Shabby Little Blooms
Shabby Little Blooms
flowers are taking over the studio!
Here are some flowers for you!
Between the garden and the studio, I'm deliberately filling my life with flowers right now. Growing beauty. Growing joy. Embracing the simple, fragile, yet miraculous gifts of life. In these rough times, it brings me comfort and hope. It helps me stay focused on what I'm here to do as an artist: to see the beauty around me, let it inspire me, create more of it and share it with the world.
The new painting above is going to be one of the projects in a brand new floral, mixed media painting online class I'm preparing right now! I’m calling it "Flower Flow" and I want to make it super relaxing, joyful and nurturing, just like taking a walk in the garden... It will be released next summer and I've just opened the waiting list to see who might be interested. I can hardly believe that over 400 lovely artists like you have already put their name down! OMG, I'd better get to work!!
Shabby little blooms
Flowers are one of my absolute favorite things to paint, but believe it or not, up until now I had never actually painted a bouquet... what?? Of course, now I'm hooked, and it makes me feel like I'm treating myself to some fresh, happy blooms. I can see myself making plenty more and letting them fill the house with joy!
It felt so relaxing to sketch some loose, imperfect, imaginary flowers. And you know what's even more fun? Doing it with your non-dominant hand! It's a wonderful, gentle way to let go of perfectionism, invite inspiration, and create something that is full of soul, and simple charm. We're going to explore this in Flower Flow, I hope you will love it!
Here is the finished painting. I love white flowers so much!
Gathering Floral inspiration
At the moment I'm reading a children’s book where every time people do magic, it spills all around and gives life to anything wooden: brooms grow branches and blossom as they fly, bookshelves take root and turn the library into a wild forest... well, it's not that different from what's going on in my studio right now: flowers are taking over!
One of the things I always do, whenever I start working on a new body of work, a new theme, a new class... is to update my inspiration board. I love this part of the process so much! As you might know, I usually start with some Pinterest boards. Then I print out a selection of favorite images and arrange them on my wall. I love to see color combinations emerge, recurring themes and imagery (apparently, I love anemones!).
I haven't finished yet and below is what it looks like for now, then I will add some textures, patterns and more. I have a stash of vintage silk flowers that my grandma used to put in her hair to go dancing, I think it's time to take them out!
Here is the link to my Pinterest boards, enjoy the flower power!
the messy canvas(es)
Something else I always do, is keep a canvas (or several) on display in the studio, and randomly apply all my left-over paints on it. I honestly just slap the paint on at the end of a session, and I usually do it fast because I don't have much time left, and I need to clean my brushes before they dry. But little by little, the layers build up! I also have my trusty art journal at the ready, and my leftover paints often land on its pages too!
I love love love the new energy this floral theme is giving me. It feels so good to gently come out of winter, and embrace the new light, lightness and colors of Spring! If I'm honest, the past months have been really rough and I've had to slow way, waaay down.
But I know that what we focus on, grows. Just like flowers in the sunshine. So what if we allowed ourselves to let go of worries and stress a little? What if we deliberately chose to notice, and appreciate all the good and beautiful things, big and small, in our lives? What if we allowed creativity to take us to a better place?
Please tell me in a comment below, and let's inspire each other!
I know that some of you are still deep in the cold days, and others are heading into autumn. Wherever you are, I hope these little flowers bring you joy!