Etegami, new to me.

Some days ago I read this blog post and my curiosity were lit.

Have you ever heard of Etegami? I hadn't until I red Susan's post.  I had to google it and found quite a lot to read.  This blog is very helpful to understand the "rules", and Debbie makes pretty etegami as well.
I don't have all the right supplies but it's fun doing it and I can see it might turn out huge if I take interest in it and develop my own expression. Here are some of my tries so far.

Notice, I even made my own stamp (chop) containing my initials. That is a must have in etegami and it has to be stamped in this red color.  This particular postcard( above) is already mailed out to a friend. Every etegami should be mailed out due to tradition.

I can see that my cards are made of a newbie, they don't look as balanced as I wish but I think it's a matter of practice.

Etegami is meant to be clumsy, it should be made on a paper that is bleeding so that the lines will have blobs.
In this blog you can see lots of examples on different topics. They're fun doing and I'm sure I will do more of them, actually I'll try to make one each day. They're quick done, not more than half an hour.

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday, have a wonderful weekend everyone and thanks for all your lovely comments.

Closer to Spring

I think we have a build in sense for spring.

At least my whole body is shouting spring to me.  The frost is still here, but the light and length of the days has increased a lot. And the garden comes alive. The Eranthis flowers are nearly done with their job and now the Snowdrops are in bloom, all over the lawn.

What does spring do to you?
I can tell you what it does to me, I get "crazy" in  a good way and it get worse each year. So filled with energy and the need to get things done. Humm.... almost like a tulip bulb. Hence me washing the kitchen, and now it's an all over clean up of the house that's on my list.

It's such a joy to listen to the birds this time of year, they're busy too. I wake up to the lovely sound of birds singing in our garden. When it gets warmer, we have more of an out door life as well. Can't wait for it to happen.

 In general, I'm a sun person and love it when the temperatures rises. I'm quite sure I lived closer to equator in an earlier life, if there ever was such a thing.

Anyone who remember the film My Africa, at least I think that was what it was called. White people living in Africa back in the 1920/ 1930.
I have a silk dress from Africa and that period of time, and I came across it while I did some tidying. That actually inspired my next piece. Do you get the feel when looking at the photo below?

Crispy cooling fabrics, silks, linen and cotton. It doesn't take much for me to find inspiration when the spring is right around the corner.
Happy spring everyone!

Linking to Paint Party Friday.

Still keeping it up.

I've kept my health decisions so far.

Finally I've stopped smoking and I also do my Monday workouts each week. Today I even went out for an extra workout. I really feel this will work well for me and I'm so happy for it. The only thing I need to watch out for, is to not gain extra weight during this process.
I know from earlier that stop smoking has a tendency to end in gaining weight.

I made this piece to illustrate the addiction. I was told that a center in our brains ( addiction center) has a spot that can be compared with a nest filled with nestlings constantly craving food. My piece is more or less illustrating my situation for the time being. I am stubborn though, and know I have to win over my own cravings and that gets easier for each day now.
So, my focus has changed to be aware of what I put in my mouth instead. I know I can do it and everything is pointing towards my victory. Yay for me!

This piece is made using the technique  I learned in Magazine to Masterpiece class, thought by Roberta Laliberte. I'm very happy with the result, and of course, it has a special meaning for me.
Coming Friday I'll show you another one I did, it seems now that you all are done with your face month, I've started mine.
Well, just wanted to make things official and let you know what I've been working to overcome.

Friday again and a giveaway.

I did not notice where this past week went.

Making art and looking after the youngest grandchild took my week.

Have you ever thought of how inspiring the world wide art community is? The internet has indeed made a huge change in our lives. I still find it incredible how I can write something on my computer and within a few minutes have answers from the other side of the globe. How many people we meet online and connect with, it's nothing but a miracle.

I so appreciate you all, the followers of this blog, you who regularly visit the blog and not least you who take the time to leave a comment. It's very nice to get some feedback and read your point of view. But, mostly I appreciate you for all your sharing as well. To see what you do and read about your process, learn from tips and tricks you share are all things to learn from and  every time I read a blog post I get inspired. I am truly thankful for all your sharing, and what a variety there is to choose from.  These are thoughts that have been on my mind lately, and a need to give something back has occurred. And that brings us to the giveaway part.

Click to enlarge 

 I have made these tiny pieces of art (10 by 10 cm only)  all displayed in the photo above. My hope is to give away three of them to three different persons as a tiny thank you for all the inspiration you provide me. I hope you have room for one more piece of art.
They are numbered 1 - 10 just to make it easy for you. All I need you to do, is to name which pieces are your first, second and third choice in a comment to this post. I'll draw the winners Thursday March 3rd. and publish the result next Friday, March 4th, here on my blog.
Anonymous comments will not participate.

Now, they're all mixed media techniques. The colors used are watercolors in some form, and they have all been coated with matte medium on top. The 10 x 10 cm piece of paper has been mounted onto a 10 x10 cm canvas.The edges are painted black/dark grey.

I hope many of you will find something you like and participate, and I'm very excited to see which pieces are your favorites.

Linking to Paint Party Friday, enjoy everyone!

Something different.

Some time ago I felt the need to make something different.

What I wanted to do was to explore shape and dimension in a piece of work and at the same time try to achieve a texture which could remind of an oil or acrylic painting, by using watercolors/twinks.
I am happy with the result, but what you see here is not how it looks in person. The first photo is a scan of my piece, and the second one is a photograph. Neither of them are telling the truth. The darkest blue area ( where the red line ends) is darker in person, almost like deep purple. The brown areas are more correct in the lower one.

It's strange how some colors are impossible to get right. There is also a distinct aqua color above the lower ball, and that one color is nearly invisible in these to photos. 

Looking in the back mirror, I wish I had made a connection  between the upper ball and the white space, that would have been a better composition.

Just for fun I printed this piece and made some additional lines using Neocolors 2, but the result is no good. I have to practice a bit more on that. I'm sure it has potential though. Some of the line work  I did felt very good, but I over did it. Well, it's fun to make such experiments as this, and I'm sure it won't be my last one.

Busy week.

It's Friday again,

and this has been a busy week for me. Normally I don't have things I have to do, except housekeeping and such. So, when each day has something that I must do, it feels busy. I did find some time to play with colors though, and had much fun doing this page in my altered book.

 What I've used here is copies of some old work of mine, prints, rearranged them and add in some new. My old art turned new and the expression is completely changed. The background is in fact a sheet of paper I did for use in an earlier project, and before ripping it, I scanned it and now it came in handy. This is my week 5 piece in the challenge Color me Positive. The prompt was all about having big enough dreams. I changed it to one word, Dreaming.

At some point in my process I'm always photographing what I'm doing, to have a different look at it. And most times I then see things to change, so also with this one. The butterflies have too strong a color and the background need some more depth around the flowers.

 I also added the word, Dreaming in a lemon yellow color to give a bit more warmth to it. Notice how the small addition of the same color beneath the flowers makes a big difference. This is all made using water soluble medias except from white gesso. It was fun and fairly quick done, and you know, cutting and gluing just like in kinder garden. Fun!

Linking to Paint Party Friday, have fun everyone.

Just a little mandala.

Today I was out walking again,

and now my thighs and other sets of muscles are hurting. It's a really tough trail we're going and as many rounds as we can in 30 minutes. I had to stop after 6 rounds, the best ones make it 10.

I didn't mention that last Monday one of the participants fell and broke her femoral neck, ambulance,  hospital and surgery were the result. She is set back for at least 8 weeks. Not fun when such things happens.

I did this little mandala to get myself started to paint after a long break. It always help to make one of my mandalas, and often the result is that I make more than one. Nothing much to say about it, it is what it is, but I'm very happy with it.

Today I also got a package in my mailbox. Some days ago I ordered a few new paints, some pens and Sumi ink. First thing I had to do was to rearrange my paintbox and make a new color chart for it. I love doing these little color swatches, and each time I see this particular one I want to paint. It's watercolors by the way.

The Sumi ink is meant for my dip pens, and I was very curious on the bottle I'd ordered. Not at all sure it was the right thing. I had this little empty bottle ready for the new ink and filled it up. While pouring I thought , is it meant to be this thick? I tried my dip pen and it didn't work at all.

Only one thing to do, read on the bottle, oh I see, it's paste ??!  My 100 ml bottle Sumi ink might be mixed with water, even as much as 1/6 . I tried mixing a small amount and then it worked fine. Lesson should be learned a long time ago, but this is what I do all the time, do first then read. Not good, but you know...........!

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.

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.

Lightfastness or just being silly......

An accidental study in light fastness.

Using and loving the Twinkling H2O's I remember a fellow student asking our teacher whether or not the twinks were light fast. She couldn't give an answer to that because she had not been testing it.
I didn't test it in purpose either, when my painting were done I sat it in a south faced window, meaning lots of strong light and sun. My painting has been sitting there for a year and a half, back of painting facing the window. You might remember this painting from April 2014.

The canvas, on which this is painted, I made myself. It's a hard book cover, gessoed and sanded. New thin layer of gesso and a very thin cotton fabric on top. When dry I carefully sanded the fabric to get rid of any fibers peeking up, and then I did my painting. Now, a year and a half later, this is how it looks.

The blue background color and most of the greens have faded. The owl looks good, except for the beek, which has lost the color. But, have a look at the eyes, the darkest colors used, still looks the same.
Now, I can't tell if the gesso or the fabric or both have influenced the Twinks. The fabric may have had a coating, so it's hard to be sure. Lots of heating up and cooling down has happened over time, that might matter as well. One should perhaps try it using good quality paper and then see over time. Another thing is that most people would NOT hang their art in direct sunshine, whether it's front or back.
Below is a photo of the two together for a better comparison. 

Please do not understand this as the final conclusion to light fastness of the Twinks, 

 but it did happen with this painting.

 I would love to hear it if any of you have your own experiences or thoughts on this topic, please leave a comment so that we all can get the information. Thank you.

Linking to Paint Party Friday  

Happy PPF everyone! 

It's about time, isn't it?

Oh my, I had no plans to stop blogging, it just happened.

My mother has returned to Spain, so things are well with her. I've spent the summer playing with the two bonus grand children. We've had lots of fun and now we know each other very well. Last month, or so, I have returned to sewing. I had totally forgotten how fun it is to sew my own clothes, but today I finally sat down with my paints again.

I've used Twinks, regular watercolors for the background and pen and ink.

 Best to start with something easy, it's far too long since I touched my brushes and I really felt how rusty I've become. A freehanded mandala isn't the hardest thing to start with so the choice was easy.

 In fact this one is made on the last page in my very first Zeta journal. I started using this journal for my watercolor pencil class, and now, ending it with Twinks.

Stillman & Birn Zeta series, I just love working on this substrate. It's very smooth and stands alot of water and mixed media techniques.
These small mandalas are very pleasing to make, and I get to practice many different texture techniques along with them so I was thinking of dedicating a new journal to small mandalas only. The smaller journal, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, is very suitable for such subjects. Can't wait to get started.

SOC 5 week 6, last week for this time.

Last week of Summer of Color.

This weeks colors is: orange + orange + blue.
I went with the first idea that came to mind this week. It's just a doodle, but very fun to do. Below you'll see part of my piece, how it looked when the paint was down.

It really doesn't look like anything special, but this is when the fun part begins. Now I'm going to add alot of lines to give the shapes a bit more life. The tip of my black pen was a bit ruined so my lines are kind of rough in this piece, but I don't think it will matter much for the end result. Below is how it looked with the line work done. I forgot to photograph before I added the finishing layer, so I had to cover it up a bit, sorry for that.

Now it's time to lift it up from the paper by shading the shapes. It always surprises me to see what a difference shading makes. It's so fun to see the 3D effect and how the shapes rises from the background.

SOC 5 is over for now, sad but that's the way it is. All we can do is to wait till next year. It has been fun, even though I didn't quite like how the colors were combined this year. But, as I always say to myself, a challenge is a challenge.

Thanks alot to Kristin and to all the lovely people who have been taking part of it all, not least thanks for all your inspiring and lovely comments, it's a thrill to read them all.

SOC 5 week 5

Green - green - pink.

I knew excactly what to do this week when I saw the colors. But, as often before, it turned our much harder than first thought. Actually I left my idea and did something else instead.

It's pretty hard to paint a rose in one pink color only, and many times during the painting process I wanted to add yellow/orange to it. But, I didn't because a challenge is a challenge and I wanted to stay true to it.

The pink I used was Pink Azalea, Twinkling H20 and the greens are Cobalt green and Forest green, both in regular watercolors. White and black pens and Paynes grey for shading.
On a certain stage I only wanted to leave it and start something new, but I kept going and the result is the best I could do with three colors only.

I am surprised on how hard it feels to use this limited palette, and I'm sure it would be much easier to use a triad instead of two colors in the same color group. Triads are very fun to play with, and they give lots and lots of  possibilities.
I hope everyone had fun playing this week.

A bit too ambitious,

I said I was going to start sketching city scapes,

well more correctly I meant street views. So, I had this photo from a street I wanted to try. Very soon I saw it was too ambitious to start with.

The buildings had too many details, and to finish it the buildings would be too small to add all. I just did the first two, and put down some colors to it. Even though I didn't mix any colors, it's quite amazing to see the changes in a sketch when it's colored.

I started over and sketched our garden house, more familiar and easier done. I did this same sketch a year ago, and it's so much better now. I still need to practice trees and hedges, but it's kind of a  promising result.

Uplifted by this result I sketched our house as well. It's wonky and many details not quite correctly done, but I painted it and it's good enough for a start. As you probably know, we have several buildings on our property, so I have many opportunities to practice.

When I look at this sketch now, I see I've told just half the story. We do have neighbours, and in a new one I'll add more of the surroundings too.

One of the warm and sunny days we just had, I actually sat outside and sketched the entrance in more detail. Wonky as well, but I can feel this will become something I'll love to do.

I'm not showing these to tell you all how good they are, it's more to show that it's possible even if the result isn't all that good. One has to start one place, and this is where I start. Now I can only hope to improve, perhaps in a year I will have a better grip on it.
That's all for now, have a fab week all.