Blogging Along With Effy!

I’ve been thinking for a while that it was time I started blogging again – its hard to believe that its over a year since I last wrote a post – so when I saw Effy’s invitation to blog along with her during September, I thought it would be the perfect time to re-start my blogging practice!

So I’m kicking off today with some of my digital playing. I began with the cute insect I spotted on the path while walking in our local park. I thought he’d look happier if I added him to a flower, so I removed the path and added him to the pink flower. Then I thought I’d like to play with him as a shape, and created the mandala at the bottom of the picture. I really like how that turned out – what do you think?

Spirals and Labyrinths!

Stage three of the great round of mandala, Labyrinth/Spiral, is one where I feel completely at home! I have loved every moment of this month. I haven’t got round to creating a physical dreamcatcher yet…

…but I started the month by creating this image of one using Derwent Intense watercolour pencils.

I am still waiting for the experience of walking a physical labyrinth, but in the meantime I had great fun creating this hand drawn one and then walking my finger round its paths.

Spirals came next, and I’ve been having so much fun with these. This one was created using ready-mix paint…

…and I made this one by weaving some very thick wool in a spiral. It is absolutely mesmerising if you spin it! That’s all for now, but I’ll try not to leave it so long before I post the next instalment!

Into the Bliss!

I’ve just realised how long it is since I posted anything online. I’ve been busy keeping up with Julie’s Mandala Magic classes, I just haven’t got round to posting anything online. So here’s the first instalment – moving on from the Void to the Bliss…

… I created this page of symbols that are important in my life right now.

I found the bliss quite a difficult stage to be in, and had trouble with the shaving foam technique that Julie recommended. After struggling for a while, I gave up and decided to use a mixture of other watery techniques to create the mandalas on this next image.

I quite enjoyed making this page which has a background made from patterned tissue paper covered in water activated neocolour crayons. The free birth chart I used comes from the website astro.com. To complete the spread, I handwrote the poem ‘For A New Beginning’ by John O’Donohue.

Slightly apart from making mandalas, I’ve been playing with paint in a very free way and have taken a few of those images and created this blended mandala. Keep watching for the next instalment!

Over Half Way!

We’re over halfway through the void now, and the mandalas are still flowing. Journalling with words doesn’t come easily to me – I prefer to express my thoughts in visual ways…

…so I’ve been up in my studio for a while today responding to my thoughts. This is my first completed mandala painted with very wet acrylic paint in my mandala journal.

There are two more in process…

…this one is made with recycled cardboard, acrylic paint and crackle paint – the crackle paint is taking a long time to dry…

…and this one is made from a cardboard disc and moulding paste. It too is in the process of drying, and I will be painting it once the moulding paste has properly hardened. I’ll post more pictures of these when they’re finished.

Mandala Response

I’d been thinking about the void, and the cycle of the year and the new life germinating in the darkness…

…I picked up some bottles of ready mix paint and a paint scraper, and created this mandala response.

Journey Through the Void

In between updating my website, creating mandalas and starting work on my next uni assignment, Ive been just a little bit busy – but the website and mandalas have been great fun to do!

Still travelling through the void, I made this ‘universe void’ mandala. While I was making it, I had a slight accident with my bottle of white acrylic paint. I accidentally knocked it over, spilling white paint all over my desk. Not being one to see anything go to waste, I quickly opened up another journal and used a paint brush to mop up the paint.

This is the result – a white, void mandala. I love the textures made by the thick ridges of paint!

This last mandala was inspired by a song called ‘The Dark’ by Mary Grigolia.

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!

This is the first one…

…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!

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.

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.

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

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?

“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”!

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.

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.

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

Playing with Mandalas

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

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.

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.