100 Days of Leaf Art - Week 7

Week 7: Finding Your Personal Style

By now, patterns are emerging in my work. Certain marks, stitches, or color combinations feel natural—this is the process of discovering my artistic voice.

As I continue, I lean into what excites me most. Some leaves become more intricate, while others stay minimalist. Recognizing my preferences and tendencies allows me to refine my approach and create more intentional designs.

Creative Tip: Look back at your previous pieces and note recurring elements. Are you drawn to certain shapes, colors, or techniques? Use those as a foundation for new designs.

Encouragement: Your personal style is unique - trust what comes naturally to you and let it evolve organically.

Want more guidance? My Leaf Arts - Transforming Nature into Art course helps you refine your creative voice.

Want to learn more? 

Join me in my Leaf Arts - Transforming Nature into Art course for guided lessons on leaf art techniques! 

Come and join us on the course and learn to create your own beautifully designed leaves!

100 Days of Leaf Art - Week 6

 

Week 6: The Beauty of Layering and Depth

Layering different elements brings richness to leaf art. By adding a variety of resources, stitches, and fabric, enables you create depth and complexity in each piece.

Working in layers is a key element of my process. Sometimes I collage multiple leaves together, blending together textures and colors.

Creative Tip: Mix techniques—try stitching over burned or painted designs or layering multiple leaves together. Don’t be afraid to add new elements if a piece feels unfinished - such as fabric.

Encouragement: Creating in layers - keep adding, experimenting, and discovering. Every piece has the potential to evolve into something even more beautiful. 

Explore techniques in my course: Leaf Arts - Transforming Nature into Art.

Want to learn more?

Join me in my Leaf Arts - Transforming Nature into Art course for guided lessons on leaf art techniques! 

Come and join us on the course and learn to create your own beautifully designed leaves!

100 Days of Leaf Art - Week 5

 

Welcome to Week 5 of 100 Days of Leaf Arts

Overcoming Midway Challenges

By now, challenges creep in—lack of time, self-doubt, posting late or fatigue. This is the moment to push forward and to give yourself some grace. I remind myself why I started and focus on the joy of creating. 

This phase of the project requires a mental shift. I acknowledge my struggles, but I don’t let them stop me. Instead, I embrace what is happening in the moment, be it imperfections, lack of drive or needing to self-nurture and get back on track.  

I allow my art to reflect my persistence. I am doing the challenge for myself and each and every step I take will revitalize and renew my strength and you learn something new about your resilience along the way.

Creative Tip: On busy days, create something simple. Keep the habit alive, even if it's a five-minute session.  If you are posting and you need to post the next day, then don't stress about it, the process is for you, others will understand.

Encouragement: Progress over perfection. Keep going! Your dedication will pay off, and by the end of the 100 days, you'll be amazed at how much you've grown.

---

Need extra motivation? The Leaf Arts course keeps creativity flowing.

Want to learn more?

Join me in my Leaf Arts - Transforming Nature into Art course for guided lessons on leaf art techniques! 

Come and join us on the course and learn to create your own beautifully designed leaves!

100 Days of Leaf Art - Week 4

 

Week 4: Adding mark-making to Leaves

Incorporating mark-making onto the leaves adds texture and contrast. 

I experiment with different materials, such as using the wood burning tool, attaching stitched and decorated leaves together or simply adding embroidery techniques and creating leaf clusters with slow stitching.

Adding textiles also brings an exciting dimension to leaf art. The softness of fabric  with the organic fragility of leaves creates a beautiful contrast.

Creative Tip: Don't be afraid to try new techniques and experiment to get your desired look.

Encouragement: Small creative risks lead to big breakthroughs—try a new technique and see where it takes you.  You could practice on say fabric to begin with and then move onto the leaves. If something doesn’t work, repurpose it into another piece.

Want to learn more?

Join me in my Leaf Arts - Transforming Nature into Art course for guided lessons on leaf art techniques! 

Come and join us on the course and learn to create your own beautifully designed leaves!

100 Days of Leaf Art - Week 3

 

Welcome to Week 3 of the 100 Days of Leaf Arts.

Week 3: Building a Daily Creative Habit

Consistency is key to creative growth. Showing up every day - even for 10 minutes -keeps your ideas flowing and strengthens your skills. With each day over the challenge, I attempt to refine my techniques, try new stitches, and explore layering with fabric or other materials.

Weaving and Burning Dried leaf

One of the biggest challenges in any long-term project is overcoming the inner critic. Some days, it might feel like nothing is working or you don't know what to try. Other days, everything clicks into place. The key is to keep going, no matter what. I set a simple daily goal: create one small design, even if it’s just a single stitch or a minimal burned mark.

Creative Tip: Set up a simple workspace so you can create without distractions. Having materials ready makes the process smoother. Create a daily ritual around your project, light a candle, play calming music, or sip tea while working.

Encouragement: Keep going, even if your pieces don’t turn out exactly as planned. Creativity is a journey, not a destination. Your skills will improve with practice, and each piece adds to your growing body of work.

Want step-by-step guidance? My Leaf Arts course walks you through different mixed media techniques.

Want to learn more?

Join me in my Leaf Arts - Transforming Nature into Art course for guided lessons on leaf art techniques! 

Come and join us on the course and learn to create your own beautifully designed leaves!

Arts and Wellness Cafe - Creative Living

Arts and Wellness Cafe 

Welcome to the first of many Arts and Wellness Cafe.  It has been a minute and I wanted to share with you for the end of February.  Well here we are now in March and time has already passed so quickly.

In this Arts and Wellness Cafe, it truly is as if you passed by with none the frills and bells that editing can sometimes offer you.  

In this episode I share some of the projects that I have been working on and what I hope to get to over the course of the month.

I hope you are blessed and that you come back next time and spend some time in the Arts and Wellness Cafe.

Material Musings - Finishing those Fabric projects

 

Welcome to Material Musings today, I am sharing one of my fabric projects with you.  I have a range of projects that are in a stage of nearing completion and I often work on small batches at a time to get a group of them complete, and move them on to their next stage.

The projects are made up of a variety of different materials, including some that have been wax resist dyed, painted and there is some slow stitching that brings it all together.

It is a lovely relaxing time to do some slow stitching while getting some of these pieces complete, and they are now ready to go on to the next stage of their journey and I will think about what additional embellishments would look good.

Have fun with your stitched projects.

Before you go

Join us in the Art Resource Hub for the new digital download papers that are available to you for FREE to use in your creative projects.

Exhibitions in Barbados, Studio Tours, Creative Talent

I have been fortunate enough to have been to several art exhibitions over the past few weeks and also and have been one of the exhibiting artists in galleries around Barbados.  Here are a few images taken from the show

Here is some of my work, I had 3 sculptures on show

Amanda Trought and Artwork

Amanda Trought - Queens Park Gallery, Barbados

The Stilt Walkers Treasure

To Market

The Gift

Here shown with artists - Elle Rene, LisaMeart, Amanda Trought, Barbara Russell , Friend of Barbaras

************************************************************

Caribbean Fine Art Fair (CaFA)

Went to the Caribbean Fine Art Fair opening and met lots of talented artists from all over the Caribbean and the Diaspora.  You can check out the website to see the full list of participating artists HERE.

Artists - left to right, Amanda Trought, Shanon Barro Lauren B, Tavernelle Wells, Rachel Sepulvda, LisaMeArt

LisaMeArt at the CaFA Exhibition

************************************************************

Studio Tours happened the weekend of the 23 and 24th March but there is an extended exhibition taking place at the Frame Art Gallery where the work can be viewed by the 44 Artists that took part in the Artist Studio Tour

You can check out the full details of the artist by going to the website:  www.artiststudiotoursbarbados.com

Artists Studio Tours Barbados 2024 at the Frame Art & Co.’s Gallery, Millhouse Complex, St. Michael,  Tuesday to Friday 9am-4.30pm, Saturday 9am-2pm

************************************************************

Exhibition - Elle Rene, (Giselle Walker) Insight 

on until 24th April 24, Queens Park Gallery, Barbados

Artists left to right - Elle Rene, Sonia Caesar, Amanda Trought

************************************************************

Visual Arts Barbados - Monthly Online Magazine

Published by Corrie Scott 

Check out the March Magazine and some of the back issues

*******************************************************

Also check out the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Barbados - For More Information on events in Barbados

There are many ways you can support an artist, purchase their work, check out their social media, leave a comment on their profile, share their work.  Have a blessed Weekend!