Klimt in the garden with Rumi on ANZAC day

Each month in Effy's "A Year with Rumi" class we are given an art journal lesson and a quote. My project is a little different in that I am making mixed media fabric art cards to go inside a box with the theme "Klimt in the garden with Rumi". Each month I take inspiration from what's happening in my world so that each card relates to my personal experience of the month. My base watercolour card is a 5 3/4" square. Today is ANZAC day so this month's card is themed around poppies, love and peace. I made my initial gatherings including fabric left over from the poppy quilt I completed earlier this year. Thrilled that this month's Rumi quote couldn't be more perfect : "All this singing. One song. Peace be with you"

The small size of the card means that I can never include all my inspiration from my initial gatherings, but I can try things out easily - brayered a favourite Pebeo together with a transparent Golden paint ♥

Spray

Machine stitching

Hand stitching - paper bead

Textures

Back of card

Klimt in the garden with Rumi on ANZAC day ♥

Find out more about the "A Year with Rumi" class with Effy Wild HERE. You can also enjoy this class by joining Effy's Patreon account and paying monthly. Check out the labels below for more entries about this project.

Book of Days : April with Cary Cutler Scholes

Book of Days 2019 is a year-long online class produced by Effy Wild, which will also feature 13 ‘all star’ journal art teachers and at least 12 ‘rising star’ bonus teachers. This was our preview of lessons for April : 

This month our all star teacher is Cary Cutler Scholes. 

She began with a collaged background and the outline of mother and daughter nestled in the top left photo, and then filled in the background with caran d'ache neocolor II crayons blended with gesso. I just love how soft and pretty that looked. Here's my beginning

I love how all the collage elements show through the background colour. I wanted to tilt the heads differently to fit my spread and also because I quite liked this side-tilted head that I did with Effy last year and thought it would be fun to try that effect again

Here's how my page developed

Took several days - I've been busy this holidays...oh how I love stencils in my backgrounds ♥

Face outlining using my favourite polychromos coloured pencils - love the effect with blending stump for soft line. 

Hope you are having a happy Easter weekend with people you love.

You can still join us in Book of Days HERE. 

New FREE online art tutorials

I've recently come across a couple of new free online offerings that you might be interested in. When looking up Cary Cutler Scholes (one of our online teachers for Book of Days 2019 and probably the subject of my next blog post) I found these free workshops offered by Brandi Dayton. 

In 2015 we lost our 15 year old son in a tragic car accident, this changed my journey and inspired me to start to teach online classes. The first free classes I did was “birds and the bees”, these classes along with “a thing called love” are my gift as a memory to my son.

6 free lessons by Brandi : The birds and the bees

18 lessons by Brandi and a variety of other invited artists : A thing called love. The below image is from Toni Burt's lesson.

And this one is by Cary Cutler Scholes

These have been added to my full list of cheap and FREE online art classes (link top right column of my blog)

I've also received some emails about the online Sketchbook Revival 2019 : 

This is also FREE but runs for a limited time April 22- May 4 (sessions available until May 18th). Details HERE. Although I can't possibly do every lesson, I love to discover new artists this way, and I can't wait to see what these lovely artists (already known to me) have on offer : 

Laly Mille 

Tamara Laporte (Willowing)

Iris Fritschi-Cussens

Other artists known to me but I can't share a preview of their project : Carla Sonheim and Toni Burt (her art in the other free class further up the page). 26 artists in total. Looks good doesn't it? You can sign up HERE. 

Thank you to Jorin who commented below and added a couple more currently available : these have been added to my full list because always available.

Marieke Blokland : Art journal school 

Creating an Infinite pool of ideas by creativity coach by Robyn McClendon

Enjoy

More magazine makeovers

I shared HERE that I'd joined Alisa's new magazine makeovers class. It's 3 large lessons and she is a fantastic teacher - I have done a number of her classes and am always inspired by what she has to share. I have learned about adding lettering, about leaving some space on the page, the power of repetition, about doodling directly on the magazine page, as well as adding both paint and collage. You need to join the class (now US$30) HERE if you want to find out more about these techniques. Although you may have seen photos of this spread in my March review, I've realised that I hadn't done an actual post of how these next pages developed in my recycled face journal. I'd already added the paint before I began this class.

Each photo is a day's progress. Shine is my word of the year.

Love taking the progress photos and then seeing the comparison of before and after.

Hope you have the energy and time to fit some creativity into your weekend.

March review and April beginnings....

The photo above is the art I completed in March (not all shared as full posts on the blog yet). As well as this personal art, I also completed teaching an Intro to art journaling class. This was 5 weekly sessions of 2 hour in-person classes and while very rewarding, resulted in less art time for me due to the preparation involved. On the plus side, I had fantastic feedback from the work we did there with the possibility of continuing with a regular monthly lesson from May. Here are some photos of my students' work ♥

Unfortunately, we also had the shock of the mosque shootings in Christchurch last month. There were outpourings of love and solidarity across the country, and I managed to make some art as part of my process of dealing with the feelings that came up for me

As the month progressed, I had to remind myself that small steps still = progress.

I continue to keep a record of what I read and watch

I began a new online class with Alisa Burke

and I finished my Inner work journal that I began in January so it lasted exactly a quarter of the year.

This week I'm beginning a new Inner Work journal 

I'm trying to motivate myself for the new season and plan for the coming month with an emphasis on reflection and self-care. It's interesting that I looked back on my post for April last year, and felt similarly called to rest and attend to self-care. A work-mate gave me a lovely card last week that will live in my journal as a reminder that I am appreciated. 

April signals that we are heading into Autumn. I am always really sad to see Summer go and my wish as I did my February review was that we continue with days of warmth and sunshine afternoons through March. I was lucky and we've had many really warm and lovely days. The chill is starting to make itself felt in the early mornings and evenings now - we finish daylight savings tonight.  
I love Juliet Batten's books about the seasons. I talked about her book "Celebrating the Southern Seasons" HERE and I've recently purchased "Dancing with the Seasons" which celebrates the cycle of the year and ways of embracing those changes as part of your own personal growth and development. Check out her blog HERE. I'm finding it personally difficult to be heading into Autumn and darkness when many of the art bloggers I follow are in the northern hemisphere and moving towards spring hope. These books help ♥

On the bright side, we have school holidays in another week (which means 2 weeks of more flexible time for me and a chance to spend time with some loved people) and basketball season starting on Thursday. I hope you are able to find something to celebrate in the weeks ahead, and that the new season brings new motivation for your creativity. I'd love to hear what you've got planned for April.