How are your New year's resolutions going?

Still keeping them and doing fine?

For many years I had lots of plans on how to improve things in my life, and just as sure as January were gone, so were my resolutions. I guess, like most  people, I set unrealistic goals and always had big plans on things I really didn't want to do anything about. That's the nature of such goals, isn't it? To make the story short, I stopped making them.

I am not especially good at taking things slow, step by step. Normally I love to jump right in and just do. Life has learned me that most times I come out of things standing on my feet, and if I didn't, at least I made an attempt.  All of this has made me not being afraid of trying new things, which is a good thing, in my opinion.
This year I decided to have another go. I need to get out and improve my fitness. Our local authorities have created a group for people like me. We meet every Monday morning, follow a trail (mostly up hill) and walking as many rounds as we can in half an hour. After that we do some sort of workout. We have this beautiful city wood, and included is a very fun balance trail and a group of exercise machines. I am still doing it, and I'm sure I'll continue. Once a week is easy to overcome, and when spring arrives I might even use my bike in addition. So to conclude, I'm still keeping it up.

My art today is showing a painted sketch (upper one ) and the final piece. By painting the sketch I saw that my composition needed to be improved, so that's what I did. This was an exercise in using two sets of complementary colors.

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday, have a good weekend!

Just a little something

I keep forgetting to post on Mondays

as I intended to this year, so this post will go for my Monday posting this week. I made this little circle a week or so before Christmas, guess I wanted to have some snow for the holidays.

Right now I am so busy painting, and I love to try out my ideas in my journals. Backgrounds are what I'm testing, and it can be quite a challenge when watercolors are the medium.

I've also found a Norwegian online shop where I can buy my art supplies, and that's great. I just ordered Sumi ink and I really hope it will be just perfect for my dip pen.
I hope your week is just as good as mine.

Who are we trying to fool?

I have been thinking lately

what kind of signals we pass on to the world. How fantastic our lives are, what great successes we have, how up to date everything around us are, not to speak of our amazing homes, cars and the newest cell phones....... and on and on and on.

It's no wonder the youths get problems if no one tell them what life really is. That problems are a part of life and we have to deal with them, find reasonable solutions, give and take and put into action what we have agreed on. Act friendly and be polite.

I have a good life and it's the small things that make me happy. Everyday moments that I appreciate, and when looking in the back mirror, many of those moments have turned into small gems worth a lot. It can be as simple as the sun shining on some grass, or shining on a frozen landscape where trees and grass are white and glittery. Or it can be when I rise in the morning and handyman has lit the stove and it's already warm for me. Small things but making my life good, and by keeping my pleasures small I'm guaranteed plenty of them.

I'm taking part in a weekly art challenge called Color Me Positive, and the prompt for this last week was : Make today so awesome that yesterday will be jealous. I really don't like any form of jealousy and that was what made me think of all this. Let me add, it's a fun challenge and most times there are more than one option in prompts.

 My art here is what I made for this weeks prompt, and as you see I underlined the small things in life.

How would you describe your life?

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, so happy PPF everyone.

Redoing my classes

I've decide to redo several of my classes this spring.

Mastering Twinks 1 is the first one I'm doing. I watch the videos over again, take notes and also do some of the exercises over again. I've learnt a lot since then, so I think redoing them will make me understand even more now.

To get all the stuff gathered in a binder was the first thing I wanted to do. I had lots and lots of papers lying around so it turned out to become a real clean up as well.

One of the projects was to doodle a mandala. I'd done many of them earlier on so it seemed a bit familiar to do one for the class. Below is my class work.

 The next one I made the other day. They're very different ones, but the background shows a bit of my improvement I think.
Backgrounds are still hard for me to do, but I practice doing them every opportunity I get.

I love my Twinks and have new discoveries each time I use them.

Birds flying south

This little one were inspired by the birds leaving for winter.

It's made in my A5 Zeta journal using Twinks and regular watercolors. I didn't know exactly what to do, so I did just go with the flow.

I'm sorry for the bad lighting, it's hard to find good light around here these days. I wish you could see it in person, the Twinks really make a big difference.
I want to thank you all for your good wishes on my Birthday, I really appreciated it.

WIP, has to come to an end.

This piece has had a long life just put away.

I have decided to finish such old ones this year, and this is the first one. I have to say, I've learnt a lot since the beginning of this, and now I do see many things not as good as I first thought.

I have been reading much about composition since then, and I wish I'd done it a bit different.
Here is where it all started, 

I need to change almost everything in it, it all seem so flat. But building depth is possible, and I'll try to get it done. Below you see the one face done. I like it much better. This piece measures 70 by 70 cm, so there's a lot of work to do.

Now, this face need to be sculptured, can you see how flat it is?

Here they are, both faces done. To do this work, I'm using my inktense watercolor pencils. Working on top of fabric and wetting it, it's very risky so I have to be careful.

Below is a photo of it all. I've just started working on some of the houses. I am excited to see what can be done and if it's worth the effort. As for the composition, it's too symmetric and too centered. I do believe though, that by adding more contrasts it may look different.

I'll link this to Paint Party Friday, so happy PPF everyone.

Oh, and it's my 58 birthday today so I'm going to have a good day and finally start my new year as well.

Fantasy birds, a successful artswap.

I was asked to do an art swap, which I love,

and agreed to that. My online friend and I came to terms on size and type, and I actually got so inspired that I felt it just flew out of me.
My friend asked for a specific motif, fantasy birds in some sort of woodland, based on something I had shown earlier. My substrate measures 28 by 35 cm, so it's quite large.

I did make a sketch to position my subjects and plan the background. The birds were a bit troublesome until I changed their eyes. Then it went smooth.
Below is my piece with some initial washes of watercolor.

It is made in mixed media, watercolors, Twinks, crayons/ watercolor pencils and ink. At this stage I always feel that the lights are being turned on. It's incredible to see the change the minute the twinks comes to use.

I felt a bit uncertain to which colors to choose for the birds, and actually they started out as pink ones. But, it was wrong and I felt it all the way to my fingertips. 

I turned them into purples instead and that made a huge difference. Below is the finished piece, and I assure you, it's much prettier in person. The birds might seem a bit sad, but they're discussing where to live now that their site in the rainforest is about to be cut down.

Teresa was kind enough to send me a photo of the framed piece, and I loved it the minute I saw it. And now I'm sure the birds have found a good site as well.
And, this is it. I so much love the way Teresa has chosen to frame it, the black color really makes the birds stand out. Thanks for allowing me to use your photo, Teresa. Isn't it gorgeous?

 And, here is what came in the mail for me.  Teresa calls these trees Fortune Trees, and mine is titled Green Meadow Tree and I love it. I do need to find the right spot for it to hang though. It's a 30 by 30 cm canvas, even the hanging gear is mounted at the back. It's even more beautiful in person, and it makes me happy just to look at it.

 My old house do not have many white walls, so I need to try the painting in different places but I know I'll find the right spot for it. Thank you once again Teresa for this successful swap.

Monday makings

Happy New Year everyone,

I hope you've had a wonderful season.

2016 is the year I will try to post a new little mandala, prismatic painting or other small stuff made in my Zeta journal, each Monday. At first I was thinking of doing mandalas only in that journal, on page two I made a prismatic painting. Lol.
I'm not very good at limiting myself to one thing only, that's why I'm going to call these posts Monday makings. Several of these are made in 2015, but not shown earlier. I have to have some in store so that I know I have something to share if the inspiration should leave for better weather.

My first is a mandala made using colors I do not choose very often. The background colors were chosen as complementary to the ones used in my subject, but all of a sudden I had changed some of the main colors. It ended up like a mess only. I signed it and thought, oh well one can't win them all.

But, next day I couldn't live with giving up so I sat down again, continued playing and the result is much better, in my opinion at least. 

So many times I forget to trust the process of creating, wait, put it aside and then see what happens. Most often I instantly know what to do after a break like that. What about you?

I've also decided to use this new year to finish up some old works. I've already started on a large piece that have been bothering me for a long time.