Creative Spark Week 6

I feel slightly sad that my time with all my lovely class mates in the creative spark e-course has now come to an end. I feel I have packed alot in and have probably been at my most productive in terms of drawing and painting for a long time.

Our task for week 6 was to collage/paint onto canvas and rather than 'over think' the process, Tara, our course teacher wanted us to be in a space where we get out of the way of ourselves and just allow for something to develop.

Step 1: Sorting out collage papers

Step 2: Deciding on the final arrangement and sticking them down

Step 3: Working with 3 colours only

Step 4: Turning the canvas around and noticing a woodland feel

Step 5: The feathers weren't working and my wolf was looking a little lost

Step 6: Poor light quality in this photo, I made my wolf slightly bigger but not happy with the foreground

Step 7: I toned down the foreground and added some spirals to create a relationship with the patterns in the trees

It was really interesting to go through this process and watch the canvas develop, there are things I would like to change but sometimes we just have to allow it to be finished!

Creation is never about changing yourself....

......it is about meeting yourself, probing deep into your own core. (Life, Paint and Passion by Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley).

There seems to be alot of meeting ourselves currently taking place over in the creative spark e-course
with lots of conversations about why we judge ourselves when it comes to making art.  I was particularly struck by the words of one creative spark who wrote in the facebook page " Just as I look at everyone else's work and wonder the same! "Compare and despair" they tell me, the story of my life! Rather than enjoying the journey of making a piece of artwork, I project myself to the finished article, find it lacking (in my head) and stop.......or just never start! I know I am not alone in this, but 61 years of lack of confidence really is showing in this course"

This really hit an arrow into my heart, I was witnessing my relationship towards my own art! So last night I decided to do another blind contour drawing (with a little peeking) as I find them quite therapeutic and used lemon yellow and  yellow ocre as these colours don't feature strongly in my colour story.

I spent a peaceful hour or so painting, listening to music and enjoying the crackle and heat of a coal fire and found the entire process very meditative and deeply satisfying. 

I wanted to add a background but believing I may spoil the picture, I took a photo of it and added a background in picmonkey, then added a few words around it:

Feeling further inspired by what I read in Life, Paint and Passion, I added some words onto a picture I took of my paint palette - "creation wants only to fulfill your deepest desire, to know and accept yourself as you are.  There are no conditions, no invitations to show at the door.  You are at the door and your brush is the key"

Clingfilm Art

This week over at the creative spark e-course, we have been playing with collage and  creating texture with gesso and acrylics, covering it with clingfilm and then smooching the paint around.  My  first attempt looked like this, I don't think I was generous enough with the gesso or the paint!

Getting more liberal with gesso and paint and then adding a little texture with sgraffito, my second attempt looked like this:

I have been continuing with the blind contour drawings as I really enjoy this process, I feel this is the best feather I have drawn so far and the words are taken from a Jonas Gerard video I watched about his creative process which is really fun to watch.