Fall is Here

How quickly it seems the season changes. 10 weeks of the FYJ2020 course has just flown by. Later this morning will be the wrap up zoom call, which will be an ending of sorts but such an amazing beginning. I can't say enough about the value of Louise's teachings. There's just been so much to take in and the amount of exploration that still awaits is huge. So glad we have access for a full year! 

 

I've kept up with the videos with each new module but not necessarily the assignments and journaling that is so key to moving forward. But all in good time! I've been having a blast just through swatching different colour palettes, amazed at the variety of tones and colours one can make with just a couple of colours plus black and white. There's a part of me that would like to pick a short term palette to work with for a period of time. 

This piece to the left is baltic blue, yellow ochre plus B&W and I'm quite enjoying it. I've watched a lot of the series Shetland recently and find a wonderful beauty in the bleakness of the landscape. Such a drastic difference from my own surroundings. I also have a 'thing' for the simplicity of some of the cottages found in the UK. It all ties in with my connection with inukshuks I think, in that here is a marker that someone has been here, no matter how harsh the geography might be. Someone has been and left their mark. This is one of the many revelations that my journaling uncovered for me and that is key to why I want to make art. Can't wait to see what else I find out about myself LOL. 

Before and Afters

 A little over midway through FYJ2020 and it's everything and more that I was hoping for. I'm still keeping up with viewing each modules videos even as I fall a bit behind in the exercises but that's okay. We have access to the course for a full year and there's just lots of room for exploration, so I won't lack for things to do for the upcoming months LOL. 

The current module is dealing with contrasts in relation to composition and tone. I took my 3 least favourite from an exercise in the taster course and decided to use those to resolve. Pretty happy with my first attempt. 

        

Using the same colour palette of payne's grey, Q nickel azo gold and pyrrole red I changed up the shape sizes  and made the darker tones more dominant. Don't think it's done yet but definitely progressing. 

I also took another piece that was meandering in no fixed direction and decided to see where I could take it. Again, not sure it's reached its final destination either.

  

Find Your Joy Taster Course

Had a blast doing Louise's taster course. This is my result from the first lesson, where we picked 3 colours plus B&W and just went to town. We started on a full sheet of paper that was taped off into smaller grids. The idea was to treat it as one big painting, no thought given to the smaller areas, and work for no more than 30 minutes. This was to avoid thinking about what we were doing and just do what our intuition said to try. 

It looked quite the chaotic mess until the tape was removed and then, as always, the magic happens LOL. It never ceases to amaze me how different things look with that white border around them. The colours I used were Paynes grey, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold with a bit of Pyyrole red brought in just at the end for some visual pop. I've since cut them up into individual pieces to play with at a later date. A few I quite like now but most of them need some further resolution. 

I thought I would be good just carrying on with some of the ideas and exercises from the free taster course but after a couple of days pondering I committed to taking the full 10 week course. Starts Monday - can't wait!

2020 - What a year it has been so far

Wow almost 7 months since I last posted here - even I didn't realise it had been that long. Who knew the world was going to change so drastically overnight?! I've been busy with lots of things and a good number of them creativity related, either directly or sometimes indirectly. 

I was able to get out to my studio so much earlier this year after we installed new garage doors - these ones are insulated (big help in this climate) and with windows for extra light. The beauty of this is I learned even with having studio space set up indoors last year, I pretty much stop and pause for about 2 months post xmas. I swear I was a bear in a former life as hibernation comes very naturally to me. By the time the doors were done I was ready to get back into making something, anything LOL. 

Then the whole Covid shutdown happened. Thankfully I had already joined an online art community run by Louise Fletcher. If you don't know who she is, search for her on YouTube or google her. She's an incredibly generous artist spirit who somehow manages to speak directly to my creative soul. Watching her videos helped me to stop being precious about my work or my supplies and to learn that just because I don't know what to do with a piece today doesn't mean I won't be able to resolve it at a later date. Just put it aside and play with something else LOL.

Yesterday that very thing happened. The first picture was several layers into it and it was all feeling too contrived and forced - so I put it aside. That was last fall; then up out of nowhere I picked it out of the pile of broken toys and just threw paint at it, playing intuitively and not the least bit concerned about the outcome. I still don't know if it's finished but I'm much happier with it now.

This week I am taking Louise's free Find Your Joy taster course so hope to be posting some more this week. We'll see!