My first gel medium transfer

First time I have tried this, always been a bit nervous but it worked just about! It was the Week 5 work for "Life Book" (www.wilowing.ning.com). So we had to use a photo of our face then add to it and also add positive words about our personalities....that was the hardest bit....be nice about myself....errrr....but the whole course is geared to help us do that of course. Anyway I have myself a nice off the shoulder ball gown as I have never worn one or been to a ball in my life! :-)

Week 6 lesson from "Life Book " (Willowing)

This is my work for lesson 6 from LIFEBOOK (www.willowing.ning.com) I have got a bit behind as I have been in hospital for five days (very painful and horrible experience) and been recuperating since. I have been stuck in bed or on the sofa but managed to have a go at this lesson with my work on a board. It is "Paint over Collage". You begin with collaging a whole page including the face of a model. Then you work in continuous layers over the top of the original collage, firstly with paint and brayering, then with stamping, then more brayering, more paint etc etc. This piece was designed to celebrate things we feel we have achieved in life and I decided to celebrate the place of acceptance I have managed to reach over the years about certain things which have been very hard for me in this life. I did some healing work on anxiety and guilt recently and the cat and hummingbird are symbolic of the fact that I am slowly learning to deal with it. I started off by visualising what my anxiety and guilt looked like - my anxiety felt like a wild cat that would suddenly pounce on me and my guilt (about mistakes made in my life) was like a manic woodpecker constantly pecking at my mind. I also had depression which started off as a big black slug but as I worked through the course, I learned to see depression turning into a gentle old dog who just got tired and worn out sometimes so I would keep him quietly by my side. I began to see the fear that made my wild cat lurch at me and dig her nails in so I learned to lift her from my shoulders and calm and protect her from her terrors. I did the same with the woodpecker...tried visualising lifting him from my head and stroking his ruffled feathers and gazing into his crazy eyes till he too calmed down. So when I did this painting, I put them all in but as I went on with my layering, I decided to paint out my dog, as I feel I cope well now with small bouts of depression. I placed my little cat in my arms where I nurse and nurture my anxiety as best I can when she raises her head and splays out her claws and I changed my crazy woodpecker into a beautiful hummingbird which I am trying to release forever.

An art journal fairytale page....

..... Just for fun! Certainly not a work of art but I had a lot of fun doing this. I painted it to go with my friend Gigli's story about a blue whale and a "wandering" fairy which she wrote for our Mixed Media Scavenger Hunt for February on "Freeing Your Wings" (www.freeingyourwings.ning.com) Thank you for a wonderful story Gigli! :)

ATC Swap (Freeing Your Wings) "Home is where the heart is"

Here are the four atc's I made for our New Year Swap in the "Trading Treasures" Group on Freeing Your Wings. (www.freeingyourwings.ning.com) They were fun to make and I was so pleased to find the little heart charms!

Second project on "Life Book" (Willowing Course)

Our second project on "Life Book" (www.willowing.ning.com)was a lesson set by Bonnie Rose Ryan. We were asked to work with two goddesses who we relate to and who we feel reflect something of ourselves. It was sort of meant to be two very different personalities but I have long related to Green Tara and White Tara and felt that these two reflect me in different stages of my life in a way. Sot hey are not opposites but they are definitely complementary. Green Tara is always portrayed as ready to "jump in" and help whilst White Tara seems to reflect the quieter side of her. Both of them grew from a tear shed from a great Hindu deity's eye, one from his left, one from his right. They are both deeply concerned with the struggle of life on earth and the pains and difficulties of humanity. I find both of them very beautiful. I think because the green and white are so important I chose to use colour. I certainly had quite a hard time getting the shading on Green Tara's face and know it is not right but I tried hard! In a different way I was reluctant to do too much in terms of shading on White Tara because she is just white....but I did try to show something of the shading. I can see lots of bits I am not happy with but overall I am happy because for me this isn't bad at all! :-) I used gold leaf round the outside. The words are meant to read COMPASSION, COURAGE, ACTION and COMPASSION, STRENGTH, PROTECTION but I couldn't quite fit them into the picture in that order!

My first "Lifebook" page (Willowing course)

After a really frantic week of getting back to normal while still clearing up after Christmas, I finally managed to get an afternoon to myself today and so I did my first page of "Lifebook" - Tam's wonderful new course on "Willowing". See www.willowing.ning.com This page was intended to be a celebration of our goddess superpowers and this is what I came up with. I was quite pleased with her but the paintings never come out so well in a photograph do they which I found a bit disappointing...but never mind, I feel pleased with her and I was really pleased I had the little girl on a swing stamp for this piece of work.

Please pop in and meet us all on Freeing Your Wings!

As it is a new year can I just say to anyone who visits my blog it would be wonderful to see you over at my ning site FREEING YOUR WINGS www.freeingyourwings.ning.com FYW is a mix of creativity including art journalling and a spiritual sort of site where everyone's views and beliefs are honoured and respected. We are really just a group of friends who stay in touch all sorts of ways through our art, poetry, photos, stories, thoughts, discussions and healing intentions. Please do take a look if you think you might like to join us.

Happy New Year!

"We have only this moment sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake" (Sir Francis Bacon) I haven't posted anything since the 5th December......that's what Christmas does for you!! Still I had my whole family with me, husband, children (grown up!)son and daughter in law, grandchildren and little dog....wonderful. I have now finished baking, buying, wrapping and tidying up so back to my site, my blog and dah de dah....my art journeys for the new year. I am working on LIFE BOOK with Tam on WILLOWING (www.willowing.ning.com) and BOOK OF DAYS with Effy on WILD PRECIOUS STUDIO (www.wildpreciousstudio.com) and so looking forward to both. I will also be carrying on with all the little art bits and pieces on FREEING YOUR WINGS(my site) www.freeingyourwings.ning.com including our TRADING TREASURES group for ATC (Artists Trading Cards) exchanges (run by my lovely friend Angela) throughout the year. We have monthly mixed media Scavenger Hunts on FYW too. So, along with life, minding my grandchildren and all the usual stuff, I hope this year will be a really creative one....that is my plan anyway! Love to you all xx