This is my mandala that incorporates 3 things I wanted to include. The first is the Diva’s Challenge to use the new tangle pattern called Skye (the outside Celtic part of the mandala). The second is Kathryn Costa’s instructions on how to draw a 3-coil Celtic spiral from page 57 of her new book, The Mandala Guidebook. The third is to do something to honor the people who have served in the military on Memorial Day. I hope you have a beautiful day.
I went for a drive with some friends today to Amish stores in our area. On the way we passed Jung’s, a garden center and they had a field of flowers! Here is the first of the photos I will share from there. Cee has a lovely daily flower post.
I’ve been playing around with the Tim Holtz Distress Markers I have been using on hot press watercolor paper and I’m planning on integrating my Inktense Watercolor Pencils with them and I was curious to see how they worked together and I used this journal page as practice. I was intrigued by the demo of them I watched on YouTube and wanted to try out layering colors and coloring on a stamp. I started out the page with a coat of gesso to get a nice white surface and then I did a little sgraffito of what I was grateful for from that day. It isn’t really visible in this photo but I kind of like that. Anyway… then I colored over the dry gesso with the Distress Markers in a bunch of colors to see how they mixed and looked on gesso. You can see in the bare paper areas around the gesso that the colors really faded on the gesso surface, but they did mix together nicely. I was also happy that I could use them on top of the dry surface both to stamp the flowers and with the markers and a watercolor brush to color in some fo the flowers and leaves. After that had all dried I used my watercolor pencils. The intersting thing was that when I went back with the watercolor brush the dry layers of marker did mix with the colored pencil pigment. Interesting that the damp brush did not pick up the first layer of marker when I was brushing around the new layer of marker. I don’t understand how that can work, but it makes me even more curious about using these 2 media together. On to my bigger piece to carry on the experiment. My migraines have been bad again so I’m back to pacing myself. I was feeling good and overdid it, but when I rest I feel better again. That maybe should not have all been one paragraph. I feel like I need to take a deep breath. Ah, that’s better. I hope you have a beautiful day.
A blogger friend of mine has published a book about mandalas that has inspired me to do a flower doodle that I think is developing into a different style of mandala for me. Here are my gratitude journal pages related to the flower doodle. The book is by Kathryn Costa, the host of the 100 Mandalas challenge. The book is called The Mandala Guidebook and it is great for the novice or expert mandala artist.
These pages also have to do with the Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Markers that I have been exploring. I drew with them on hot press watercolor paper and then went back with a water brush and “painted” the flowers some more. They responded very differently than they did on the collage page and I like both effects. The negative spcese behind the flowers has now called out for a mandala of leaves and greens that I plan to do in a combination of the markers and my Inktense watercolor pencils. I’m getting excited.
The L’Artiste tissue paper is from some sandals of that brand that I bought. I have been on a shoe diet for the last few years to put money toward art supplies and to rein in my shoe addition. However, last March when we packed a couple of storage/transportation pods for the move to New Jersey I packed all of my boots and almost all of my sandals in the pod in the mistaken belief that I would be reunited with my stuff by the middle of April or early May at the latest. Well, when we got news of our most recent real estate delay I felt that the universe was telling me to buy some cute sandals. So I did. Self Portrait with Sandals to come.
Cee Neuner has lots of fun challenges and also does a flower a day post. I really love flowers (perhaps you already knew that.) Her fun challenge for this week is to post photos of individual flowers. I played around with that off and on all day yesterday and this was one of my final photos. Here was the other.
Here are a few of my favorite photos from the process. The cats helped, too.
I know what you are thinking. Is she saying that flowers are mundane or miraculous? Actually I feel like they can be both. We pass by so many flowers and don’t take note of them and they can become mundane in our busy lives. (Well, your busy lives. I spend a lot of time laying down quietly so I usually find flowers miraculous.) To see more miraculous flowers check out Cee’s Flower of the Day post.
That brings me to the truly miraculous in my life. Yesterday I had a greater and lesser occipital nerve radio frequency ablation done to the nerves on the left side of my head. Can I just say that the pain level of the recovery is actually better than 95% of my days over the last 5 years!!! The process was super fast and not a big deal – it sounds a lot worse than it is! I’m excited to schedule the right side and get on with my life!
This week what mundane and miraculous things are you grateful for in your life? Make a blog post about it and post a link in the comments. Practicing gratitude increases your happiness and is good for your health so join in on the fun!
This mandala was inspired by the gift of a swimsuit that was given to me as a going away present from my friends in my aquacize class. I will really miss them and think of them when I wear this suit. They were spot on in getting me the perfect suit! Here is a photo – it is hard to photograph a suit without a person in it and I wasn’t about to post a self portrait in it!
I may color another copy of the mandala in the colors of the suit. I really love them. I hope you like my interpretation of this lovely design.
I wish you all a happy Mother’s Day. If you are a mother or not. We all have had mothers and some may still. My mother is here in the town I’m soon to be leaving and her health is not great. So I plan to savor this mother’s day with my mother here and my boys off in the world.
This week I worked on a scrapbook for my mom. It is of a trip that we took with my 2 sisters back to the state of Washington where the 3 of us were born. The different colored papers are leftovers from that project. So it the photo of the bridge of a boat we road on to go visit friends on the islands in Puget Sound.
I was also working on a map that I wanted to collage with no definite end in sight.
It is one of the many maps of Wisconsin I have found in the course of my packing and cleaning and sorting that have become my life. There are also some papers from different times and journeys in my life. I tore up the papers and put it all together with matte medium and gesso.
And I covered it with a light coat of gouache and cut a few circles out. I included the circle that said “Welcome to Wisconsin” in my mom’s scrapbook and three circles int my gratitude journal. We have been having some delays and issues with the third house that we have put an offer on in New Jersey. So far my introduction to New Jersey has been a great deal of frustration so I REALLY needed to do some gratitude journal work.
The song on the facing page is Japanese Bowl by Peter Mayer
I’m feeling a little broken in pieces and in need of some gold to mend me. Making the map collage, the scrapbook, and my gratitude journal pages really helped. I would have included some gold leaf on the page, but I already packed it.
So here is to celebrating the crackpots! (That might not be quite what Peter had in mind, but it works for me)
I’m thinking about doing a gratitude challenge when I get settled in what ever place we end up living in New Jersey so make a post about something you are grateful for and put a link in the comments and we can get an informal start before I get all my ducks in a row. I would love to hear what you think!
lunanista 