Monday's Mandala - The Zendala Challenges

Lets mix a mandala and a zentangle together and make a ZENDALA

I first got introduced to these back in 2013 from Erin (The Bright Owl) 

who published these awesome 

templates every Saturday. The challenge would be to fill them with your favorite zentangle patterns. I would print the one for the week and take it with me to my daughters 

piano class. While I waited, I would practice the art of zentangle within a circle,

as well as bring them to life with shading.

 An hour of sitting in the car waiting, paid off because I learned a lot. It was also very relaxing

You can find more designs on my PINTEREST ZENDALA BOARD when you click this link.

If this is something you would like to try, go and check out Erin's blog at The Bright Owl

There is a great explaination of what the zendala challenges are about, as well as tutorials and templates. Now GO have some fun.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!

Monday's Mandal 3 - The process

 This is a big one, and unfortunately I do not have any photos from the beginning. Watercolor pencil on watercolor paper.

As usual I would have used the #3 micron pen. One of the best pens to use when working on fine details and zentangle work

 By the time I finished with this strange green shade, I struggled to add colors that would be complimentary

 

So I got a little carried away with instagram here. The colors in this photo certainly are very vibrant 

thanks to IG.

 Two weeks later, the end product.

Mandala Monday 2

I don't know about the color orange. I does not even rhyme with anything.

I also admire people who can wear anything Orange and make it rock.

Nevertheless this is me coming out of my comfort zone.

I don't remember the size of this one, but it is done with watercolor and acrylic 

on watercolor paper.

As usual if you are interested in a print, message me and lets work out the details

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WEEK!!

Weekend Flower

Let's keep the hibiscus going for another week. They are so tropical. I was not surprised to learn that when we went to Malaysia a few years back that the hibiscus is that countries national flower.

Remember you can find more of these flowers on my INSTAGRAM @the.flowergirlz

Zentangle Inspired Art #3

Red is not really my a color that I am drawn to. I am mostly a Blues person. But this next ZIA was just screaming to be drenched in a deep red and it was actually the first one I did. This piece has so much energy coming from it. I hope you like.

My First Real Exhibition

A few posts back, I mentioned that I had finally finished a painting that a started some weeks ago, and even showed a bit of the process. Just as I looked at it and called it complete, there was a call for artists to submit their work for selection to take part in a summer exhibition to be held at the Grand Hyatt Doha.

Naturally, having just finished my Koi painting, I thought it would be a good choice to submit and see if it would be selected. Quite unexpectedly, it was. Of course like any artist who's work has been selected for exhibition, I was very nervous to have my work "out there". But it is out there, hanging on a wall with other great paintings from outstanding artists who live right here in Doha.

What impressed me the most was the fact that all of the artwork was so diverse both in theme and content, and that goes to show the real diversity of cultures that live here in Qatar.

Profit from the sale of the artwork will go to the charity Room to Read which is a charity supported by Grand Hyatt. There is a nice article written in the Peninsula documenting the event.

"KOI" hanging on the wall at the exhibition

Mandala on Canvas

A month of Mandala Mondays?

I think I am going to make prints and sell this. If interested, please send me a message and lets work out the details.

This is acrylic on 6x6 inch  canvas

Help me to give it a name. 

Leave your suggestions in the comment section below.

Another Weekend Flower

Summer is here (for sure here in Doha) and many are going on holidays, or maybe not. Whatever you plan to do, keep it happy, keep it positive, and always look for the rainbow after the rain.

Here's another weekend flower from @the.flowergirlz

on INSTAGRAM

The Zentangle Inspired Art Series

At some point I got bored with drawing on paper. So when I saw some wood panels in the art store at a reasonable price I bought about 10 of them. Brought them home, and wondered what to do with them. They were calling to be painted and doodled on of course. At the time I was going through a lace phase, needing to figure out how to work out the specifics of lace on paper. (that's another post)
I managed to get about 6 of these panels done before I lost the mojo. Nevertheless I had great fun creating them.

For each piece, I used multiple sizes of waterproof marker, acrylic paint for the bright yellow and brown and black for the shadows. This is also covered in a semi gloss varnish to protect from dust and sunlight. I am going to make it my project this weekend to find a framer. I think I would like to see this in a frame. Wish me luck

Are You A Multi-Potential-ite?

If you have never heard about the MULTI-POTENTIAL-ITE, let's begin here.  According to Emily Wapnick, founder of Putty-like.com, a multi -potentialite is a person who has many interests and creative pursuits. Go to her website to find out more about being a creative and a multipotentialite.

When I heard Emily speak for the first time. I breathed a sigh of relief because for the first time ever, my creativity/ abilities made sense. What artist media do you work in? People would ask and I would have to give the simple answer of acrylic because it was "safe. But here is what I never say: I am a paper sculptor, a collage artist, a digital artist, digital scrap booker, art journaler, zentangler, and a paper flower maker. Do i need to add more? Do you need props for a stage play? Sure I THINK I can do that. (it can't be that hard). I work with colored pencils especially the watercolor ones, as well as ink and graphite. Do you need a Pocahontas costume? I can to that too. Water colors from the tubes and oil paints are my nemesis. I don't touch them. Although I plan to one day to take classes in each media.

I have seen some amazing artists who work in watercolors or sculpture and their work is distinct and beautiful. I thought that i had to be like them too. I thought that in order to get somewhere in the artist world; to fit in, I had to find a style. Sorry but that does not work for me. Each medium I have ever worked in eventually became not much of a challenge, so that's when I started being adventurous and trying new things.

So yes, i am a proud multipotentialite one with a lot of creative interests and adventures.

To see Emily's TedTalk click on the link below, and remember to check out her website Puttylike.com

Why Some of us Don't Have One True Calling | Emilie Wapnick | TEDxBend

 If you have read this and realized that you too are a multi-potential-ite, hoorraaayyy!!! embrace it and go be your awesome self.

Leave a comment and lets get a conversation started.

A Weekend Flower

Making paper flowers for a new venture I'm into. Follow on instagram for new flowers every week

Find me at: 

 THE.FLOWERGIRLZ

Have a wonderful weekend.

Have A Good Weekend

Commission Complete

It took about two weeks for me to complete this painting. Sometimes I got bored with it especially in the beginning stages. I didn't like the color of the background and considered changing it, then while painting in some of the blue leaves the unthinkable happened. My pallet of blue paint spilled on one corner of the canvas and left a blue mess. My son who was watching the whole thing unfold looked at me and said "mom, don't panic, it's going to be fine". That's all i needed really; after a quick wipe up with some tissue, and a few splashes of water, the blue mess became a part of the background. I then proceeded to make multiple blue messes to make the original blue mess blend in.

This brings me to a very valuable lesson I learned sometime ago. There are no mistakes in art. If you don't go with the flow you will get stressed out.

(hey I'm not talking about the technical stuff so keep that in mind)

Thank you for sharing this short but awesome journey with me. Be sure to come back often to see what other artsy mischief I am getting into.

In the meantime you can become a follower or click like on the facebook widget so that new posts can show up in your feed.
See you soon.......

The commissioned Koi

More tease on the commissioned painting.

 I was quite happy with the way the koi above turned out. I took some time to get the depth that I needed to give it the effect I was looking for. Then of course the lines with the ink pen took forever.

The second koi, to me turned out to be a little more whimsical and more lively. Its my favorite.

There are a few more finishing touches I need to do before I can do the big reveal. I hope my client will like it. This has been an absolute joy to work on.

Stay tuned. Come back tomorrow yes I promise tomorrow that I will show the final product. In the meantime, you can go ahead to the sidebar over there to your right and become a follower, or, click like on the facebook widget so that the post will show up in your feed as soon as there is a new post.
See you then.......

For The Love Of Asian Food

Having lived in Japan for a few years, it took a while for me to get accustomed to the food. Coming from the Caribbean where we cook with lots of flavorful ingredients like thyme, lots of it, seasoning peppers, basil, and other spices, there is no need to add a lot of salt. So being introduced to Japanese food, one must imagine the absolute shock to the taste buds. I found the food bland. Needless to say I lost weight within the first few months of being there. Not being able to identify certain foods, going to restaurants and ordering was a disaster as nothing on the menu was written in English. When you finally got the dish it would not be what you thought it was. More often than not, there would be a partially cooked egg on the top. I can't eat eggs. Not the white, not the yolks, not fried or boiled. No Eggs!

As the months passed by the taste buds adjusted themselves and I finally settled into the culinary delights of the country. Now, the food is one of the things I miss most about Japan. Any opportunity or family gets, we go to a country in Asia, and the first thing we do is seek out a Japanese restaurant. That's exactly what we did when we got to Saigon, and we were lucky. There was one in the hotel.

A hot bowl of miso soup is so comforting, and it always reminds me of the cold winter evenings when we would stop at a little restaurant after our long road trips.

What is your favorite comfort food? Tell me, in the comments below.

Project Saturation

Since my last blog post, I've been working on quite a few projects. Anyone else like that? I need to work on more than one project at a time. It's the only way I stay motivated to finish what I started.

First came the poppy project were a few ladies from our art/craft group got together to make over 400 paper poppies for a memorial day event. Let me tell ya that project brings new meaning to the term "seeing red".

Then there was the Vietnam spring break trip where my family spent a week in Saigon. It was this time that I took the opportunity to start a travel art journal. I don't know why I never thought of it before but now is a good time as any. I will post a few of those entries from time to time.

I have just started a new project. A commission piece to be done on a 24 by 36 inch canvas. So far the biggest canvas I have ever painted on. So far the background is done, and I am waiting for it to speak to me to tell me what to do next. Yes me an my canvases talk.

              Here are the first two layers of the canvas.

 There seems to be a fish emerging below. Let's see how it goes.

Want to see what happens next? Click follow in the side bar, or subscribe via email to get notified when the next post gets published.

Art Journal - 5 layers or more

As I am taking part of The Documented Life Project again this year, I thought I would share some of my journal pages. The challenge was to create a page with at LEAST five layers. I opened up my book to the blank pages then had NO idea where to begin.

I started with something easy: Layer 1

Pieces of torn book paper just randomly placed and stuck with mod podge.

Layer 2: I used my caren d'ache watercolor crayons and mixed with white gesso and water. At this time I still had no idea what the page would become. 

Layer 3: after the papers were completely dry I stuck a clip art image of an old gate in the middle and with a waterproof pen, drew rectangles to look like a brick wall and lines for to become parts of a tree.

Layer 4: before I added color, the page was covered with clear gesso so that I continue to add more color and pen lines.

Layer 5: the picture is coming together now. One of my favorite flowers is the bouginvillia, especially the one with the bright redish/pink. This somehow reminds of creating a digital picture using photoshop. The concept of using layers. For the flowers I just used a makeup sponge and dotted the colors on.

Layer 6: I sprayed on blue and brown to add texture and when that dried put another layer of clear gesso on top.

Layer 7: and finally the finishing touches. With a waterproof black ink pen, I added some shadows to the gate and wall, some stones and pebbles, the impression of grass. There is a layer 8 which is my journaling, were handwriting covers the entire double page, but that's just for me. 

Overall this page took two days to complete. It was refreshing to have no preconceived ideas of what the page should become. I just went with the flow.

Welcome!

Hi there,

The fact that you have just landed here means that you have been following my links. That's great. As I am still building this blog to what I want it to be, I ask that you be patient while I get all my side bars and links and graphics organized.

There are loads of stories and most of all pretty and colorful artwork to come.

In the meantime why dont you take a look at some other stuff that I have done on my other blog,
One White Whiska, where it is full of zenangle art and zendalas, and journal pages.

Here is the link again:  One White Whiska

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to come back soon.

xoxoxo