winter blues
it's dragging me down
bright colours
lifting up
creativity
stagnation
Middle of January is always difficult, winter blues guiding to lack of creativity. I hadn’t worked on any art page for so long, today I decided to add yellow and pink to a page. A pop of colour to lift my mood. I like my choice of colours: yellow and pink! Yellow means happiness and reminds me of sunshine; pink is related to self-care and love. This reminded me to buy flowers this weekend!
kindness
holding a door
a smile
a smile
a cup of tea
thank you
thank you
sending flowers
love you
love you
I'm listening
kindness
Tanka Tuesday – Kindness is the theme prompt for this week. I’ve written this poem but it doesn’t fit any of the classic poetry forms, at least that I could find. I love it, so I decided to be kind to myself and share it anyways. It is a syllabic poem, so I think Colleen will like. The form is 2:4:2, the last word of one stanza is the first of the following on and the first word of the poem repeats as the last one. I am thinking a name for it, but first I’d like know from the poetry experts if there isn’t already a form like this one.
Another gesture of kindness I’m sharing here, is a self-kindness. A few minutes every morning I give to myself to play with colours, images. It’s a ‘me time’ that I use for art journaling.
“I tried and failed. I tried again and again and succeeded.” Gail Borden
my art and me, me and my art. i’ve tried many media and styles over the years. sketch, canvas, collage, water color, acrylics … but what i really like is messy art. to give permission to the colors and pieces of paper to talk by themselves.
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” Margaret Thatcher
my messy pages are like therapy, i let my feelings pour on them. most of them i keep to myself, but a few i post on IG, i share with my friends in there hoping to inspire them. once a posted a collage and tagged art page. someone left a comment saying my page wasn’t an art! sadness took over me and i didn’t post for a while.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius
many thoughts later, i understood the problem wasn’t on my page or with myself, but with the person that commented. up and down, resiliency, and time to take the stand and enjoy my art, messy art!
Good Morning! Here are a few pages from an IG art party this weekend:
prompt 1: yellow and turquoiseprompt 2: a quote
It’s the journey that’s important, not the getting there.
John McLeod
prompt 3: growth
Today is starting #100dayproject, where we choose one creative project and stick with it for 100 days. I’ve joined it for many years and it’s great to see all the work done at the end of the project. This year I’ll make an art card per day.
Journaling is helping me to stay grounded during this time of lockdown. I’ve been up and down with my feelings, but in a way or another when I sit at my desk and start to write it’s like the world is back to its usual flow.
I haven’t done much art journaling recently, but here are the pages I did a few weeks ago.
Acceptance and self-careLetting go Being comfortable at home
The new season is coming and it’s time for changes. Starting by changing the clocks today, this means more day light, more outdoors activities, but the self-changes are the most important: our body, our mood, expectations …
With the Spring knocking on the door, it’s time to get rid of what doesn’t serve us anymore and make space for new things. I’m not talking about material stuff, but thoughts, regrets and old ideas. I try to live a minimalist life style, so I don’t have many things to get rid off. I don’t like cluttering, when I buy something new, the old one has to go out. What I need is to apply the same style to my mind, generally I keep everything in there, and I’m tired of the mind-cluttering.
I need to make more space for the things that make me happy and give me pleasure. More writing, gardening, cooking delicious and healthy food, in summary I need to nest the good thoughts and get rid of the bad ones.
Art journal, visual journal, collage journal… there are so many names for it. I don’t know which one I prefer to use, but I do enjoy to express my feelings adding images to the pages of my notebooks.
This weekend I joined a art party on Instagram, few hours creating together with other ladies from around the world. Three prompts in 2 hours.
Polka dots
The first prompt was Polka dots. This is my new journal, you can see the cover on the first photo (bottom right). I was using it for the first time, it’s not easy to start a new journal, the first page is always a challenge. I wanted it to be messy and full of possibilities to give me freedom to work on the other pages without boundaries.
Travelling
Second prompt was about travelling. Places we want to visit. This is a difficult one, I want to go to many places from deserts to mountains. Of course, beaches are always on the list.
A quote
The third and last prompt was a quote by Oscar Wilde “Memory … is the diary that we all carry about with us.” We always want to carry good memories, things that have made us happy and loved. Tiny moments along the road.
I’ll be co-hosting next month art party, please let me know if you would like to join it.
I joined an IG art party this weekend, a much needed time to play with collage and relax a bit. Here are the prompts and my take on them. Hope yo enjoy and be inspired by my pages.
Prompt 1: River
Prompt 2: A quote: “My work is loving the world. Am I no longer young and still not half perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.” Mary Oliver
Happy Sunday to you! Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month, and as usual, I joined an online art journaling party on Instagram: #septgluebookparty19.
Journaling and art journal (visual journal, creative journal) are part of my being. I write morning pages almost every day and during the weekends, I also express my feelings using collage, acrylic and watercolour.
Here is my take on the prompts. They were all related to Autumn!
#1 – Autumn colours
Autumn is a season for coziness. To both, stay at home with a cuppa in the hands or outdoors enjoying the beautifulness of the season. My colours for the season are the outdoors colours: sunrise, sunset, and colourful leaves. Earthly colours for my outfit and shawls, like brown, grey, and dark green.
# 2 – A quote: “A fallen feaf is nothing more than a summer’s wave goodbye” – unknown
For sure, Autumn is a season of letting go! You do know that I love trees, I’m always hugging them and I’m never tired of learning from them.
I’m always impressed by their stillness, strength and now, during this season the lesson of letting go! It’s time to let go of their leaves, they don’t need them anymore for photosynthesis, no much sunshine, but they need to keep all the focus on the roots to get energy from the earth and survive the harsh winter.
We need to do the same, focus our energy on what is necessary to keep us strong and happy. We need to let go of what doesn’t add up to make us a better and healthy being.
# 3 – Picnic
Well, a picnic! When my kids were little, the picnic was simple. I only need to grab a towel, take some fruits in a basket and cross the street to go to a park in front of my home. It was a blessing, the kids playing in the playground and I’m laying down and reading.
Now the meaning of a picnic is other. The park close by isn’t enough, we need to plan a trip to someplace far away, this place needs to have lots of trails, I need to take lots of food, and the towel has been replaced for a large blanket to fit all of us. Still is a blessing to be cozy up with my family in the middle of nowhere!
Hope you enjoyed my way of expression and please let me know if you like to joy this party next month.
Tea & Paper 