Fearless Painting
Another idea, inspired by a 21 Secrets Class.
Connie calls her class in the first edition of 21 Secrets 2010 where I too taught; Get It Out – Get It Down, and in it the students are allowed to explore an intuitive way of painting, you know, painting without a plan or too much thinking. It’s an Art Journal Class. Just start… paint freely in your art journal, to help you get unstuck – and get what’s in your heart out and on the paper!
I followed along her video’s and couldn’t help but smiling. Connie’s flirting happiness is contagious! I created a painting in my own art journal, the way Connie described in her class.
I am pretty sure this fearless woman was not an image in my head before I started painting, but she is what emerged on the paper.
What came out was indeed a fearless flying woman, with pink hair and a bright red dress.
What I liked most about taking this part of the 21 Secrets class is Connie’s emphasis on how to stand up when you paint, turn up the music and even move your body as you paint. I don’t own an easel as is suggested to use, but I stood up by my desk and used a big brush. Now an easel is up on my wish list of course I would love to have such a thing pointing out to visitors that I am indeed an artist to paint by and maybe experiment on bigger canvas. Connie paints in her art journal on her easel too, and she listens to great music while she paints. That’s quite new to me too.
I love silence, but also the various podcasts and shows I listen to, and audio books. So I tend to forget my neglected play-list for weeks sometimes. But when I come back to it I always fall in love with music again. It is really inspiring to listen to music while you create. Just letting the mind sing along or wander freely.
The page prepared to be painted with layers and lots of texture:
The texture is created with a lot of gel medium slapped on to the paper. Then I used a hair dryer for the first time, to speed up the drying time. Fun stuff!
You can still join the 21 Secrets Class, but only until December first. If you are a member of art journaling.ning (it is free!) you can join Connie’s group Fall into Art Journal Love and watch her paint, journal and do all kinds of magic stuff in her art journal to inspire YOU to do the same. Inspiration galore!
Love it!!
An easel or standing can make a big difference? Very interesting! You did a beautiful job. I hope Santa bring you a nice easel!
Oh, how I smiled when I saw your lovely painted gal today! She’s fantastic! =cD I love her hair, her dress and her big eyes. She’s definitely got a groovy retro 60’s thing going on. Love it!
Hanna, she is adorable!! I just love the red dress and the way you’ve journaled in the hair and the outline of her flying bod!! I love to listen to music when I create!!! Just gets everything working together !
Thank you girls! Eden, music really makes the spirit lift, I will try to remember to listen to music more often and paint more too, it is so much fun. :-)
This made my heart sing! Just what I needed to see on a cold, dreary gray day! I loved your class on 21 Secrets and have been playing with tracing paper (easier to print on but not the same nice transparent quality) and love the energy of color of your work. Totally inspiring me today. Thank you!
xo Lis
Thank you Lis! How happy it makes me that you are playing with new papers and experimenting with it because of my class! That truly is awesome to hear. Thank YOU!
Oooohhhh….love this lovely girl! How much fun are you having?! So cool! I’m swamped with running a store during the holiday season…but looking towards peaceful January to dive back into my journal and personal work. Yay!
Thanks for taking the time to comment! December is busy for many people, but taking an hour here or there to calm down with painting is well worth it if you can find the time. :-)
I love these pages iHanna! I am a big fan of Connie too. I have been doing her BIG classes on Dirty Footprints Studio…it has been a real horizon blower-outerer for me!
( I LOVE your little aside about leaving an easel out so people know you are an Artist! I had family over last week and they still don’t quite ‘get’ the whole Artist ‘thing’… It’s like they are waiting for me to get over this ‘phase’, and on to the real world…haha! Well I’ve been a full time artist for 10 years now…I have my own gallery…! Hello! Artist! My father in law even tried to give me a quiet little talking to about doing too much painting…he meant well…but…!
I suppose it’s just hard for people who haven’t accepted creativity into their own lives to understand!
Love to you!
Jane
Hanna! WHAT a triumphant painting. I love these colors, especially her green eyes!
I always stand up when painting. It was a revelation to me how much I love doing that. I don’t listen to music, but I do listen to podcasts, or I have the TV on to something that doesn’t have to be looked at but I can listen.