Week 3 update

I am pleased that I have been able to snatch small blocks of time during each day to do something: prep a canvas; draw: prepare the glass for mono-printing and pull a print; work a section of a painting. Something no matter what. This to me is a great accomplishment!

At any rate, as to this past weeks results. I worked on a large canvas to try to capture a scene I saw for a brief moment on a nature program on the Arctic. It showed greenish-yellow lights filtering through grey misty skies. Here is my take on this. Not quite what I wanted, so I will try something similar, not in acrylic but in watercolour

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The other work I finished this week are two abstracts in watercolour. I saw a technique using  cheesecloth and decided to try it.

Week 2 of this Journey

I found myself this week. So many choices and so many ideas. Hard to sleep and anxious when I got called away from working on a piece. In the end I went back to using an idea from "Celebrating your Creative Self" to work with tissue paper and acrylic. So here are the results. I call this one "Dragon Bones".

I also carried on with my mono-printing. Love the accidental nature that I am actually learning to control. Up to doing 3 to 4 overprints with each one.

The first one is called " Inference. The next one " Dragon Flies" And last is " Seahorses" The names just come!

I also started a large painting this week. Results in the next post.

Frustrations

Its been a frustrating couple of days with mom. I started to focus this blog on what's going on with her, rather than what I am accomplishing no matter what.

Here is one I did sitting outside with her yesterday. I've always loved herons. According to some of my books on Symbols in Egyptian mythology it is a sign of wisdom and in Christian  is was used as a symbol for Christ during the Middle Ages.

Getting Started

I got started on my creative journey two weeks ago by experimenting with mono-printing with acrylics. I am using a number of resources to inspire my and I will credit them when appropriate.
I have tried this technique quite a few years ago and I like the serendipity of the results. I am also quite pleased to discover that I can find snatches of time in the day to work on learning new processes, figure out to do a blog, and "play". That is the key for me; feeling the freedom to jump in and play first and deal with other stuff second.

This is one of a series of mono-prints I did the first week. While playing with them, for some reason I felt the need to add a bit of text from Psalms. It seemed right at the time.

In any event, I am now writing my second post for my blog, with a cat purring on my lap! Seems appropriate.

My Rationale

In a couple of weeks I turn 65!!!! For a variety of reasons, I am approaching this birthday will trepidation and anticipation. The only other "adult" birthday that had much impact on me before was turning 30...... or as it was explained to me...... hitting my fourth decade. Turning 65 is definitely a key one for me. It is an ending and a beginning. But of what?

One of my resolutions has been to give myself licence to create!!! Anything, anytime, everyday; to play with all sorts of media, to experiment with techniques, to risk without fear, to enjoy all aspects of the process without judging the results. This is a biggie for me. In all of my years of expressing myself creatively, it has never been without reserve, and I has never allowed myself the luxury of "playing". So I figured, turning 65, maybe its about time.

I plan to figure out all I need to to record my process and publish my results. This I recognize I will need to carry out this year of play. Without an external focus it will be too easy to fall into my perennial trap of other people, animals, expectations to take priority. That has been my pattern in the past that has seen me put aside my creative projects to take care of other needs.