It Might Be Finished

Today, I worked a bit more at the painting from yesterday and it might be finished until I decide otherwise. :)

What do you think?

And I got even a nice byproduct: these stripes of paper towel soaked in dry pigments and acrylic medium. :)

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Paint Party Friday

Creative Every Day

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Playing Again!

In one of the Facebook groups I am in, there is that challenge "What's On Your Desk Wednesday". And, after months, I can show an image of my studio desk, where I am playing with recycled paper, paints, and inks for the first time after months. YAY! :)

I'm not sure, why it took me so long (but I have some theories). But I am sure this artist collaboration project initiated by Yanik Falardeau got me starting again! There is still time for you to join in as well.

To see more inspiring creativity jump over to any of these sites

Creative Every Day

A Piece A Week

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Another May 2013 Report And A Great Haul

Yesterday, I found another inspired energetic report for May 2013, by Lauren from Think With Your Hart. It really spoke to me. "It's a cold hard fact that the only thing that can move us now is divine LOVE, and because this level of LOVE can be attained from within, there is nothing "out there" that can guide us or bring us that level of uncompromised joy." Read more of it here.

On a more practical note, I wanted to show you my haul from last Wednesday. As I needed to buy a new cage for our 2 naughty rat girls and some canvases, I found a friend ready to help us with her car (as some of you know, I don't own a car or even the licence and we live about 23 kilometers outside the town). So we went to the Home Depot where I found the right cage for the rats. A big and pretty expensive one, meant actually for degus, but the 2 of our 4 rats were taking over my sons room, so I had to do something radical. But I didn't stop there.

I found some great supplies for my art as well: 2 nice small rolls to use like brayers, a good white acrylic paint (meant for kitchen walls and ceilings), and a satin acrylic varnish (meant for wood) to use as fluid acrylic medium. Tried them all out the same day starting a new painting in the public studio. They work just great for me. Both, the paint and the varnish are of very high quality, completely waterproof when dry and cost much less than regular art supplies. As I say sometimes, it's the one huge benefit from living in almost constant poverty for my whole earth life: it forces me to be extremely creative in getting what I need for as less as possible or for free :)

As you can see, I have refilled part of the paint and varnish into recycled bottles for easier use. The pieces of plastic bags between the cans and the lids makes the opening after a while much easier (a thicker one works the best).

Happy art supplies hunting, everybody!

My Kind of Collage

Like I said yesterday, I have started to prepare new canvases. And this is, how I usually do it: I glue down all kinds of recycled paper with white PVA glue. After it's dry, I cover it with fluid acrylic mat medium using it as a substitute for clear gesso. If I know, what color I want the first layer to be I add some acrylic paint to it. This is the latest one (sorry for the blurry image: it was late and dark again :) ).

And I have even covered the canvas with two layers of paper. At first, I covered the whole canvas with newspaper and pages from my kids old school workbooks. When that layer was dry, I started to cover it with the medium adding torn pieces of recycled paper I had mono printed with acrylics some time ago and black and burnt umber acrylic paint. Now, it's dry and waiting for the next layers to be added.

Would you like to join us at Creative Every Day or Glue It Tuesday? Nothing is easier than that: just blog about your creative endeavors and link your post to the pool!

Namaste

My Creative Space

Last week, I might have finished (one never knows, right? :) ) 2 mixed media pieces:

These flowers inspired by Christy Tomlinson's class in LifeBook 2013

(Sorry for the blurry pics: still no card reader and almost no day light here)

And this abstract on a piece of repurposed card board box

There are some more pieces in the works. I have moved on with the 4 apples

And continued working on this canvas. It's really puzzling me, because the frame turned out to be of irregular shape.

And, of course, I worked on new assignments in the CAPI course with Milliande. One of them makes me really ponder now: the idea of the Body of Art Work. Before last week, I didn't know about the importance of creating somewhat cohesive series for each selling artist. Now, I'm seriously pondering, if and how this could work for me being extremely versatile and liking to try and learn something new all the time. It would mean to stop watching art videos and trying to do something new as long, as I have stuck with one idea, explored it and created a series of at least a dozen. Wouldn't be completely new for me, as I often work on more than one surface at a time, but a dozen is a really huge number for me... :)

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired

Uddate: just joined another year long challenge Creative Every Day :)

My Creative Space - Paintings

Today, I almost forgot to post the resume of my creative week. Could be because of the huge renovation going on in the apartment right below ours and making my day much more loud and chaotic....

Anyhow, the "Spirit of Water Lily"  is finished, i.e., I have put it away to stop fiddling on it :)

A "Magic Jug" is painted on the repurposed chocolate box from last week

You can see some phases of my process here.

Another painting has got its first couple of layers...

... and looks like this for now.

And I'm thinking pretty much about the way I create and discussing it with my friends on Facebook :)

Two ideas:
1. a painting is never finished completely, you can add something to it even after 10 years,
2. you should like your creation after each session of working on it :)

To see more creative spaces, jump over to this site and be inspired!

My Creative Space

The last week for me, was mostly occupied with a German/English to Latvian translation and settling in our new family member - the rescued doggie Lesa (more a Kelpie than a Doberman, as I first thought). The translation is pretty simple and boring, so there is a good chance I can deliver it before the deadline, if only my brain cooperates well enough (working at it makes me sleepy very quickly). Lesa is settling in very well, and the shyest and more aggressive of our cats is adjusting as well. Yesterday, they both slept on one bed already :)

As I can be really productive, when there are loads on my plate, I was arting every day as well. Among other things, the first two canvas-backgrounds were created for the Bloom True e-course with Flora Bowley.

Some more inspiring facts:
- a couple of nights ago, we had a gorgeous sunset

- received some great feedback from a happy customer in US about this boa

- received great feedback from a friend in UK about my first ever sold print
- a lilac tree is starting to bloom right across my studio window

It's a late bloomer (just like me), as lilacs have actually finished blooming in our village, and I love blooming lilacs!


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Face #12 of 29

When I started to create this post  I thought, I have finished the mysterious lady you could bee sick of seeing again and again :) Now I know, what I want to change, but not much and not today. As an artist colleague articulated on Facebook, "just when you think you're done - you're not" :) But my feeling is, that she got what she wanted. As her name stays a mystery to me, I call the piece "Under the vail of the night", at least for now :)

Face #11 of 29

Today, I have continued to work at the large abstract portrait you have seen twice already and I have not a slightest clue, how it will end up :)
What started out as cleaning of my brush, looks close to this for now.

I love it and had such a blast playing with it! Working abstract and without any pre-planning gives me the most of joy and makes me feel the most of confident and strong in my artistic part. There is no doubt about that :)
(Sorry for the bad images: we don't have much of light here today)

Face #9 of 29

Today, I continued working at the face from yesterday. And made an additional challenge to it: not to use black nor white. Might still be a WIP, but I really like it now