#InMyStudio - a sweet monochromatic journey

The last few weeks have been too busy to spend real quality time #InMyStudio - so getting a chance to do just little amounts of creativity with my StabioPencil has been a delightful surprise!  I learnt a lot and it was good to experiment and play!

I'm really grateful!

Today was the first Saturday in ages that we got to spend the whole day at home!

A slow morning, tidying up, getting some things ready for while I'm away etc.etc.

It's been the best weekend I've had in a really long time.

#InMyStudio - a little series

Another little stabilo and gesso drawing/painting... So enjoying working with a pencil!  Who knew that painting with a pencil could be such fun and so satisfying... I am doing 3 in this little series... But after this... I have 3 big unfinished paintings to work on. I am hoping to get much needed and appreciated studio time.

Life in General.... captured in technicolor!

 My sweet friend Betty reminded me the other day to look back and see how far I've journeyed with my art.  Boy was she right - sometimes I get so stuck in the now and take for granted and totally forget about the progress and growth.  The constant reminder that things take time to mature and growth takes effort and work!!! Constantly pushing oneself to dig a little deeper.  For me, when I started this journey, my aim and challenge was to find the creative from my head and not just copy from a photograph.

Just over 2 years ago - I started this intuitive journey...

Little reminders and totally feeling encouraged.

So yes the journey has been long and lots of hard work and time in the seat but I'm encouraged to push through and deeper and excited where I will be in another two years time.  Who knows?

Then and now

Then and now

I'm forcing myself to slow down and rest up a bit... it's not easy.

I hit this year running and I haven't seemed to catch my breath... not once.

I left home early this Sunday, to pop into KalkBay to pick up some last minute things for Italy and to steal a coffee and walk on the beach with my special friend Mel.

August winter days have been rather horrible... so having a beautiful weekend like this - huge bonus!  My beautiful Kitty captured this.  Love!

How incredible are these captures of my Kitty girl!

Corks is totally into Creative Portraiture and who better as a subject than Kitty!

So amazing these two when they get together!  I'm so loving them finding their own creativity!

Busy collecting last minute things for my Italy Art Retreat...

Still have a few things to do and get...

Picked up a sweet little daily sling/messenger bag and beautiful pencils... I still need some paints and I still have to get my paper/canvas/journals.

 This weekend at the Cotlands Fundraiser - I discovered this incredible handmade product full of essential oils and natural plant products.  It feels like I found something I have been looking for for the longest time... Just so beautiful!!! And a real spoil.

Even though life has been so crazy - still managing to find beauty in all of it!

#InMyStudio - Journeying, scraping back and finding a new face...

I was just finding her face so hard and stylized and her eyes a little high which was giving her such a masculine face and to me, my lines were just too hard.  Perhaps I was painting so tightly because I have been so tightly wound and rather stressed.

My schedule and the girls schedule has been off the charts and this week, every single night was spent out or we had something on for various reasons... just really stretching!

So when the pressures of this week were behind me and come Friday night - I completely covered her with gesso and I scraped it back until I had a light shadow of her as my under drawing and I started to find a new face... just seeing the difference in these two paintings does reveal much about where I was at and where I am now.

Wow - she was already softer and more beautiful.

Seeing it so tangibly in my painting has shocked me a little.

I left her here last night - already feeling much happier with where she was heading.

She feels so sweet to me!

I spent the most of the day today with my eldest daughter at a fundraiser event for abandoned children and we got to hear amazing inspiring stories of different peoples lives and how they are making a difference.  Incredible!  It certainly did force us to slow down a bit and just listen and take it all in!  So needed.

I only played a little bit tonight... I carried on with the stabilo and gesso but eventually I reached for my colors... just lightly.  I just love her sweetness and innocence.

What a change from that hard face to this gentle feminine gal.

I really learnt a lot this week about how to incorporate pencil into my paintings.  It kind of just added a depth to the shading, the undertones and overtones.

I so enjoyed it!

#InMyStudio - well actually in bed...

With my days merging into each other... I just felt a bit desperate to do something quick, easy, loose and fun!  No draw ups I just started with a smudge...

I got home late last night so I crept into bed with my stabilo-all-marks pencil and gesso and just started playing.  I'm learning more and more about using this incredible little pencil!  This has been part of my homework on various courses... but for some or other reason I have never done it.  I'm kind of wondering why because it's so lovely and the stabilo is great to use for tonal studies.  I plan to play some more with this technique this week... I am not finished with this bigger piece - her lines are hard and I've been doing work to soften my lines and make my paintings less stylized.

Crazy beautiful week... and we have another one coming....

Its been a crazy week... and it felt emotionally charged. Corks had her school dance this weekend and we still had much to do... putting up hems, shoes, lifts etc.  It came together beautiful and she looked incredible.  But what an affair... I have done it two years in a row now and I have Kitty's coming up at the end of the year - I might need a Valium.  I am not sure how to be a mom to teenager girls but I'm learning as I go... and fast.  I listen to parenting books while I'm driving, working and painting - I need all the help I can get.  Sometimes I get it completely wrong and sometimes I get it completely right... these are challenging times we are currently living in.  I can hear you saying - every generation's mother of teens say the same thing... but I do feel ours is seriously more compounded because of the information age and social media that has hit hard and fast.  And it has seriously changed the game.  And although there are now books on the subject - it's mostly new materials and we are still discovering the affects of how this has changed the game.  Raising beautiful girls (from the inside out) in this era with values, morals and dignity... not easy.  Helping them choose people in their lives with the same values - equally as challenging.  So grateful for this slow quiet Sunday morning today... I need it.

I thought I finished this piece a week or so ago but she just didn't feel right and I felt I had gone backwards... back to playing it safe (maybe still a default setting).  But she's been calling me back all week to go a little deeper together... and I'm so glad I have.... I've changed her completely.  I'm not ready for her to be over and hope to spend much more time with her - she feels special to me and I don't want to be flippant with this piece.

I have been stealing gaps on this piece all week - my workload was insane so stealing any studio time has been a bonus... I had a gap one afternoon and I just  got to play a bit.  They are of course no where near done and I'm enjoying going deeper in certain areas.  I can't seem to get a clear shot of the picture because of the size of this piece and I know no picture so far does it justice... but hopefully one will come.

I am, on the side lines doing a study on hands because I want those hands to really work.

I know this picture doesn't capture it but this piece feels so powerful in real life.  Sometimes I'm finding myself just standing in front of it and staring at it.... maybe it's because their chests are so big - I love that - it feels symbolic of womanhood or maybe it's motherhood.  Big chests, big capacity and big hearts.  So far just loving the journey.

I love that we have destiny over this... I am hoping to instill this in my girls!

That by their choices, behavior and attitude they choose their beauty from the inside out - because to me actions trump words every time.

I couldn't sleep Friday night so I got to creative play with a difference.

#InMyStudio - When a painting is calling you...

When all you want to do all day is work on this - instead life gets in the way and that's tough!  Can't wait to get home... They have been calling me all day.
I still have so much to do.  But I'm excited to venture with them.