Last week I had the BEST time hosting my first ever Reflective Art Retreat for a lovely group of women on the Oregon Coast. “Unfold the Soul: Reflective Art Retreat” was an amazing success, beyond my wildest dreams.
I am looking forward to offering many more of these in the (near) future!!
We connected, created, enjoyed decadent foods, rest and the sea!! Keep posted for updates on future offerings!!
Tonight I shared the evening with some brave and adventurous women who are engaging in my Bold Layering: from attachment to healthy detachment class. The goal of this class is to use the same canvas month to month and continue adding layers, textures, and images on top of what was there before.
The task given to these ladies last month, was to live with their creations and engage with it regularly (engage meaning to look at and admire it). Then this month we used that canvas and added elements continually, taking turns leading the additions – adding papers, adding paints, adding images, etc. It was so much fun and interesting to see how each woman took charge when it was their turn to give a prompt.
The beginning of the session included two freewrites – one reflecting on the painting they’ve been living with, and the other about how they feel about letting it go.
Then…we got in the messy of the process…..SO MUCH FUN!!
As we reflected afterwards, here is what came to mind for me, “at some point all the seeming randomness becomes connected and cohesion comes into focus.” This was really meaningful to me as I think about letting go not needing to be an active choice but could also be engaging in the next thing and before you know it the past is covered over, embellished, and texturized.
In the end, as much as we were hesitant to cover over our paintings, no one missed the old one and was embracing the new and loving it. So, we live with this one for another month and embrace transition again.
I wanted to do some playing with recording as well as playing with some new toys I purchased at a local Art Store that was having a sale.
I purchased a few Catalyst Blades & Wedges – silicone palette knife type tools that can create patterns in the paint as well as get it on the canvas with some thickness. I found them easy to use with matte medium and paper/texture/layers.
I am much happier with the final result than with the original. It is redeemed 🙂
This past weekend I had the joy of leading a small group at church through a painting process focusing on love.
I came home with a background that I liked but a foreground picture I wasn’t crazy about, so I set to work making it something that I love.
I added a cherry blossom tree (partial), shading, and my favorite thing – dots.
Then, I still didn’t feel done – I added some paper love birds – and now I’m done and I really like it!
I started this painting in a group session layering words, text, and paint with drips and splatters along with a larger shape over the whole background. I chose love birds. A rather random process for sure.
I wasn’t sure what I thougth of it, I thought it looked rather patriotic – very blatantly red, white, and blue. As my dad’s birthday approached, I kept looking at this and thinking, “what can I do?” My dad, being an Army Veteran would be fond of the patriotic color scheme, I was sure.
But then what – would the love birds just be my parents? It didn’t seem finsihed though? So, I thought it would be neat to have the whole family show up on various branches as a family tree.
So, I started working and came up with this….
…but I didn’t like the placement of the kids (on the bottom branch), they looked like another pair of love birds instead of grand kids belonging to my hsuband and I. So, I modified it to this….
…and I like it much better.
I had thoght about adding blossoms – perhaps a dogwood for my brother’s dog 🙂 – or cherry blossoms, but I’m letting it sit for tonight. I will give it to him tomorrow.
