GANESH, The Remover of Obstacles

So I'm taking this wonderful class, and no, the teacher is not paying me and I'm not a close friend (although I love her from the videos), but I think when you find a good thing on-line you should share it. It may be just what a new artist needs on their journey. This class has been a very good fit for me.

My daughter wanted an elephant. SO....... I got started but had a very, VERY, hard time with it. One of my fellow classmates (thanks KARIN) suggested I ask the elephant because she stated: "In eastern tradition, the elephant god, Ganesh, is the Remover of Obstacles".

So what the heck? And the elephant talked to me. I said, "You're messy, you know".
The Elephant said, "I know, but so is your daughter's hair and her house. Let me be".
I said, "Elephants are hard to paint, geeeez".
He said, "Then let me just step out of the picture. Quit being afraid of me. I remove obstacles, remember?"

And so I named him, "The Remover of Obstacles" and I hope he gives you courage to remove the obstacles in your life today and makes you smile.
Talking to elephants can be very enlightening!

Dancing Your Way Out Of A Scary Place

 art Juice for the soul

I'm having so much fun this summer. I'm taking Flora Bowley's on-line workshop and it has sparked a mighty passion for my art again, almost like the first years of discovery.
 Her book inspired the elk painting (post below), but her workshop is even juicier. I worried about the price, but it has been so worth it and we are only half-way through.
Above is just a plastic plate of  palette colors I used. I love the way acrylics look with glaze added to them.

This is another large canvas 36 x 48 -very brave for me as you know I feel safest in my art journal. The bad art voice says "don't work too big. Where are going to hide them if the are really bad? Big paintings take up too much room under the bed. Who wants a really, big, bad painting?"

But Screw that voice!

After layers and layers and marks and variation from cool to warm to neutral and back again, the painting begin to make a turn around from all the chaos. It was a wrestling match in my mind for days to continue on pass the fear, pass the awkward ugly phase, walking out of all comfort zones and just painting- intuitively and trusting. Just trusting.


Once the imagery evolved, it began to be such a joyful journey- you know that zone where you hear only "paint, my love, just paint". Like your inner child has finally emerged and is playing again with colors with no care in the word and no judgement for her art. Present, in the moment, and just pure joy for the color on paper or canvas. And it is in that playful place that we learn so much.

details of larger painting

And thenAnd she danced her way out from under the bed. I danced. 

Geez, why is it so hard to trust and let go? I'm not sure, but I'm going to keep doing it until I hear that intuitive voice again loud and clear because I love the way she talks to me.


- Posted by Odd Chick

Elk on the brain

new painting took to Perculator app and then to Diptic app

It started with a friend and her new cabin in the forest. It's a really lovely place but it needs some art and she suggested that I do an elk painting to hang in her family room.

First, I started drawing elk in my journal. I tried encaustic wax for the first time.

journal page

Played with some photo effects.

perculator app and then Pixlromatic app - love the colors on this one

Then, I tried a big piece of watercolor paper and massive amounts of fluid acrylics.

Not really happy with that (nose all wrong) so I played with more effects, changed the antlers, worked on the nose, still looking for inspiration.



Finally, I painted over it and started a whole new layer. I got a new book from Flora Bowley in the mail and found my inspiration with the prompts she suggested to keep your mind open and responding to your own intuition while you paint, free of the critic's voice.

Artemis' Forest Acrylic on Watercolor paper full sheet

I like it and think I will also enter it in the juried show coming up. The colors are really more vibrant than I could photograph and there are a lot of details that don't show up. It's not really my friend's style so I'll keep painting more elk for awhile and see where this new passion takes me.

Abel's Goats No. 1    acrylic on canvas

My last post sounded really brave, huh? Well, I was trying to work up the courage to drag out a 30x30 canvas that's been hibernating in my hall closet for months. The above painting is probably my most ambitious work to date. I took the reference photo and worked without a coach and fought the voice that said, "you don't know what the hell you're doing" with "I will work on it until I get what I want".  At some point the first voice grew fainter and the strong voice won out.

I've done goats before. But I'm liking the improvement I see after looking over past work.

It's so important for me to see progress and I know there must be someone starting out there, a person that is new on this journey that thinks their practice is getting them no where. That's the reason I share and the reason I take courage from you too as I watch the brave steps my blog friends make every day.

Wish me luck. It's time for Roswell's Juried Art Show and "Abel's Goats" will be my entry. I still have some work to do on it (looking at it posted I can already see some things I can tweek) and would appreciate any suggestions to improve it to make it my best work ever.

Setting goals and Making it happen.

I use to think that my art needed to look like somebody else's art to be real art.

I still love copying well-known artist to see if I can achieve certain effects and I love to wonder as I paint what they were thinking as they made the choices they did.

But then, maybe only this year, I began to accept that my art never looked like their art even if I tried my hardest. That it always had my "look" to it. And so I said to myself, "SO WHAT!"

Now I'm learning to paint and draw the things I like to see and have some compassion for my own art. To let it be what it is. To heck with what others see. It is my intuition or nothing. If my art never makes it then nobody ever connected to what I see and feel on the canvas or the paper but I did, and I matter. But others have connected already. I've recently sold paintings to complete strangers (rather than people who have an emotional connection to me as the artist). Those wonderful buyers connected with nothing more than the image, the art that was my own unique vision. It is very validating and humbling at the same time. And encouraging that I'm on the right track.

I think I will continue to trust my instincts. I've read that it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours to be truly proficient and successful at something. I'm half-way there. I know that in 5 more years, I'm going to be twice as good if I keep studying and practicing my art.
No one but me can hinder my future success as an artist. I have big goals. I want a piece of my art to hang in a museum. I want to win some major art shows. I want to sell paintings on a regular basis. I want to paint until the last day of my life.  I want to make beautiful, interesting, unusual art that makes me excited to share it with the world. Now I've stated it and it's out there. And I'm willing to work for it.

It's mine, people. On my terms.

Woods of Wonder

Bird friends of odd chick

chick chat

 I love birds. They are the one consistent symbol in my art and in my life and they share spaces all over my house as well.

odd chick made by Nancy Phillips

this delightful bluebird struts over my stove-top.

odd chick as the original ugly duckling!

The latest and favorite bird painting called, "You Are One Fine Chick". I love to send this card to my girlfriends with this caption on the inside.

And someday I will fly high, over the sky where birds fly over the rainbow.
Until then, odd chick will share her life and art and home and yard with the birds and bird friends.

ART? Cheap? NO. A priceless therapy.

Drawing and manipulating your own art can be so therapeutic. Drawing is so calming, and then painting your drawing brings out the icing of deliciousness. And when my mind is too tired to play but will not cease from exploration, I manipulate it and channel Van Gogh with photo/art apps on my IPAD later in the evening.

Then I dream of art. ART is not cheap therapy. It is priceless therapy.

AutoPainter HD

You may be moody and blue and then the next page, you can draw a spring bunny.

First page in my new art journal. I'm now on #11

AutoPainter HD

Percolator

Picnik (soon to be extinct) and I blew this up to 36 X 42 and pixels held true at Office Max and framed it in white metal

Or take a neices' dear photograph and make it into artwork for her Dad (my brother). 

It made a nice house-warming gift.

 I don't know what I was feeling when I painted this onery bird and a sweet dog?

and added BRAVE words. I know many people struggling with hard things right now.

WordFoto

IN my own little art world:

things can change in an instant.

Change can be good. Change can expand my boundaries.

I free things from my own limitations.

I go high, low, under or over or all around.

I am an explorer.

I am completely free to fly or free-fall.

It is a good place...always.

go play, you'll see.

Faith questions...

Dante's statue in Florence, Italy

Have you ever had a feeling of foreboding? Like something was coming?
I did. It was like a Spirit or an inner voice preparing me. I knew I wasn't suppose to worry about it, or plan for it, or save up for a rainy day. The Voice just told me it was coming, to be grateful for this good day but be prepared, not scared.
Now is this just too weird to share? But how can we collectively know if others don't have this experience if we never share it?


October, my son had a bleeding ulcer and quit breathing during the procedure to repair it. He's okay now.
November, my husband had a bleeding esophagus and got dangerously close to death through blood loss, and reactions to the anethesia. He's better than okay now.
February, my father had a massive stroke. He is slowly recovering. He will be in rehab for many months but he is making progress.
I have 3 best friends whose husbands have life-threatening diseases and they are struggling through the hardest of times right now. Another very dear friend lost her mother last month.
Many things are happening  but I am still certain that the same Awesome One who prepared me- cares for me. Cares for those I love. Holds me up, comforts me so that I can comfort others.

My faith tells me it was Him that spoke to me.My lack of faith questions how and why, or if it is just human intuition, or that the shoe eventually drops in everyones' life. Or that seasons change. 

Or all of the above?

I know He's big enough take my questions. Handle my insecurity and lack of faith.

But if, IF, what He does for me is as real as it feels, HE deserves so much more from me.

You don't have a soul.

You are a Soul.

You have a body.

    -c.s. Lewis

IPAD - fun playground for the imagination!

This is a fun little digital watercolor that I created on the app "Art Rage" while traveling in the car!
YES! you can paint in the car with no mess. YEA!!!I played for hours on this app and learned so much about blending, shape and texture.
























If I can do this, anyone can. It does take patience at first, but so does a layered painting. But you can learn so much without waste of paper or paint. I miss the sensation of paint and paper but I feel very free to make mistakes because I just push the undo button and try again.

I created this for facebook (and notecards) for the many people who are praying for my Dad.
He had a massive stroke to his right brain on Valentines which left him paralyzed on the left side. But he is slowly regaining strength and only time will tell whether he will return to his former health. I have been sad but not discouraged.

This was a photograph I took in Italy and then added background and text.

 This is the second painting (above) I took to another app named "Perculator". Fun stuff!

streets of Pisa 

Very Klimtish don't you think?

This was my grandson making me laugh (my sister-in-law in the background).
I took this photograph to Grungetastic app. and beat it up a bit. There are so many photo apps to play with it.


Have you found other art or photo apps that you would share in comments?

Heart Art

Sometimes you create a simple piece of art 

because something moves you.

You want to be a part of it.
You admire the person who takes you there because she has such a loving heart. (Thank you Chrissy)

Sometimes you create a simple piece of art 

because someone special says something 

while she shows you her collection of heart photos she saves in her new journal. Something like: "And you know I just love hearts", ... and she does and you feel so lucky that she loves your own heart and gets your crazy passions. (Thank you Susan)

Sometimes you create a piece of art because your daughter and your muse 

needs new ideas

 for Valentines and tee-shirts and she's working her butt off to make her dreams come true while she encourages everyone around her that they can make theirs come true too with a little hard work and synergy. (Thank you Joli)

Sometimes you create a piece of art because

  YOU need to be reminded that LOVE is still the most important thing. 

And you want to be better at loving others.

And only your art can express what your heart is bleeding to say. (Thank you God)