Taking Stock: February

February 24, 2018 Annette12 Comments

Hello!

February is almost over already… can you believe that?! Great time for a stock take, don’t you think?

I’ll dive right in, with thanks to Pip Lincolne for the prompts.

Making: Marks, using watercolours and pen.

Cooking: Burgers. Lentil and mushroom bolognese. Roast carrot salad. I’m mad for carrots.

Drinking: Lemonade with a splash of raspberry cordial. Soda water and lemon cordial. Coffee to start the day. Water.

Reading: This great book, and enjoying reflecting on how much we owe to women of the past. Thank you Marjorie!

Next read: Not sure yet. I have plenty of unread books to choose from.

Wanting: To know how much I actually need to know to feel okay. It’s a conundrum.

Looking: Up. I highly recommend it.

Enjoying: That I can sense autumn lurking on our collective doorstep. The leaves are already changing and falling.

Waiting: Is difficult. You can get stuck in overthinking and worst case scenarios.

Buying: Soda water, olive oil, canned goods, tissues, lemon cordial and toilet paper by the trolley load! I am stocking up for my recovery period; no heavy lifting allowed.

Watching: Sarah Off The Grid. Top Chef Colorado. Scandal. Project Runway All Stars.

Next watch: Hard Sun.

Hoping: My pacemaker op goes boringly routinely and I have a hassle free recovery.

Marvelling: That I will have a pacemaker inside me in less than two weeks. Two weeks!

Cringing: At the thought of the actual procedure. Ugh.

Needing: To remain positive, to plan as much as I can and then just let it all go. Control is an illusion.

Questioning: The blindness of some sectors of the USA. How can they not see they desperately need better gun control?

Smelling: Rain. And stinky body odour from next door. #grossneighbours

Wearing: Denim shorts, a crop top and a stripey tee. Fashion is my life.

Worrying: Trying not to. Mostly succeeding.

Noticing: Clouds. Branches. Crooked paintings. Typos.

Knowing: I’m lucky to have a boss who hasn’t thrown up his hands at all the sick leave I’ve needed to take in the past year.

Admiring: Glennon Doyle. Revolution and coffee, that’s the way.

Getting: Myself and my house ready for my pretty much one-armed, can’t reach for things recovery. It’s coming along.

Coveting: Nothing but a small pile of extra cash, but I can get by without it.

Disliking: Guns and the way some people confuse their “freedom” and owning weapons designed to maim and kill.

Feeling: Good, if a titch unsettled, I’ll be glad when March is mostly over.

Snacking: Corn chips, carrot sticks and avocado dip. Mmmm so crunchy!

Opening: Some lovely mail lately. It’s so heartening to receive handwritten cards and letters from people.

How about you?

What are you pondering, admiring, making and most importantly, snacking on?

Tell me everything!

Here’s to a change of season, to releasing all that needs to fall away and embracing all the colour that bursts forth.

Big hugs,

Annette xx

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Art Happy – 12 & 13/2015

April 3, 2015 Annette6 Comments

If I went looking, I’m sure I could find some truly eloquent, thoughtful quotes about the power of art.

Here’s what I know:

Creating makes me feel good.

It has a way of simultaneously relaxing and engaging me, and I can sit and my desk and paint for hours.

It’s that simple. And that beautiful.

Today I worked on some postcards for the #snailmail group I’m in. I can’t wait to send out these cards I’ve painted this week.

Hang on to them girls, they may be worth something some day!!

Incoming Snail Mail — Snail Mail & Chocolate

Be kind to yourselves, and smile at a stranger tomorrow.

Cheerio,

Annette x

Painting is a skill too 11/2015

March 22, 2015 Annette8 Comments

Hello!

I had my second painting lesson yesterday. It was great! We’re now at #paintisaverb 11/2105, and as we head into autumn, I’m feeling happy about being an explorer of the arts.

Tip 1: caffeine is essential to the creative process.

During our lesson, my fab teacher Selina said something interesting to me – that now I wasn’t ‘playing’ anymore because I have developed some skills.

I always find it interesting how words can mean different things to each of us, in small ways or really big ways. When I use play in relation to painting, what I mean is not being boxed in by a standard of whatever you may see as ‘good’ art, it’s the making that I’ve been enjoying. But I see Selina’s point, once you have skills, it goes from play to something more deliberate and doable – I hope!

Lesson 2 was all about tonal washes, creating shapes and thinking about light, knowing when to flood the page with colour, using long brush strokes and remembering that all important negative space. I even have homework to do. Nerd alert!

These art lessons are such a great experience. There’s SO MUCH more to watercolours than I thought there would be… I was tickled pink (and teal) with the colours I was able to create yesterday.

As Selina’s studio is in Collingwood, I decided to tootle up the road to Fitzroy to visit Deans Arts. I am surprised Deans was still open when I rounded the corner on foot, it took so long to find a car park. Those hipsters suburbs really are for cyclists and pedestrians!

Luckily it was a GLORIOUS day, so round and round I went, with the window down and a breeze on my face.

It’s true that the tools you choose have an impact on what you’re able to create. I didn’t know that a few months ago.

In fact, I think one of the best things about putting yourself in the position of being a student is that you learn just how much there is to learn about a topic; whether it’s painting, or kitchen renovations, or scuba diving.

Let’s make that Tip 2: learning is lovely.

Eventually I scored a park and made my way to Deans. So many options! Tonnes of brushes and different types of paper and walls lined with paints, row upon row of thingamajigs and whatsits which I have no clue about. Luckily, I had a list! Even so, I forgot to buy myself a colour wheel. I need one of those bad boys, pronto.

The traffic was utterly mental by the time I’d stocked up on art supplies. Multiple diversions due to tram works, it was bumper to bumper everywhere I turned. I may have taken a few odd turns as I tried to avoid the jammed main thoroughfares.

I managed not to let it make me cranky, thank goodness. It gave me time to admire the trees and the utter gorgeousness of the sky.

I spotted one tree that was way ahead of the neighbours, already a blazing glow of autumnal red. That’s the reason I’ll be using #crushingonautumn on Instagram again, I love autumn!

Even so, the drive home took so long, I decided to pull over in Camberwell for a late lunch break. I felt like I was breaking a day trip, rather than zipping home from an art lesson.

Happily, I stopped outside a gorgeous little eatery with a Julia Child quote on the window. That, and the name, The Butter Dish, drew me in.

I ordered a coffee and a tomato turnover. The turnover was so good, I snapped up a second one as I left.

The Butter Dish Eatery - yum! — The Butter Dish Eatery – yum!

All in all, it was an utterly delightful Saturday.

Saturdays are made for grabbing coffee and art lessons, shopping and people watching… especially when the weather is as delicious as it was yesterday. It really made me smile to see the leaves changing on Punt Road.

How was your Saturday? Are the leaves changing where you live? Are you heading into autumn or spring?

Yours in autumnal giddiness,

Annette x

Keep your eye on my Instagram feed to see more – you can search #paintisaverb, #creativeplay, #52paintings, #verbslearnstopaint and #verbslearnstodraw. Yep, I love hashtags!

I got schooled! 10/2015

March 15, 2015 Annette24 Comments

Yesterday I got schooled – and I loved it.

Allow me to explain.

The lovely Rachael, from my online creativity course gang, heard about a watercolour workshop being held on Tuesday evening, so she tagged me in a Facebook post.

It really grabbed my attention, and I quickly looked up the artist, Selina Braine. I couldn’t make it to the class, but I was intrigued, both by her painting style, and her obvious passion for teaching art beyond the walls of a classroom.

I saw that she offered private lessons and before you could say ‘dude, you can’t even draw’ I was emailing her with an enquiry.

Fast forward to Saturday, and I’m pulling up in her gorgeously tree-lined street, feeling a teensy bit nervous, but mostly excited.

As I come through her gate, Selina pops her head out of the front door, and I’m ushered in to her fab studio space where there’s art everywhere, books stacked waist high on one side of the room and my learning space awaits. I feel instantly welcome and like I’m in good hands.

I sit down, and before me there’s paper, brushes, and a gorgeous vignette of a polka dotted teapot, a bottle with baby’s breath exploding from its neck and a delectable looking red velvet cupcake nestling in front of the pot and bottle.

Selina’s website I Can Draw With Selina shows off the kind of artist she is. You can also find her on Instagram. Pop over and have a look, her work is utterly beautiful.

Like Maria Von Trapp teaching someone to sing, we started at the very beginning.

Colour manipulation with water. I could have painted pages and pages of slightly varying blobs of reds, greens, blues, purples, and I’m sure I will at some stage. And how rad are the egg shell tones? My kiddie palettes haven’t let me explore like this, so I’ll be upgrading my equipment pronto.

Selina had done a bit of research on me via my Instagram feed, which was why the lovely vignette on the desk included baked goods! So after we got warmed up with colours and curved lines, she asked me to do the thing I do not do – to draw.

Selina's notes. Image by Selina Braine. — Selina’s notes. Image by Selina Braine.

Gulp. I was in trouble now.

I decided to quiet my inner protestations and just try. What was the worst that could happen? My drawing would suck, and I might cry. Heck, I cried at work, in the stairwell, on the street and as I ordered coffee this week… I’m clearly not afraid of crying.

So I tried… and Jimminy Crickets, I did it!

I started with an outline in pencil, then I painted the base of the cupcake, then Selina whipped out her trusty hairdryer and dried what I’d done. I layered other colours, worried it was looking crap, but secretly was feeling super stoked that it wasn’t.

I added some pencil, erased some pencil, tweaked the colour mix on the icing, listened to Selina’s guidance and gentle encouragement… I was smiling a LOT by this stage of the lesson.

It’s kind of amazing how simple it actually was to draw that cupcake. I don’t even care about whether you (or I) think it’s a good drawing or a crap drawing, it’s a drawing that I did, then painted. Woo hoo!!!

I CAN DRAW.

If you’d asked me at 1.55pm, as I walked up to Selina’s house, ‘excuse me miss, can you draw?’ I would have answered resoundingly that aside from a fetching stick figure, I could not. Fast forward an hour, I’d changed my opinion of my abilities.

How rad is that?

Next challenge, the bottle with the baby’s breath (gosh, that apostrophe is worrying me, welcome to my brain) – big gulp. This was translucent and had branches and water and teensy tiny flowers…. I was worried about getting the shape of the bottle right. Thank you eraser inventor, thank you!

I had a crack.

The colours here make me so happy. I took a little creative licence and changed the cupcake colours. I think the yellowy orange is really happy next to the brown bottle.

Here’s a thing – I am not good at negative space.

Selina kept encouraging me to stop… oops sorry teach!

The two hour lesson flew by, yet felt completely unrushed. Selina was easy to chat to as we drew, painted and explored, and I’m really looking forward to another lesson next week.

I think the thing I liked most, aside from everything, was the ease Selina has in her teaching style. There was nothing intimidating or yes ma’am-ish about the way she taught me. Really, she just guided me to do what I didn’t know I could do, while simultaneously dispensing a lot of amazing tips, tricks and techniques that I didn’t have a clue about.

I can’t wait to go back and learn more next week.

We might try painting some buildings – eeek! That seems kind of ambitious, but it didn’t stop me from pulling over repeatedly on the way home to snap shots of interesting roof lines or buildings I passed.

I think Selina’s website is perhaps the most aptly named I’ve come across, because now I can draw with Selina!

Keep creating and playing, and don’t be afraid to get schooled.

Cheerfully,

Annette x

PS Don’t forget to pop over to my Instagram feed where you’ll find more #paintisaverb photos.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

A new season for 52 Paintings

March 7, 2015 Annette2 Comments

Good morning!

I’ve ventured into new territory this week, to match the changing of the seasons.

Drumroll and standing ovation for the best, most colourful and glorious season of them all….. autumn.

You’ll probably see #crushingonautumn pop up a lot on my Instagram feed, as I post snaps of chilly, cloud scooting skies, the changing colours of the leaves and my kitchen bench loaded down with delicious things to slow cook and roast and turn into soup.

Swoon.

Even the language of the season gives me a thrill – think about the word autumnal and how it conjures up crunching leaves underfoot, fireside catch ups with friends, putting on your cardigan before going out, reaching for a scarf, loading up the kids and driving through the hills to find a pub with a great roast lunch special and a playground you can see from beside the fire.

The wine drinkers change from enjoying crisp chilled whites to warming reds. Salads give way to soups. Dining out morphs into staying in, being cosy and the age-old dance of the clothes horses in your living space commences.

The days are getting shorter, but we’re not in the depths of winter yet… oh, it’s just heaven I tell you. Easter approaches, we seem to collectively be changing gears as we prepare for the colder months.

I decided to try and capture my love of all things autumnal with my watercolours.

I’d love to be ‘better’ at this kind of painting – perhaps with practice that will come, but for now I’m happy to be exploring, playing and wishing for the temperatures to drop so I can pop the heater on.

Are you an autumn lover too?

Tell me your favourite things about my favourite time of year.

Cheers, keep creating.

Right now, it’s time for a warming cup of coffee.

Annette x

Paint is a verb

January 9, 2015 Annette18 Comments

Last year, I did some great creative courses run by the fabulous Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mike’s. I learned SO much great stuff, stuff that’s changed how I look at the world, and how I spend my time. You can read all about the courses Pip’s offering over the next few months here.

What has really struck me, as I reflect on my year of online learning, is how much of what I’m excited about and enjoying in my life now, wasn’t even on my radar 12 months ago.

One of the best things that came out of doing her course on boosting your creativity, Inspiration Information, was that I went out and bought art supplies. I’ve never done that outside of needing something for an assignment at primary school – anyone remember going to buy craft paper at the newsagent? That was in a time called ‘the olden days’ when children wrote out assignments on big coloured pieces of card, and stuck pictures from magazines on them. When Google was a big row of books at home called Encyclopedia Britannica. The good ol’ days!

Buying art supplies, then enjoying using them, even though I felt awkward at first, has been a real life lesson to me.

Just because I hadn’t painted since I was about 15, and I’d never thought I had much talent for it, it didn’t mean I couldn’t take up painting now and find it really enjoyable.

With Pip’s encouragement to just explore and PLAY, I have discovered that I really enjoy painting with watercolours. I’m no Picasso, and I still can’t draw an apple convincingly. Heck, I’d hardly even rank myself an amateur, but I am an enthusiast, and I think that’s something that often we consider ourselves ‘too busy’ to be.

I mean think about it, what do you do, as a grown-up, that’s just for fun, for play?

I can almost hear your response to that – ha, play, who has time for that? Between my job and running around with the kids and laundry and study and paying the mortgage…. who has time for play?

Playing is powerful. Playing is fun. Play makes you forget about the work stresses, the mortgage, the laundry, even if it is just for 10 or 15 minutes. Try it. Go on, your life isn’t so full that you can’t find 10 minutes just to play. And if it is, well, that’s a whole other blog post. At first, it may feel very strange, or even ‘self indulgent’. It is absolutely not! It is good for you.

People may not get it. That’s okay. People might be bemused, and ask you why you’ve got the paint brushes out. That’s happened to me.

Here’s what you tell them – I’m playing.

Just let it hang there, ‘I’m playing’. No end game, no master plan, no ‘reason’ other than I’m just playing.

And I feel so good while I’m painting, it wakes up my creativity. And the good feelings continue after I’ve painted.

Once I could switch off my own ‘what for?’, and just allow myself to play, I was hooked!

I proudly play now, I paint! Paint is a verb.

I’ve decided to share a painting on the blog once a week, not for critique or praise (or to have eggs chucked at it), but simply to remind me to continue to play, to access that part of my brain that comes alive when I get out my paints and paper, wet the brushes and just dive in, with no idea what’s going to come next. It’s so relaxing, and enjoyable.

Maybe by the end of the year there will be some ‘improvement’, maybe there won’t. That’s not the point. The painting itself is.

So, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, here is work 1/2015.

Don’t forget to play, okay?

It will make you happy, and who doesn’t want more of that!

Do you play? What do you do, create, practice? I’d love to hear about it.

Cheers,

Annette

You can check out my paintings on Instagram, I’ll be using the hashtag #paintisaverb.

PS Don’t forget to check out Pip’s online courses – right here – that’s not at all sponsored, I’m just a student and fangirl!

I Give You The Verbs

Tag: watercolours

Taking Stock: February

Art Happy – 12 & 13/2015

Painting is a skill too 11/2015

I got schooled! 10/2015

A new season for 52 Paintings

Paint is a verb