Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge - Day 5 - Shiny

Today's challenge was to capture the word "shiny". I didn't go far today because I had a busy day with friends at a workshop dyeing paper with Indigo ink. I found "shiny" in my own back yard where I have some small circular mirrors (called Dancing Mirrors) hanging to reflect the light as they spin in the wind. Beautiful all year round when they reflect on the snow, or on the grass and flowers. Even on some dull days they pick up light and reflect it around. I had saved one of the broken circle mirrors so I've added bits of it to the journal page painted with metallic silver, copper, and Color Shift Red - all shiny! I added a piece about the history of mirrors from an old book, and two quotes that found inspiring: "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." (Edith Wharton); and, "You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul." (George Bernard Shaw)

Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge, Day 4 - Mailbox

Quick journal page and photo today for the prompt "Mailbox". I'm going to an Indigo dyeing workshop today, and have my brother visiting for the weekend so will probably not have time to work on a more detailed page. The photo is my mailbox with yesterdays "junk" mail. I can't believe how much trash I get every day… For this prompt I tore a piece from each bit in my mailbox and pasted it on a black gessoed page. For those of you familiar with Zentangle, I also added a Bijou (snail) since I have a concrete one on my porch.

Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge: Day #3 - Fence

Day 3 of the Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge and the theme is "Fence". When I went for my walk today - focusing on fences, there were many observations. First of all, I was surprised at how few fences, particularly interesting ones, there are on this particular route in Toronto. Second, I was surprised at how many fences are built so you can't actually see anything of what's behind them. I grew up with white picket fences which are low and have spaces between the slats, so one can see over and through. There are an awful lot of fences built tightly and high and I was not happy that I couldn't see what was going on behind them. My third observation was that I never realized that I hadn't ever spent much time noticing fences. this cedar rail fence caught my eye because we used to have some at the old cottage - a bit of country in the city. My way of processing these inspirations is evolving, and right now I'm thinking I need to go for my walk, take photo's related to the prompt, then I want to try to do an art journal page each day, inspired by the prompt, and photo. The thing is, I want to loosen up and try to accomplish an inspired journal page, but use a minimum amount of time, concentrating on various media. I want to let go of self criticism and just follow my impulse and try to portray what I have captured from the camera, onto the page. I don't love this page, but I am happy with my experiment with torn paper. And it was fun.

Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge - Day #2 - Transportation

My preferred way of getting around is to walk if I can. Every day I try to go for at least a 40 minute walk and often do much more. I like to look at houses and gardens, or the beach, or shops. I don't listen to music while I walk. I didn't take a photo today because I wanted to be inspired by my walk and go home to play with paint and stencils and "things", and add to the journal I started at the Color Crush workshop with Nathalie and Birgit. On this page I tried to capture the grey/blue feeling of the overcast sky and the cold Lake Ontario water. The usually beautiful beach is under a lot of water and much damage has been done. On my walk though, I did see some butterflies, birds, and interesting circular architecture. The feet are a very rough try at stamp carving (I wasn't walking in bare feet yet - it's still too cold)…

Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge - #1 - Home

I'm doing a 30 day challenge called Artful Adventures. Day one is to take a photo and/or do some artwork inspired by the word "Home". This is a photo of an area I have set up each year in the back yard. My "Merlin" carved wood overlooks my frog's driftwood and rock garden. I'm going to add a second picture - my art journal picture resulting from this photo. I started a journal in a workshop with Nathalie and Birgit (Color Crush) and want to continue to fill the blank pages with this challenge.

Zentangle Challenge #312 - Coffee, Tea or Me

I used a splash of fuchsia ink, then blew through a straw to get my "stain" string for this week's Zentangle Challenge. (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca) I have a few other stained tiles (my favourite being wine stains), so I may just continue and do more… (My apologies in advance for not commenting on posts using Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, or several others that I can't access without an account or using a password please know that I am looking at your work and enjoying it.)

Zentangle Challenge #311 - Circle Square String Theory

I've been absent from Laura's Diva Challenge (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca) for a few weeks, only because I've been concentrating on other things. I miss it and am going to try to make it a priority to do and comment on each week's challenge. This week's challenge is to use circles and squares as a string, and to me it's like going back to basics - this is often where I go when I'm stuck. I find that once I've done a string of geometric shapes, it's much easier for me to just fill in the shapes without much preplanning. It's very Zen for me and I'm often surprised at the result.