☆ Moon Whale [Life Book 2014]

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Week 41 - Moon Whale - Deep Slow Flow with Tamara Laporte

I enjoyed this lesson so much.

I love the contrast between the dark of the sea + the blue of my whale.

I love that it was mixed media, but that there wasn't huge amounts of different techniques to do.

I love how scrubbing back the black brought out the layers out from underneath + gave the painting more depth.

And I adore how my whale has an expression of contentment on it. Something I was definitely feeling while painting!

Have a great week.

Did you know that I send out a monthly love letter with studio snippets, a monthly give away of one of my paintings or products, a free calendar download + more. Click here or on the image below for more + your free downloadable gratitude angel 

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☆ The Tree of Life + Connections [Lifebook 2014]

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Week 11 - Tree of Life Bonus Lesson with Tam and Gracie

This week was all about celebrating our life connections. Connections with people, things, books. All the positive connections that we have.

And it turns out that I have a lot of positive connections.

Not only with my family, friends + acquaintances, but also with the things I surround myself with, music, books, art, the environment etc.

So this is my tree of life, and the stars are a representation of my positive connections.

Have you had a think about your positive life connections? I bet you will have more than you think.

By the way,  there is only a few days left to get any of my paintings in the LilliBean Designs store for up to 50% off.  

Do you know of any one who might enjoy one of my paintings? Please feel free to share the code with them.

Have a great week.

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☆ Life Book Catch up [Part Three]

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{This is the third part of my Lifebook catch up - click her for part one + part two}

This week past, I caught up on all my life book lessons + completed the entire year of paintings.

I feel totally accomplished! Especially since one of my dreams for 2013 was to finish all the years Life Book classes. [I still need to go back to 2012 and finish it off…. another time… maybe!]

So here are the final weeks 44 to 51:

Week 44 - Favorite Words with Monica Zuniga

Week 45 - A Graphite Feather with Tamara Laporte

Week 48 - Your Beautiful Word Chemistry with Melody Ross

Week 50 - A Page Of Celebration and Gratitude 

with Jeanette Maisy House

Week 51 - A Layered Page with Dina Wakley

What an amazing journey this has been. There are some pieces I absolutely adore + some I never liked. Some lessons were a dream to do, some were so hard emotionally + challenged me. But overall I love looking through my journal + seeing all this beautiful art + seeing how much I have changed in both my style + thought over the year.

I made a quick video to show you the entire years art - It's my very first video + I hope you like it

or use this link to view.

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☆ LifeBook 2013 Catch Up [Part Two]

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Part two of my intense Life Book catch up experience. [Part One is here] I managed to achieve so much this week, with out missing out on the point of the lesson.

Week 39: A Tribute to Loss with Dawn DeVries Sokol 

I decided to create this page as a tribute to my grand father (who has now been gone ten years). He is represented by the dragonfly, which is one of my personal totems, (+ one day I will share the story behind this)

I love the effect that using black gesso as a base coat gave - although I didn't have black gesso + used heavy black acrylics instead.

Week 40: What's Inside with Rachelle Panagarry

This was a fun one to create, lots of layers, collage and colour. I love how her face turned out + I adore the way it peaks out from behind her hands. 

Week 41: Celebrating Earth with Tamara Laporte

Another colourful page exploring masks, stamps and gelli plates. I haven't invested in one yet, they are out of my budget at the moment + I am not sure if I will use one enough to justify the cost. I have seen home made ones on pinterest (Has any one made one of these??) but for the moment I will keep using my old credit cards.

If you were on my facebook page last week, you would have seen me making + using stamps for this piece which was so much fun + surprisingly easy!

Week 43 - Nature As Art with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

For this page, I ventured into the 40° + heat to my very dead garden to find something to use as a stamp from nature.

Not much was left alive, but I found some rosemary + a strawberry leaf. But despite the lack of greenery in my garden, I love the effect I was able to achieve with limited supplies. This was another lesson that I substituted a Gelli plate with my trusty credit card! But in this instance I could see how cool, using greenery on the gelli plate would be.

Week 44: Halloween Queen with Tamara Laporte

Sorry about the crap photo with this one. It was hard to photograph, and my journal is so full that scanning is almost impossible. The black acrylic + iridescent medium are so hard to do justice in a photo.

This was a paint over portrait piece, so I printed out a pic of me, stuck it down and painted over it. There is something slightly odd with the portrait. Her lips are too big for one, and maybe because I recognise parts of myself in the painting, it is slightly jarring. 

But I love how her dress turned out. Love it. And I couldn't do that again if I tried - and that is the beautiful thing about art isn't.

So only a few more lessons to go before I can dig into Life Book 2014. And I love seeing the art that is being produced at the moment. I can't wait!!

Have a fantastic week.

By the way, I have installed a new commenting system which I am hoping will make it easier to respond to your fabulous comments. I would love it if you said hi, but if you have any problems please let me know!  

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