Wholehearted

 

In this worrisome time when we don't know whether our world will be set on fire by the will of one man, I find these three things helping me to find some calm and inner peace: nature, gardening and being creative. I had found one of Laly Mille's short workshops called "Wholehearted" and after watching it I decided to try my hand on it. The unfinished work was lying on my table for a few days until I was drawn to it this weekend - I felt so restless and agitated and thought some paint on my hands might be a good way to think about something else. And indeed it did!

There are several layers here. The start was writing down some thoughts on pieces of paper that I glued down as the basic layer. After covering it with gesso I outlined an slightly asymmetrical heart and filled that with torn pieces of scrapbook paper.

When I started this canvas I wasn't sure which color I would use, but after finishing the first part of the heart I knew that I had to fall back to one of my favorite colors - turquoise. It felt just right.

And then the real fun part started - stamping, stenciling, using alcohol inks, splatters, Posca pens... This is usually my favorite part and even if accidents happen (like a bottle of alcohol ink dropping on the painting), one can work on them. I like the freedom of it.

Here are a couple close-ups:

Since this is a T stands for Tuesday post, here is my drink - coffee, of course. I have had this mug forever, I simply love the happy colors of it. The cookie is a new Girl Scout cookie, called Adventureful. It's a mini brownie with caramel - delicious!

I just learned that the lovely sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. This is in solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Hearts with Texture

Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday is all about love - two days before Valentine's Day that's very appropriate. I played with some heart buttons that I recently re-discovered when I was making Valentine's cards.

After a levels adjustment I layered the photo with Kim's texture "she loves you yeah" in blending mode soft light at 55%; then I added one of her newer textures "kk_minus 43" in soft light at 75%; typed the text and in a final step added an older texture "warmvignette" (one of my favorites) in soft light at 66%. Quite surprising how I always loved soft light the best.