Creating in Faith - Word for the Week - Relaxed

Welcome to this weeks Creating in Faith on the podcast.  The episode number is 249 and the word for today is Relaxed.  What ways do you find to relax in your creative journey?  You need to carve out time for yourself (different lengths of time to suit your needs), and find different creative activities that will also help keep you going when you are not 'feeling it'

Listen to the episode 

You can listen to previous recordings HERE

Stay blessed and be a blessing

I am Teaching with Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2021

I'm excited to announce that I'll be teaching with Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2021. 

This year Creative JumpStart is celebrating its 10th Anniversary and is bigger than ever!  It is a one-of-a-kind online workshop hosted by Nathalie Kalbach, designed to kick your creativity into high gear in the New Year. 

Starting on January 1st 2021, each day a new video lesson will go live in the classroom. As this is the special 10th Anniversary Edition, Creative JumpStart includes 45 different mixed media artists and videos will go up through February 14th. Participants get access to 45 downloadable videos from 45 featured artists, called “JumpStarters.”  I have a fantastic class lined up for you and I will share more over the next few days!!

You'll learn an amazing amount of techniques, discover new materials, gain new ones in the giveaways from our sponsors and connect with other artists and crafters. 

Check this out!:

Head on over to Nathalie's site to learn more and sign up: https://bit.ly/CJSat2021 or Click HERE 

What you get and Cost

With Creative JumpStart 2021 you will get 45 videos - over 8 hours worth of video content - for just $49 USD if you sign up by November 30th 2020 at 11:59 pm EST. Afterwards it will be $59 USD through December 4th, 2020, and $69 USD until December 31st 2020, before it goes to its normal sale price of $89 USD on January 1st 2021.

So what are you waiting for? Jump in with us! Sign up here at:

https://bit.ly/CJSat2021 or Click HERE 

Join me on Patreon

Arts and Wellness Café - Abundance

 

What ways do you feel abundant and how would you express it in a creative way.  Come and join me in the Arts and Wellness Café

I am teaching on the BADASS Art Journal Course!

Great News I am thrilled to let you know that I am a Guest Teacher on One BADASS Art Journal 2021!  It is great to be able to teach alongside a group of AMAZING artist instructors!  

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

I have been teaching on the course for the past few years and we always have a lot of fun.  And even MORE exciting news is that I can give away a spot in this amazing creative community. 

If you have never heard of the One BADASS Art Journal course then let me tell you a bit more:

One BADASS Art Journal is designed to inspire you to create, to learn, to feel confident and provide you with the tools, techniques and inspiration needed to feel fantastic every day that you make art!  Hosted by Tiare Smith, you’ll be immersed in happiness, gratitude and fun from day one!

Registration opens on December 1, 2020, and the fun will begin February 1, 2021.  Be sure to bookmark this page HERE. so you can join the moment it goes on sale.

I am giving away a spot on One BADASS Art Journal 2021 to 1 lucky person! Entering is easy, You can get 4 opportunities to enter by:

• Joining my mailing list   For additional chances:
• Follow me on Instagram - Leave a comment on one of the posts
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel and leave a comment
• You can get also get a bonus entry HERE

Closing date for the giveaway Saturday 28th November 2020 10pm AST

Winner will be contacted via email by December 1, 2020.

One BADASS Art Journal 2021 - Click Here

 

Catapult Caribbean Creative Online - Come and Join Me

 

I recently was awarded a Catapult Caribbean Creative Online Grant and join a wide selection of amazing artists from around the Caribbean who will be sharing and showcasing their work online. In this video you get to find out a bit more about me and my work, motivations and inspiration.

I share some of the ways in which art and creativity impacts on our health and well-being both as creatives and those that either participate or who are observers.

You take a walk with me in my garden and see how the garden inspires through the use of natural materials - Moringa Wood, Sea Island Cotton and Eco Dyes. Come and check me out on some of my platforms and see some of the other work I am doing: Social Media Links Website – https://www.realityarts.co.uk Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/amandatrought Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/realityartss/ Blog - http://realityarts-creativity.blogspo... Podcast - https://anchor.fm/realityarts Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/realityarts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/realityarts/ Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/realityarts Twitter - https://twitter.com/Realityarts For more information on the CATAPULT and their grant partners you can check out their links below Instagram: CATAPULT - @catapultartscarib American Friends of Jamaica - @afjcares Kingston Creative - @kingstoncreativejm Fresh Milk Barbados - @freshmilkbarbados Facebook: American Friends of Jamaica: @theafj Kingston Creative: @kingstoncreativejm Fresh Milk Barbados: @freshmilkbarbados

Dimensional Paints & More Painted Fabrics

Here are the next two videos in the series using dimensional paints and fabric.  It is a great way to use up supplies that you just have sitting around and you end up with some great patterns on your fabric that you can use in your creative stitched projects.

Here is the first one that I shared earlier this week.

If you were nervous about painting on fabric, these short videos will help you get over that hesitation, just think about the playing aspect and have fun.

I would love to see what you come up with if you decide to play with your art supplies and fabric.

Art and Wellness Café - Wealthy and Healthy

 

Join me in the Arts and Wellness Café  What is it about your creative practice are you taking for granted?  Are you undervaluing an area or over valuing it?  If you had to drop one of the things that you were doing because it no longer served you what would it be?  

Are you holding on to things because 'you have always done it that way'  I would love you to share what you feel one of your strengths are, it sometimes helps to remind ourselves of what we have with us all the time and celebrate those strengths.

Check out previous episodes

What's Love Got to do with it

Hopeful

Painted Fabrics

Painted Fabrics

Painting Fabrics

Here is a short video in which I share with you painting on fabric. It is one of 3 short videos to get you inspired to creatively play with your supplies.

I think it is important to get a view of how things start their journey, usually at this stage as a piece of fabric that gets painted, then it is built upon.

It is great to experiment and find ways to either use the pieces as accents or main feature in a stitched piece. There are many fabrics that you can create different effects with using your art supplies.

I also have an Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and connect with others who are passionate about the arts in health too.

What else is happening:

Come and join me on Patreon 

I am Teaching on Life Book 2021

Stitched Projects - Wall Hanging

 

Here is one of my recently finished stitched wall hangings.

It is a mixed media piece that includes fabrics, beading, slow stitching and Moringa Wood that has been harvested from my garden and then wood burned.

The nature of the piece encourages reflection.  The stitching by hand encourages you to slow down, the addition of seed beads and jewelry embellishments sets the whole piece off.

I find the stitching to be very therapeutic as well as selecting the threads and the embellishments that want to be added.

The wood that is harvest from the garden has to be stripped first, then dried before it can be wood burned. This piece is available for sale and I will be adding it to my website if you would like to welcome it into your home.

Thank you for joining me, Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Arts and Wellness Cafe - Love

 

What's Love Got to Do with It? - 

Join Me in the Arts and Wellness Café 

How are you showing love to yourself in your creative walk.  We can often put our creative needs on the back burner and be everything to everyone.  Did you spend some creative time on yourself today?

The 'I'll do it tomorrow' never comes.  I find it is in those moments that lead to self nurturing are the ones that fall by the wayside for me.  I know I will feel great but I allow non important things to get in the way.  Going to the beach and swimming in the sea is something I really look forward to and it sets me up, but I don't do it often enough.

Take some time to thing about what it is that you are putting off and how it could impact in a negative way to your creativity.

I shared some of the work that I am currently doing at the moment, stitched pieces made from scraps.  They have been given a second chance to be something else.

Stitched Projects

What ever you decide make sure that at least one of your actions leads to an example of self love.

Join me on Patreon - HERE

Check out my prints HERE

Life Book 2021 Sign up HERE

Don't forget 20%discount coupon - FEELHAPPY20

Art Journal Page - Gesso, collage and doodles -

I thought that I would share the clip of this video which goes into a bit more information about the image.  I was inspired by Taster Session artist Eulalia Majia who is one of the teachers with me on the Life Book 2021. 

My version of the Dragon Fly

I love creating faces and usually see faces or scenes in most of my backgrounds, so I incorporated that and did a small version of the dragonfly that Eulalia shared.  We currently have quite a few variety of dragon fly in our garden, as it it the rainy season and that usually brings a lot of mosquitoes

This is another figure that I did but she still needs to be completed.  I hope you enjoy.

Sign up for Life Book 2021 HERE

20% off - use code FEELHAPPY20

Join me on Patreon

Arts and Wellness Café - Hopeful Extended

Arts and Wellness Café

Join me in the studio for Arts and Wellness Café where we look at more ways in which 'Hopeful' impacts on you health and well-being.  

I also share with you two short process videos so that you can look at playing with backgrounds, just using Inktense pencils, collage paper in a journal, you can apply colour to the page and use it when you only have a short time to play.

Creating pages in your Art Journal Add colours to the page and activate!

I also catch up with some of the Life Book taster sessions, it is great to be able to see what the other teachers did for their sessions and here is one that I was able to do Inspired by Eulalia Mejia creating the backgrounds, using gesso and going in a mark making on figures, the one below is what we did in the classroom.  

Here is the the one below that I was able to do, it is a lovely exercise and very therapeutic as well with all the mark making.

If you would like to register for Life Book CLICK HERE

Use the code FEELHAPPY20 to get the 20% off at the checkout, you will also get all the taster sessions as well!

Weekly Podcast - Creating in Faith - Episode 246 - Hopeful

Come and join me on my latest Episode Podcast Realityarts.

Word for today - Hopeful

This week the word for the Episode of Creating in Faith is Hopeful. 

• What is it in your creative practice are you hopeful for?  
• What new things are you trying or skills that you want to learn?  

You can hope for things but you have to take the steps to make it a reality.  I explore this in my weekly podcast and I would love you to join me.  

The artwork images are pastel paintings and prints are available for purchase HERE 

Join me on this creative journey on the podcast each week for inspiring creative episodes.

You can also find me on the following podcast platforms:

  Spotify

  Apple Podcasts

  Breaker

  Castbox

  Google Podcasts

  Overcast

  Pocket Casts

  Radio Public

  Stitcher

Art Journal Faces - Each one tells a Story

In this video on my YouTube channel I share some of the faces and scenes in my art journal.  When I work in my art journal the intention is not to initially draw a face, but to work on creative play on a background without judgement at how it should look, just reaching for supplies and allowing them to find the pages.

Once the page has got to a certain point I start to think about what I can see emerging from the background, often you can see shapes of images - you may have to turn it upside or on its side to see the shapes/figures that have formed without you specifically thinking about it. 

Each image has a story to be told and you have been given to task in telling it, the first step is finding them on the page and releasing them into the world - I will let their voices be heard.

Dancing to the Beat of Your Own Drum

She decided to dance to the beat of her own drum, not worry what others had to say or tried to say.  She no longer sought the approval of others and understood that she had been on a journey collecting the tools she needed to stand on her own two feet. 

 

A big learning curve had taken place and she was free to be who she wanted to be and live her life.  She could express herself in the way that tapped into her creative dreams, visions and goals - it truly blessed the world and herself

I hope you enjoy looking at some of the images on the video and look forward to seeing how you start to approach your Art Journal.

Experiments in the Garden

Come and join me in my Creative Garden and see some of the things that I use for my creative projects. Let me know what your getting up to in your green space.

You an also check out some of the other Gardening videos while you are there:

Join me the Creative Gardener

Distraction Art Journal

Distraction Journal

In this video that I shared I show you in 'real time' working through two art journals and creating two faces. It is a great idea to have a space where you can spend a short time in being creative.

You don't have to worry about things being finished in this journal, it just gets you being creative rather than doing other things which saps your time and makes you loose focus for the real work you want to do.

In this video that I shared I show you in 'real time' working through two art journals and creating two faces. It is a great idea to have a space where you can spend a short time in being creative.

The emphasis in my distractions journal is to give myself time to play creatively so that I can get on with other work. I usually start by adding color and marks to the page and then my 'go to' is to create faces. I don't restrict myself by having to finish it all at once, but I am able to dip in and out of the journals.

I love using the water soluble pastels/pencils or crayons as they dry quickly and come in a wide range of colors.

There are times where we put things off when you need to try and break through and complete your tasks. Very often we also have to look at the position that we are in (literally) and shake ourselves up. My distractions journal is a place where I can unwind and recharge my batteries

Supplies used

Neocolors, Derwent Inktense and Graphite Soluble. You can check out the supplies on Amazon HERE

I would love to hear how you use your art journals to help you stay focused, leave a comment below. Stay blessed and be a blessing