Creating Grace

After attending Squam by the Sea . . .
my creative heart and mind have been swirling with ideas of what I wanted to accomplish ... I so don't want to lose that magical feeling that came with Squam!  I learned so much about myself as an artist, a person and a creative soul that it is still hard to put into words even two weeks later!  The door to my heart was opened and I am leaping through it.

So my first project was to finish my small collage piece I had started in Sarah Ahearn Bellemare's Mix it up class.  I  had painted the gesso board with my own mixture of sea colors using Golden Heavy Body Acrylics at Squam;  I wanted it to represent the beautiful ocean I saw every moment in the Outer Banks.   I  then used the picture of myself as a little girl which I had created with a technique called image transfer.  I had never tried this technique and learned Sarah's way;  she was easy to understand and she was very sharing of her techniques as well!  I wasn't able to finish my piece in class and wanted to finish it when I came home.  It was a fun little piece and everything I put in the piece had to do with "little donna lee" my inner child who came out to play at Squam.  What an adventure that was!  Here it is two weeks later and I am still feeling excited and moved from that entire experience!'

"At Squam by the Sea her heart spilled open wide"

I have been reading a book "Taking Flight" by Kelly Rae Roberts for quite sometime now.  I pick it up and I put it down;  read another book and come back to it.  Her link is here on my website;  I encourage you to read her book, she is quite an encourager and is so willing to share her inspired techniques with you.  She inspires the artist in all of us. 

So here is my first attempt to creating a female character with mixed collage.  I am happy with my results and I really enjoyed the process.  There were definitely lots of creative steps to get there and I decided to name her Grace.  Just wanted to share with you...can't wait to start another one.

Girlie #1

So Grace is a work in progress much like me and my artistic journey!  Yes she can be tweeked and refined, but I kinda like her just the way she is!  I am evolving as an artist and I enjoy the quiet and special time I spend in my studio.  Thank you Squam, for teaching me that it is okay to just play and relax in my artistic playtime.

  It is never about the finished product but about the journey it took to get there!