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Good morning/afternoon/evening !

I am so happy to share with you this new video. I want to make and share more of them this year (which mean accepting not to look for «perfect» and do shorter videos as well).

Reilly is part of my Nixies created in Mindy Lacefield new year long class called True Free Spirit. I may share quite a lot of what is going on for me in this class this year (be prepared). We have a lesson a month, but I am doing plenty of paintings around it to practice and enjoy.

This month is about creating a character with a tilted head. Which is out of my comfort zone, as most of my Nixies are facing us straight. But I love challenges, and learning. So it’s all good. And I can always ask for advices on our group, which I did for Reilly, as there were some points I was not sure where to go with her. This is priceless.

«To live is to suffer; to survive is to find the meaning in the suffering.» Frederich Nietzche

I created her on GessoBoard. I truly prefer to work on a hard surface, like wood panels for example, because of the first layer that usually is collage. Applying the paper on a hard surface is easier, especially when you need to press with your tool to get the gel everywhere so it won’t bubble.

I surprisingly went pretty simple in my first layers of papers, using only three different scrapboking papers, and two tissue paper (the dark one is bleeding tissue paper, the other one is pattern for sewing).

I used my stencils with different media for this Nixie: heavy matte gel medium and extra heavy gesso. I decided to switch to the gesso to add visual contrast with what was already happening. The paint and ink react differently on them, which is fun (but you have to keep that in mind though).

I love using items to create my marks. This time, I wanted circles and used a cork lid dipped in the acrylic paint. So much fun ! At this stage, I was loving it. The colors, the patterns, everything. It became more of a struggle after…

Seeing my character emerge is always a magical moment for me. Seeing them appear in the background and them pushing them forward. But it is something harder than it seems (this is when I think that having a sketch to follow, as I did when I began, would make my life easier ! ahah).

You’ll see in the video, I went back and forth between her face and the rest of the painting. This is my tactic when frustration strikes right in my face. Her face is composed of layers upon layers (and I did work on her after I thought she was done, so after the end of the video).

Reilly.
Prints available here.
Original available.

This arrowed spiral is one of my favorite symbol and I was happy that it popped into my head. AND it was the perfect spot for Reilly’s message 😉

Here is the video. I hope you’ll enjoy:

Hello !

I am so happy to share with you a new {Painting In Motion} video. It is not the best quality ever because of the gloomy weather that decided to hit here while I was recording and the light changes it caused. But it is not that bad, you’ll see.

After the OwlCtopus… let me present you the… Owlephant ! (i am laughing at myself). I really don’t know where all those Sprixies come from, and you’ll see when watching the video that this painting was really challenging and that it took me some time to see the Owlephant (or… to accept that it was going to be it).

I created it on a 11×14″ canvas panel.

Despite the struggle, I had lots of fun playing with colors and lots of different media.

I enjoyed going back and forth in my decision making process, and see it evolve. The texture is amazing.

You can finally see the fantastic texture created with the Catalyst Wedge and Blade I told you about recently. I wanted to highlight the Owlephant but did not like that dull blue much. So I used the big 50mm Blade #04 (the orange one) to make easy peasy lines in it. It is so simple to make marks with it, you know how marks and texture are important to me to build the layers in my paintings.

I used the Wedge #01, which is mostly flat with a diagonal angle to apply the gel. Let me tell you: you need it for that ! It is stunning. Because it is made with silicone, it is strong but flexible. I never glued anything that easily before (and I do enjoy my palette knives for lots of reasons). I will probably purchase the #01 as a blade so I can have something smaller too.

Love love love the result, it is like the Owlephant is bursting. And we have a peak of what is still underneath that blue, which is always nice.

I am loving using white again. It can create such an interesting visual if I don’t make it totally opaque.

This leafy paper by Amy Tangerine is one of my favorite of the moment, white with simple design and a splash of really bright colors. (you know I love everything leafy and feathery, right ? ;)) I did not want to lose it, burried under layers of other stuff. This is why I chose to add white.

I think I will do that more often from now on, play with bright colors under white. Could get interesting…

I learned this wording technique in Mindy Lacefield‘s class «Paint your story» and I use it over and over again since. It just makes the message pops and well, I think the effect is pretty nice.

Connected…
… to your Inner Voice…
… to the Universe…
… to every alive being…
… to your Higher Self…
…Connected.

Watch the video:

Here are most of what I used to create this painting. Are missing the Lindy Stamp Gang color shots and the papers for the first layer of the painting. Here you go:

Canvas Panel	Catalyst Wedge 01	Catalyst Wedge 02	Catalyst Blade 04	Liquitex Matte Gel
Chevron Arrows stencil	Hexagon Wood Veneer	Elongated Hexagon Woord Veneer	Golden Fluid Acrylic	Stabilo All pencil Black
Oil Pastel	Silk Glaze SnapDragon	Silk Glaze Ginger Peach	Silk Glaze Guatemalan Green

I finally started to record a new {Painting In Motion} video. It’s been approximately two months since the last one…

A while back, my husband did a few changes around the home so I could have the big table that was our dining table at the time. It’s a big wooden one.
The issue is that it is quite «deep» (I have a large space between where I stand and the end of the table right in front of me) so to have my tripod with the camera is harder than it was with the previous table (where I could just stretch my arm to get to the recording button). And of course, finding a camera with a remote that control the recording is haaaaaaaaaaaaard and expensive, I just have to go around to press it now. Good for my workout I guess ! ahah

And I don’t know why it’s almost when I decide to record my full process that the painting is giving me great struggles. I was loving the background but the Sprixie that appeared ? hmm you’ll see 🙂 The painting is not done yet, I’m heading into my Creative Hollow to finish it right after I hit «publish» here.

Hello !

A new video is here, yaaaaaay 😀 You know how I love recording them, the editing process and then sharing with the world. I am still trying to figure out how to use the video option on my Nikon D5100 and had some bad surprises noticing it stopped recording or did not focus well sometimes. So bear with me 😉 I’ll get it eventually, right ? I even recorded a voice-over explaining what I was doing. I find it easier to record and comment once the painting is done, instead of speaking while working. It would be too distracting for me. And I tend to sing along the music that is bursting in the studio while I create; trust me you don’t want to hear that, no no no.

This time, I decided to go back to painting on stretched canvas, a deep edge one (because I love playing with the edges at the end).
I just try to come back. Come back to what I love doing. Come back to sharing my Story, my way. Come back to listening to my Inner Voices, the good loving inspiring one, and shutting the nasty ones up.

I intentionally let the wording vague. Because this painting means something to me that you may not see, and what it brings to you when you look at it is probably different. However, I did write a little something…:

Sometimes…
… I wanna disappear,
I want it all to be clear.
Sometimes…
…I look at the sky,
Just wishing I would know why.
Sometimes…

Can you see how much I love using the stencils from The Crafter’s Workshop ? I really like that some of them are as good used with a spray than used as a «stamp» (you’ll see what I am talking about in the vid). This doily one, designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is one of my favorite, I think I will have to get my hands on her more tribal one too.

If you’d like a more detailed list of the supplies I used, please just ask and I will do something about that 🙂

Prints will soon be available in the shop, as well as the original painting.

Here is the video, hope you enjoy !

Trist is one of my newest Nixies. She is here to tell you that it is okay to feel what you feel.

I am one of those chicks who firmly believes in the power of thoughts. That believes in the fact that our thoughts build our worlds, both inside and outside of us.
Thoughts and emotions are closely intertwined (thanks my dear friend Sweety Falafel for saying that to me again and again (and again and…)) and we are not the slaves of our thoughts.

OK, I have no idea where this was leading to, I guess I just had to write it here (this is the downside of starting a blogpost and coming back again several days after)…

I don’t hide anymore that I used to be what I call «Spleenic» (in the Baudelaire’s meaning nothing to do with any organ, but it seems like something you don’t learn about in the US as he was a French Poet in the 1800s. It describes an everlasting state of Melancholy without any reason. *if you read french, here is a good article about it*). I woke up sad, felt it all day long and would go to bed crying without really knowing why.
It was a vicious circle, my whole life was evolving around this sadness (the music I was listening to, the movies I adored, friends that would understand, a boyfriend that was as broken as me…).

My Nixies have all an important message to deliver (even when I think I am not quite ready yet to hear it, to work through it at that moment). Sometimes, however, this message is quite unexpected to me. I like that they are all someway positive, this is something that matters a lot to me. Even if sometimes they touch sensible points, like Amelia’s.
It never fails to make me nervous to share them when it happens. However, I do know that there is a positive reason behind everything, including these messages around difficult areas of Life.

Trista is about sadness. She is here to remind me that sadness is just an emotion that passes through me, that yes sometimes decides to settle in for a while, but that always eventually go away.
I used to fight it. Hard. And the harder I tried to push it back, the longer sadness stayed. I never really won against her on the long run, to be honest. This is how I learned to embrace it, to make peace with it, and then to let her go.
Trista reminds me that sadness is not a fatality. It does not define me.

Your emotions DOES NOT define who you are. Repeat after me: «My emotions are not me». Good !

Original SOLD
Prints available here

Here is the video (click on the little gear button to watch it in HD):