A Year of Mary : Give in to Joy

I've been catching up on Effy Wild's "A Year of Mary" monthly lessons. Time for April's lesson and Mary Oliver's poem Don't Hesitate. This painting is a way to welcome in the magic of Joy. I used my favourite iridescent colours for my base

And ended up with this spread

See all my art from this class HERE. Also joy with news that we are moving to Delta Level 2 = back to school on Thursday with more normal routines but more mask wearing than at last Level 2. I've made some for us and some for extended family. A couple of black ones for the boys, but I really enjoyed working with some fun patterned fabrics.

I hope you are finding creative joy in your days.

A Year of Mary : Pay attention

I love Effy Wild's "A Year of Mary" monthly lessons and am having a bit of a catch-up. I've been picking my lessons using a random number generator. It's time for August's lesson and Effy used Autumnal colours but encouraged us to use colours that are reflective of our situation. We are still officially in Winter here in New Zealand but are being blessed with some gorgeous days of sunshine to hint at Spring....also my Magnolia is starting to bloom which always makes me want to use pink. 

This was a layered technique using glazes or washes of colour over white doodles. I used white ink for mine and they faded into my watercolour background.

But I love the look with my glazes added over the top - these paints are fluid acrylics and for this technique I just used a few drops of colour with water added to give more transparency

I took a photo of her to use as a print on future cards before I added the quote

And here's the finished spread - I was thrilled to find the gold rub-on letters in my stash.

Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" as a monthly lesson exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. Lessons are released mid-month. See all my art from this class HERE.

A Year of Mary : Keep some room in your heart

I love Effy Wild's "A Year of Mary" monthly lessons and have been rationing them out to make them last. So far I've done January, February and May. I can't believe it's been so long since I completed a lesson! Since it's Lockdown in New Zealand, I thought a bit of Mary and Effy might help 💜 The lessons are all so beautiful that I couldn't choose, and used a random number generator to pick my next one. For July's lesson we're working again with the Mary Oliver's poem Evidence. Last time we worked with kindness & mischief, but this time it's "Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable." We're in unimaginable times. I'm keeping room in my heart for love, for kindness, for empathy, and for gratitude. I am counting my blessings that I am in a bubble with people I love and that we can work from home. 

We began with a black gessoed background and metallic watercolours.

I suspect there will be more of these lessons to share in the near future...See all my art from this class HERE. Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" as a monthly lesson exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. Lessons are released mid-month.

A Year of Mary : Kindness and Mischief

Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" as a monthly lesson exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. Lessons are released mid-month. See all my art from this class HERE. Mary Oliver's poem Evidence was the inspiration for a delightfully fun spread from Effy this month. You can see a shot of her 'in progress' painting here. Here's mine

A Year of Mary : I want to be light and frolicsome

I've got behind with these wonderful lessons but they're not going anywhere and I'm going to do them in order for the year. This is February's lesson inspired by Mary Oliver's poem Starlings in Winter. Decided to include a fantail since they epitomise "light and frolicsome" for me. My spread was inspired by these words from the poem :

I want to be light and frolicsome.

I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,

as though I had wings.

My fantail block stamp and pretty scrapbook paper to inform my colour choices

Began with metallic watercolours and then added some collage of both sides of that paper. 

Face using another watersoluble pencil but not the usual Stabilo black so it's softer

She is silver and light 💜

The wooden block stamps can be tricky to stamp directly into the journal (especially with collage elements already there) so I stamped with black staz-on ink onto white tissue resting on an old mouse pad to get good contact, then tore around it before gluing in with gel medium.

Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" as a monthly lesson exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. Lessons are released mid-month. See all my art from this class HERE. 

A Year of Mary : Wild and precious life

I shared a warm up lesson for this class HERE, and have finally managed to complete January's offering. Working with Mary Oliver's poem The Summer Day which contains perhaps her most famous quote.

I really love the sketched version before all the colour is added

Tombow markers and iridescent medium for the roses

Effy demonstrated tombow markers for the face as well, but I prefer to use acrylics, clear gesso, and then blended pencils.  

I think this could be lovely as a card and I could add different found words so remembered to take a photo before I added my quote

Very happy with how she turned out

Effy's version is on her blog HERE. And recently I saw this on FB which I think is too good not to share : 

Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" as a monthly lesson exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. Lessons are released mid-month. See all my art from this class HERE. 

A Year of Mary : A new voice

This week I was very surprised to discover that I haven't created a face in either of my art journals for a couple of months! I adore faces in my art journals. Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. This year-long offering will feature twelve paintings using her ‘lip up’ face technique inspired by the poetry of Mary Oliver. It starts January 15th (so this Saturday NZ time) and I've been waiting excitedly and then remembered that she'd already shared a lesson in December on this technique... I started my face and good to have done this lesson as a test to start cos I need to do her larger next time. I tried to wipe off my Stabilo All pencil lines with a baby wipe but it didn't work, so I just waited for it to dry, drew over my lines again so I could shade them, and making it work on a single page this week. You must spray over the Stabilo with workable fixative when dry if you don't want it to move again for a less grungy look.

Colours that feel good to start - photographed in the sun so you can see the gorgeous glow of the Pebeo Iridescents (green and orange). The purple is a liquitex heavy body muted violet which was part of a special collection. Partly chosen because I know I will be adding metallic paint through a stencil over this

Painted her skin with acrylic and then a layer of clear gesso so I can use and blend my gorgeous pencils for shading

Mary Oliver's poem The Journey was the inspiration for this lesson. 

Creative focus for 2021

I've been much less productive than I'd like for the last couple of months as I was consumed by work commitments. I know that November-December is always stressful and overwhelming, but it was made more so this year by not having my usual reserves of energy. I am therefore especially grateful that I have started my Summer holidays today! I now have time to create, and rest, spend time with my family and friends, and recharge from now until the end of January. After a very tough year I am counting my blessings, and thought I'd share what I'm looking forward to creatively over the next few weeks and into 2021. I'll be closing my year and finding my word using the free offerings I shared HERE.

And there are a couple of new ones to share this week : I'll be exploring some of Ivy Newport's free lessons in her 12 days of creativity : FREE videos, creative inspiration and discounted classes :

I never do watch all the lesson from Amber's online retreats, but I always find something I enjoy. Tamara Laporte and Kiala Givehand are 2 names you might recognise who are offering sessions.

Sign up here - begins 20 December.

And looking ahead to classes for 2021

I am already joined up for Wanderlust 2021 since I got in quick with the special US$99 pricing. You can still join HERE but it's now US$175 and only available to purchase until 31 December 2020. I've never done this before and I am looking forward to learning from some new teachers and getting a new class for inspiration every week. 

I purchased Kaleidoscope 2020 and didn't manage to do much with it this year so will be making time for that over my Christmas holidays and hopefully beyond. I've watched a few lessons and it's gorgeous and I'm not at all sorry I signed up, just sorry I didn't have the time and energy to do it with other class participants. Life time access....

I've also got other classes I've purchased in the past which I've never completed - this makes me hesitate over purchasing anything else new EXCEPT that

I have long been a fan of Effy Wild and can't imagine doing a year without some kind of class from her. See her current offerings HERE. In the past I've participated in both Book of Days and Moonshine and much more. For 2021 I've decided to do something a bit different and joined her Patreon - there are several levels and I'm going for the top US$20/month. For this I will get Moonshine : The Cafe (The Lite version of Moonshine 2021)

and A Year of Mary which will feature twelve paintings using the ‘lip up’ technique inspired by the poetry of Mary Oliver. This is also available at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) Patreon levels if you just want that. Starting 15th January the below is an Effy example of this technique. 

Bonus - I'll also receive the Darling Human Planner (also available separately from Patreon) which will support my written journaling.

I'm also a member of Effy's Wilderhood FB group which is for students and friends of Effy Wild, including alumni, patrons, etc. 

In 2020 this included Journal 52 prompts, links to Journal Jams and monthly workbooks including daily prompts for written journaling and occasional bonus lessons. 

I also would like to return to a more regular written journaling practice. My Inner Work journal which I began in September 2019 changed a bit this year. While my mixed media work sustained me in my time fighting breast cancer, I found it too challenging to write too much about what was going on. Instead I printed out messages and emails about what was happening in my week

and continued to keep a record of what I was reading and watching each month and the art I had produced over the course of the month

This is a view of my journal from the side - each tab is a month. 

I've purchased a new journal and you'll see I printed a list from the computer that I did when I was still in the thick of work. Also lots of lovely photos to remind me of the highlights of the first couple of weeks of December.

I need to set up this new journal for written journaling. I think I will probably use Susannah Conway's offerings to start this one. 

Only thing I'm not sure of at present is what I'm going to do for mixed media and stitched projects. I'm sure something will come to me at the right time. I need something like Klimt in the garden with Rumi (2019) or the Journal 52 weekly cards I've done this year. Maybe not a weekly commitment though....

I'm getting excited about my plans and I'd love to hear what you're doing creatively in 2021. Hope you are finding ways to make this a special time of year for you, despite the continuing challenges being faced, especially by my overseas readers. Sending you some extra wishes for a safe and joyful season 🌟