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  • I just couldn’t resist…

    I just couldn’t resist! There I was closing down my computer for the night, when I had this thought, “I wonder what the Swirls image would look like as a mandala?” And, being me, I couldn’t wait till tomorrow to try it out – so here are the results!

    Swirls Mandala 1

    This is the first one…

    Swirls Mandala 2

    …and this is the second one after a bit of digital blending. Do you like them?

    And now I really am going to shut the computer down and go to bed!

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    By on Sunday January 25th, 2015 at 02:00 in Artistic Ramblings, Blending Images, CED, Mandalas - Comments Off on I just couldn’t resist…

    The Great Round of Mandala

    Mandala Magic, Julie Gibbons year long Mandala course started this week, so I’ve been busy creating mandalas for the first round. The course is based on exploring the twelve archetypal stages of the great round of mandala developed by Joan Kellogg and written about by Susanne F Fincher in her book called The Mandala Workbook: A Creative Guide for Self-Exploration, Balance, and Well-Being. I had already bought the book before I signed up for Julie’s course but you really don’t need it as Julie provides an amazing wealth of information and the group members are a constant source of inspiration and encouragement.

    The Void

    These are two of the mandalas I made for this stage of the journey. The mandala on the left represents the Void – a place to rest in the darkness. The mandala on the right draws on traditional wisdom drawn from many sources in which the spiders web is used to represent the darkness and safety of the womb.

    3D Swirls

    This next image is a blend of acrylic prints digitally altered to create a 3D effect.

    Battle

    And this final image, created with acrylic paint using various palette knives, reminds me of an ancient battle scene. I can see lots of fighting figures in it – can you?

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    By on Sunday January 25th, 2015 at 00:35 in Art Therapy, Artistic Ramblings, Blending Images, CED, Digital Art, Mandalas - Comments Off on The Great Round of Mandala

    “One Man’s Trash…”

    You’ve probably heard the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. This latest mandala is made almost entirely from “one man’s trash”!

    Original "Trash" Mandala

    One of my workplaces have a large laser cutter which collects quantities of leftover bits from the work that people do on it. This mandala is created from some of those leftover bits, stuck to a circle cut from an old cardboard box with pva glue.

    Digitally Coloured "Trash" Mandala

    I couldn’t decide whether to leave it the original colour, or whether to paint it, so I tried adding some digital colour to help me make up my mind.

    Hand Painted "Trash" Mandala

    I decided to paint it and this is the result. Which do you like the best?

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    By on Wednesday January 14th, 2015 at 01:02 in Artistic Ramblings, CED, Mandalas - Comments Off on “One Man’s Trash…”

    Playing with Mandalas

    Thinking about mandalas, I created this hand drawn one in my small journal the other day.

    Playing with Mandalas

    But as usual, I couldn’t just leave it at that. I had to play with it once I’d scanned it. I started off by adding some ‘twirl’, then blended the two together to come up with the final version.

    Temperature Changes

    Once in the blending mode, I find it’s difficult to stop! This image is a blend of two paintings to which I added the Maslow quotation.

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    By on Sunday January 11th, 2015 at 22:11 in Artistic Ramblings, Blending Images, CED, Digital Art, Mandalas, Quotations - Comments Off on Playing with Mandalas

    Happy New Year!

    Happy New Year to you all!

    December flew past, taken up with finishing my dissertation followed by a really relaxing family Christmas – it seems like ages since I last posted. But I have been busy creating!

    It’s become a habit over the last few years to use this workbook from Susannah Conway to review the passing year and look forward to the New Year, including choosing a word to represent the coming year. This year I chose ‘Emergence’ as my word and placed it in the mandala from the workbook.

    Emergence

    After I uploaded it, I just couldn’t resist pushing the invert button to see what happened. I’m not sure if I like it. What do you think?

    Emergence inverted

    A couple of days ago, I was inspired to create this large painting by these words from Leonard Cohen‘s song ‘Anthem’:

    “…There is a crack, a crack in everything
    That’s how the light gets in.”

    Light Crack

    Today, I couldn’t resist the call of a ball of yarn in my supply box. It was calling to be made into a doll. This is the result!

    Wound Up

    I devised this method of creating a doll from yarn last month when I was playing with a few scraps laying on my desk one evening. With the exception of the head, which was stuffed with a small ball of tissue to give it shape, the entire doll is made from wool wound round on itself. This is the original that I made last month.

    Yarn Doll

    They’re so simple to make, and have endless possibilities from a therapeutic point of view which I’m working on developing at the moment.

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    By on Tuesday January 6th, 2015 at 21:03 in Art Therapy, Artistic Ramblings, CED, Dolls - Comments Off on Happy New Year!

    Last Mandala

    I’ve just finished the last mandala from Julie Gibbon’s Mandala Magic course

    Mandala 3

    I’d seen these ‘Hamsa’ symbols before, but never knew what they meant. Apparently if the hand is upright it represents protection against the ‘evil eye’; if it is inverted, it represents God’s goodness and blessings. I enjoyed creating it, and I love the bright inktense colours!

    5 Days of Mandala Magic

    Then I put all the mandalas together – as you can see, my favourite is the collage mandala. What’s yours?

    I’ve just signed up for Julie’s year long course called Mandala Magic starting in January. I’m really looking forward to it! – check it out.

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    By on Sunday November 30th, 2014 at 21:41 in Artistic Ramblings, CED, Mandalas - Comments Off on Last Mandala

    Mandala Magic

    Just a quick post to show you my second mandala created on Julie Gibbon’s Mandala Magic Course.

    Intention Mandala

    It’s called an Intention Mandala, and I really enjoyed creating it. It has a hidden layer behind the collage – powerful stuff! I’m working on number three now. Watch this space!

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    By on Monday November 24th, 2014 at 00:59 in Artistic Ramblings, CED, collage, Mandalas - Comments Off on Mandala Magic

    Creativity Rocks!

    Creativity rocks! I’ve been so busy writing my dissertation that I haven’t had time to do anything else. But I took a couple of days off last week and did a bit of catching up!

    All Wrapped Up

    A couple of weeks ago we had our dissertation tutorials and as part of the tutorial, our group were asked to create an image to represent our finished dissertation. I knew I had to create a doll, but as we didn’t have much time for the art work I knew she had to be simple. So I made a wrapped pipe cleaner doll and called her “All wrapped up with a feather in her cap!” Do you like her?

    Water Splash Blend

    This image started out as a photograph of the kitchen sink with splashes of water all over it. Then I blended a painting into it – et voilá!

    Paint Rings Blend

    This one is a blend of two paintings created during a recent painting workshop.

    Mandala 1

    I’ve been fascinated by mandalas for a long time as any of you who have followed my blog or flickr stream will know. So when I saw Julie Gibbons was running a five day free course, I just had to sign up and play along. I must say, the course is one of the most comprehensive mandala courses I have ever seen and I am learning so much. Thank you Julie. This is my first mandala created on day two using a pencil drawn grid, neocolour crayons and watercolour pencils.

    Fragmented Mandala

    And I just couldn’t resist playing digital with the mandala after I scanned it!

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    By on Friday November 21st, 2014 at 23:21 in Artistic Ramblings, Blending Images, CED, Digital Art, Dolls, Mandalas - Comments Off on Creativity Rocks!

    Old Photo Rummaging!

    The other day, while rummaging through my photo files looking for an old remembered image, I came across three images which caught my attention: a bag of grapes, a string sculpture, and some old seed heads.

    They looked like they might work well together…

    Fragmented Seed Heads 1

    …so I just had to try them out with some digital blending! I love the 3D effect of this one…

    Fragmented Seed Heads 2

    …and the mosaic effect on this one. But as usual I can’t decide which one I like the best. How about you?

    Finally – I just couldn’t resist playing with this flower!

    Grunge Flower

    No blending on this one, just a few digital adjustment layers, some grunge brushes and a layer mask. What do you think?

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    By on Sunday September 14th, 2014 at 00:47 in Artistic Ramblings, Blending Images, CED, Digital Art, Morning Pages Daily Art Practice - Comments Off on Old Photo Rummaging!

    Reflections and Light

    It all started with a piece of white paper and four bottles of ready mix poster paint in blue, yellow, purple and fuscia pink…

    Reflections Original

    …I squirted the paint into the paper, folded it in half, and squigged it everywhere! This photo was taken when it was all gleaming and wet. As soon as it was uploaded to the computer, I just couldn’t resist playing…

    Reflected Grunge

    …and this was the first result created using the Snapseed app. I think it makes it look like a piece of beaten up metal. What do you think?

    Next came the serious photoshop stuff…

    Looking For The Light

    …and this is what evolved! I called it “Looking for the Light”. You’ll have to look at the large image to see the light at the end of the tunnel which reflects the meaning of this image.

    Which one do you like best?

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    By on Saturday September 6th, 2014 at 21:47 in Artistic Ramblings, Blending Images, CED, Digital Art, messy craft, Morning Pages Daily Art Practice - Comments Off on Reflections and Light