Not pleased during the process.

What do you do when you notice you're not pleased as the work grows?
I have a mandala sitting on my desk, but I can't get the good feel about it. All the painting is done, just detailing remains. I have made the decission to let it rest for some days and see if I can have some new ideas on how to complete it. In the meanwhile I found some yarn, linen, to play with. Together with a hook and a bunch of buttons it seems I've started some different mandalas.

I don't know what they will be at the end, for now I enjoy making them. Once again "Just do it" were the right word for me. Otherwise I have exciting plans for the year, I'll tell more about it if it becomes reality. Right now I'm planing a bit for the trip to Spain later this month. My mother is turning 75 and we are going to celebrate her. Not the best time of year to visit, but it's this time of year she has her birthday.
What are you up to?

Some new toys.

I took my oldest brother's wife to a trip today, she had an accident and broke her wrist so she's stuck
inside. We went to an art supply shop and I bought some new toys, or art supplies as some would call it. I bought some ink spray bottles and a couple of stencils besides the usual black pens.

Lee, a good bloging friend has a wonderful way of doing collages, which I admire alot, so I thought of trying myself. The "background" in my piece is done with acrylic paint and some paper scraps, I used my new stencil, the face, on top and sprayed black ink on top of it. As the ink dried, it sort of melted into the rest, and it's difficult to see what layer came first.
This was my very first try and I'm pleased. I think there should be some more white though, but I don't know how to do it. Pure white will be too hard, and the ink is not water resistant. I'll figure out a way of doing it, and I'll certainly try more of this.

The colors are much more even in person, now it seems there are hardly no paint on the right side, but there is. How do everyone else deal with the not water resistant ink?
I can see lots of fun in the future with these toys, it just depend on myself.
Enjoy the weekend!

This is how it became.

It's not easy to photograph the twinks,
their shine and everything.
I didn't shade much on this one, I simply forgot it. Also I used white ink some places and it never works well with shading on top of it.
It's not my best, but my first in a long time. The green leaves are stealing the show completely no matter what I did to compencate it wouldn't work. Well, it is what it is.

Here's a close up, where I tried to capture some shine.

It's very exciting to use the twinks, blending colors and see what happens. I think I'll make another prismatic painting using twinks. Have to get it into my hands again to get ready for the class.

Guess what.......

I finally opened the door to my studio, and I feel ready to get my fingers messed up with paint. First thing I had to do was to tidy and clean, and with my desk in order I long to get started. I'm out of practice, so I'll start making a mandala, that always help me on track.

Today I ordered some more twinks too, some colors I want to have handy when my class starts. Can't wait to start the second part of Mastering Twinks. I had never thought it should be so inspiring to participate in an online class, but it is.

Todays mandala is made upon a handmade paper and I've used twinks to paint. This is how it looked with just the painting done. Can you tell I'm out of practice?

Next photo shows the mandala with the outlining done. Isn't it incredible how little it takes to straighten it up? At this point of day, I've done even more to it. I'll show you the result in another post.

The shiny paint is so beautiful on this paper, probably because the paper is matt and kind of rough. I did finish another painting as well today. It's an acrylic painting, old one, that I've hung in my hallway. I needed to add some words to it. It's a girl saying goodbye to our leaving guests.

Tiny bit of snow today, and almost no wind. We've had stormy weather for a couple of months now, and it feels so good without wind.

Nearly a month gone.

Hi, I didn't realize how long I've been away from the blog world. I've had busy times, not drawing and painting but knitting and "hooking".

Happy new year, by the way. I'm not the kind of person to pick a word for the year or to have fully planned what I'll do coming year, but some weeks ago a term fell into my head and stayed there. Just do it! As I thought about it for awhile it became clear to me that I would choose that term  as a guide for 2014.
It all started in the week between Christmas and New Year, I had to do something so I started a pair of socks. From there it grew, now I have so many projects going and many in queue that I start wondering if I'll ever do anything else.

At a certain point my brothers wife asked me to crochet her a tunic, and so I did. She didn't have a written pattern, but she showed me a pic from internet.

We also have a little girl in our family that I didn't give anything for her birth, now I've made her a coat and hat. I hope it will suit a one year old, she will turn one late summer.

While working on the coat, several new ideas fell into my head, and below is one of them. A cowl and matching wrist warmers.

In addition I have a skirt on my needles and a baby blanket going as well, and many more ideas in my head. Well, it normally comes to an end by itself, so I'll just see how far it goes this time. I have my class in February so at least I'll have to start painting then. Now, I have a lot of catching up to do, so I'll come visiting your blogs as well.

Last post in 2013.

Yet another year has gone, and as usual, we have been celebrating the last week. Our celebration has been going for 5 days and that's enough. Family and friends have been visiting, a lot of cooking and not least eating. Right now I feel like a well filled sausage. 2014 has to include morning walks again.

2013 has offered a lot of magical mornings for me, photographed and filed.

I'm lucky enough to have a view, from our house, to watch the sunrise, and each time I find it beautiful I try to photograph it. Above is a collage of a few of my photos. The colors are so beautiful, and to watch the sky dressed in these colors is truly magic.
I can't see the sunset though, but in the coming year I'll try to catch some sunsets too. Either by driving to the ocean or to climb the mountains.

I wish you all a happy new year, may all your dreams come true!

Not much painting these days.

Not much creative work at all.

The exception is photographing beautiful sunrises, and yesterday my dinner table chairs got new upolstery. It's a great releaf to have done that. They were used a bit too long and desperately needed to be fixed.

My mother returned home from Spain for Christmas yesterday, so the family is full once more. I'm not quite ready yet, monday will be the the day for polishing all the doorknobs. A hundred years old brass doorknobs need to be polished at least once a year, and Christmas is a very good occation to get it done. It's so beautiful with them shining in all the soft lights.

The gifts are bought, not wrapped. No coocies made, and won't be either. I am the one eating them and I certainly don't need it. Looking forward to a new year with lots of painting and other creative stuff. In the meantime, I'm photographing sunrises.

This is my post # 499, so I just have to write one more in 2013 to round it off, so to speak. I wish you all a merry Christmas, and I'll be back before the end of the year.