of the beautiful memory they evoked, and because they are just lovely.

But I didn't want to stick them in a jar and put them on a shelf. (I have a huge jars already filled with shells around the house!) So I left them.

And almost daily I would worry that they'd fall off and break, that I would knock them. That the kids would come in an want to touch them.

So anyway this weekend we were cleaning out our garage (again!) and I found a heap of ikea frames that I had been saving for projects + realised that one of these shadow boxes would be absolutely perfect for my urchins.

How awesome does that look??

And every time I see this I am instantly reminded of that beach on that small greek island (that I can't remember the name of now unless I dig through my journals) where Mac and I spent a couple of hours collecting sea urchins while we were waiting for the ferry to Santorini. The smell of the ocean, keen eyes searching + the smell of the oregano container we bought to carry these shells home.

Is it a terrible shock to learn that my kids have become collectors too? I did't think so.

Bug has a rock + feather collection that is threatening to overtake my shelves + Bean collects anything that will help her in her art projects - like toilet rolls, leaves, string, confetti, sticks.... OMG.

I wonder if any of you have collections around in boxes, in cupboards that are attached to special memories? (Please, PLEASE let me know what you collect!!) And I wonder if you have thought about bringing these collections into the every day? 

P.S if you enjoy reading my blog, please make sure you change your subscription links as from March 1st I will only be posting over here.

Did you know I send out an email with Studio snippets, freebies + give aways once a month? You can have your very own Studio Snippets delivered into your inbox, with free desktop art, discount codes for my online store, snippets from my life, my art + my brain. And absolutely everyone who is a member is in the draw for the monthly give away. Wanna know more? Then click HERE

Tweet

☆ ZODIAC GIRLS: Cancer, Leo + Virgo.

Tweet

From the end of February I am moving! 

Unfortunately I will no longer post here but can be found here instead.

 I hope that you will continue to join me over on my new LilliBean Designs blog.

So far I have shared with you the first six of my zodiac paintings: CAPRICORN, AQUARIUS+ PISCES, TAURUS, ARIES + GEMINI

And this week it is my pleasure to share with you Cancer, Leo + Virgo.

☆ CANCER ☆

CANCER
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2″ Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

Cancerian girls are Creative, Spontaneous, Faithful, Loving, Emotional, Protective + a little bit Moody! 

☆ LEO ☆

Leo
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE
Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2″ Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Kind and big-hearted, Energetic, Optimistic, Straightforward, Loyal, Negative Traits + a little bit Headstrong

☆ VIRGO ☆

Virgo
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE
Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2″ Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Meticulous, Intelligent, Practical, Analytical, Reliable + Modest

YOU CAN SEE THE ENTIRE COLLECTION OF ZODIAC GIRLS IN STORE NOW

I started painting these at the end of last year as a freebie for readers of my Studio Snippets. (Every month readers can download a new desktop calendar featuring art work by Moi!) And you can have a pisces girl delivered direct to you inbox come March 1st by popping over here

Thanks for popping in - have a fabulous weekend!

P.S if you enjoy reading my blog, please make sure you change your subscription links as from March 1st I will only be posting over here.

Did you know I send out an email with Studio snippets, freebies + give aways once a month? You can have your very own Studio Snippets delivered into your inbox, with free desktop art, discount codes for my online store, snippets from my life, my art + my brain. And absolutely everyone who is a member is in the draw for the monthly give away. Wanna know more? Then click HERE

Tweet

☆Life Book 2015: January Recap

Tweet

From the end of February I am moving! 

Unfortunately I will no longer post here but can be found here instead.

 I hope that you will continue to join me over on my new LilliBean Designs blog. 

I have been so fortunate to be a part of the Life Book courses from the very first year + I cannot tell you how much I love it! 

When I first started I was scared that I wouldn't be able to complete the classes, that I wasn't a good enough artist. I was worried that it would be destructive to my fragile artistic ego, and that I wouldn't complete all the classes. 

But what I found during the journey of that first year, was a supportive group of artists of all levels + who all had the same little bitch telling them at different times they weren't enough too.

This year when it came time to sign up, there were no hesitations, no thoughts of enough, no lingering fear. Just excitement + joy + bloody hell was it still two months away before I could begin!

The last few years, I have shared on an almost weekly basis my Life Book creations, but this year I've decided to have a monthly recap instead.

SO LETS JUMP IN!

Our very first class was with Tam Laporte. I love her whimsey style so much, but I also love how I can incorporate my style with her lessons. My Beacon of light is a symbol of all the hopes I have for the coming year, and is surrounded by symbols which remind me of these dreams.

Week One: Beacon of Light

The dragonfly is my personal talisman, the stars for my kids + the heart for Mac. My word of 2015 growth (check out why it's my word here.) is also featured as yet another reminder for myself.

Week two was a playful tag making session with Roben-Marie Smith

I used old manilla folders for the base of the tags, some of my super cute mini moo biz cards for the art work + spray inks for the back ground.

Week Two: Playing Tag

I also dove into my draw of crap + dug out some chipboard elements to use as well + then I decided to doodle some. The words I chose didn't really have a hugely symbolic meaning. The love card, because it had hearts on it just seemed to be appropriate, the fly card was a painting of an angel who was unsure of her path (full painting here).

The middle card represents my three girls - these paintings were their christmas gift a couple of years ago + they for me, totally represent the three of them.

Week three has us playing with lettering with Joanne Sharpe.

And if you have been reading for a while, you all know I am slightly obsessed with lettering. I love it.

So I used a quote that I am particularly fond of one that reminds me to hold tight to my dreams + strive for them.

Week Three: The Artful Wordsmith

The roses were totally inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh's style. I adore his work. (I was so cool when we lived in Scotland to be able to see his work in the flesh!)

Week four was a cute little ballerina girl to inspire us to have courage by Patti Ballard.

A mixed media page, I went for a little tight rope walker because I felt that week that I was balancing precariously, just holding it together but that it would only take a small nudge for the whole house of cards to fall down around me.

Week Four: Courage Dear One

Funnily enough, that was all it took...a small nudge. 

Life imitating art or art imitating life?

I ended up journalling a little on the rope + around her skirt.

So that is January! It is amazing to think how much I have actually achieved in the first month of life book, four pages that I am so very proud of. 

I am so excited to share next months with you (soon I promise!)

If you enjoyed these pages, you can pop over to my instagram or Facebook page, where you can see the in-progress shots, my joy + my frustration during the painting stages + the final work - first.

Did you know I send out an email with Studio snippets, freebies + give aways once a month? You can have your very own Studio Snippets delivered into your inbox, with free desktop art, discount codes for my online store, snippets from my life, my art + my brain. And absolutely everyone who is a member is in the draw for the monthly give away. Wanna know more? Then click HERE

Tweet

☆ ZODIAC GIRLS - part two {april, may, june}

Tweet

FRIDAY ART: February 13th

Last week I shared with you the first three of my new Zodiac Paintings - CAPRICORN, AQUARIUS + PISCES

And this week I am very excited to share with you the next three of my Zodiac Girls Taurus, Aries + Gemini

I started painting these at the end of last year as a freebie for readers of my Studio Snippets.

Every month readers can download a new desktop calendar featuring art work by Moi! 

Downloadable Desktop Calendar from Studio Snippets January

But I soon forgot about the original purpose of the paintings  + ended up lost in the paintings + the girls themselves!

☆ ARIES ☆

ARIES
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2"Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Adventurous, Courageous, Versatile, Lively, Positive, Passionate + a little bit Arrogant! 

☆ TAURUS ☆

TAURUS
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2"Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Generous, Dependable, Patient, Independent, Persistent + just a little bit Stubborn! 

☆ GEMINI ☆

GEMINI
AVAILABLE FOR SALE HERE Approx 5.1/2 x 11.1/2"Acrylic + water color paint on quality hot pressed paper

She is Adjustable, Versatile, Enthusiastic, Soft-Spoken, Witty and Humorous + Intellectual.

And here are last weeks girls again!

And you can get these girls for your desktop over the next year by popping over here.

Tweet

☆ 2015 - the year of GROWTH

Tweet

grow [grəʊ/] verb

                                                   (of a living thing) undergo natural development by

                                                    increasing in size and changing physically.

                                             come into existence and develop.

]

Sometimes finding a word that will guide me during the year is a difficult + arduous task. 

So why do I choose a word of the year when it can be so difficult? What's the point in having a word for the year anyway? 

I am not sure if you choose a word, (+ I would love to know your word + why you chose it), but my words alway help me focus on the bigger issues. It helps me focus on the overall feelings that I want to feel every day. Every minute.

It's a word to encompass all my huge goals, my small weekly goals, my big picture goals. Goals like writing a new e-course, to planning significant time with each of my kids, or even to carve out an hour each week to indulge my romance novel addiction. (Ok, ok it's probably more like two hours...)

And its a word that will help me when I am feeling lost, frustrated, alone or when the little bitch starts her insidious whispers. 

One year my word was BRAVERY; Bravery in art + in opening my heart. Taking ownership of + being proactive about change. That year I opened up the LilliBean Designs shop + cemented friendships that I cannot live without.

Last year it was WORTHY; Feeling more worthy, being worthy. (It was a deeply rooted word for me + you can read more here) Worthy change me massively - my sense of self, my relationships, my dreams and my directions.

Twenty Fifteen is the year of GROWTH.

Wild + abundant growth.

Family Growth: Now don't get excited I am not talking about expanding our family again!! But growing together + having beautiful family moments together.

Biz Growth: continue building the LilliBean Designs brand, selling my paintings + products, attending more markets, meeting new + interesting people.

Spiritual Growth: Allowing my soul to grow in amazing ways, releasing old hurts + soothing my spirit. 

Relationship Growth: Having a few more date nights with Mac, having girls nights with my friends, having more spontaneous gatherings!

Financial Growth: Taking risks, stop being scared risks.

I want this year to be wild + abundant with Growth.

I hadn't planned on sharing all these with you all, but I guess it just feels right....

GROW
acrylic mixed media.  journal page

Growth will be difficult, + freaking scary. It is easy for me to not change the way I do things. I am fairly happy where I am. 

But I know that if I grow, if I tend to the seeds that I have sown so far, I could have bliss, every day beauty, wild adventures and connections that mean everything.

EVERYTHING

So I will keep Growth in my mind + my heart during the year. I will paint a painting to celebrate my word + I will scribble note to myself to remind myself to grow. 

Do you have a word that you have connected too? A word that will guide you, inspire you, encourage you or push you? I would love to hear which word resonates with you and how you came to choose it.

{p.s - as part of my year of growth I am moving at the end of the month.... over to a new space here. I hope you'll join me xx}

Tweet