Libraries, Trees, Skies and Seas – This Year so Far
While building new classes and updating the web site (see the new Create page!), I realized that I have over 450 blog posts in this blog. I have been blogging for a long time, but still, it’s a big number! While going through those posts, I realized that more than a diary, this blog is like a manual, lot’s of instructions and tips on how to start creating and keep on creating. I have no intentions to change it. However, I feel I have left out many things that have happened during the spring, so this post is a bit different.
Libraries
As I work from home, most days during this spring have been spent in the library room of our house. While creating new mini-courses for Imagine Monthly Spring 2016, I have also visited public libraries examining art history where I get most of my ideas from. This “library time” is one of the best things in my job as an art teacher. I love the feeling of control that I get from seeing all the books around me. It’s very different from browsing information on the internet. Internet is like a tube or a bunch of tubes, while libraries are like arenas, bringing more information visible at the same time.
I have not only visited the usual local libraries, located near my home, but “the library”, National Library of Finland.
I tried to capture its’ beauty to one panorama photo but it doesn’t quite show all the wonderful details the building has.
Trees
When working from home, garden views become important. Our back garden has old trees that had grown too big and they had to be cut. We hired arborists to do that and the trees looked like sculptures first, now there’s lot’s of green already.
Another tree-related event was when our apple and cherry trees blossomed. It was more beautiful than ever before, the spring had been so warm. Like creating this William Morris inspired spread for one of the mini-courses, would predict a warm weather to Finland!
Speaking of trees, I visited the center of Helsinki to see a famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama‘s instalaltion. Again, I tried to get a panorama photo of it!
Small and Surreal
Spots came to my mind already earlier in the spring when I spent a lot of time examining Hundertwasser’s surrealistic way to build big pictures from small structures.
No wonder I have not only taken panoramas, but used macro lense too. When we took care of our long spruce fence, I saw small dew drops that looked like mini worlds! Who wouldn’t want to go there and see what treasures they carry!
Taking photos is really important part of my creative process. The camera challenges me to see further than the obvious.
What a Movie!
In May, after publishing the mini-course on Claude Monet’s style, I went to a movie theatre to see a special documentary. It was called Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. Anybody who likes flowers, gardening and painting should see it!
Mid-Century Magic Box
June’s highlight was Rut Bryk’s exhibition Magic Box and the inspiration I got from it.
Earlier in the spring, I had already examined mid-century modern designs. My mini-course for Imagine Monthly Spring 2016 was about how to make your own mid-century modern art journal page.
From Expressive Skies to Seas
After examining Claude Monet’s style, I became more and more aware of how beautiful skies can be. There were some beautiful sunsets this spring.
These glowing sunsets made me think about landscapes and how expressive they can be – how we can create fantasy landscapes and use them as a tool of self-expression! Then I saw a couple of art exhibitions that had seascapes and felt drawn to them more than ever before. So the last mini-course of the spring is about seascapes.
When I make recordings for my classes, I must confess that it’s terribly exciting. It requires extreme concentration to produce the artwork in front of the camera and take care of all the little things that make a good video. Every brush stroke has to be educational as well as exact. I intend to get better and better at this, showing how you can create with less fuss and more expression!
Cosmo – My Dog
My beagle Cosmo has had health issues for the whole spring. It has been stressful and I have worried about him a lot. He is already 11 years old so I have feared for the worst. But luckily the cure was found finally and he is now happy and healthy again, enjoying the beginning of summer.
Imagine Monthly Continues
Imagine Monthly Spring 2016 closes in the end of June. Before that you can still sign up and receive all the 6 mini-courses immediately after the purchase + get access to the discussion group to see what other students have been creating! These courses will become for sale individually sometimes in July-August, but as self-study classes, without the access to the discussion group.
Imagine Monthly Fall 2016 will start in August 1st! Get 5 new mini-courses, 1 per month from August to December, sign up now!
Create Flowing Greenery!
Flowing Greenery has just been published as a part of Imagine Monthly, the on-going art journaling class. The two mini-courses are inspired by great artists. January’s mini-course Doodled Luxury was inspired by Alphonse Mucha. Flowing Greenery is inspired by another great artist from the beginning of 20th century: William Morris!
Like the previous one, Flowing Greenery is a technique-heavy course. It has great ideas especially for those who want to combine acrylics and colored pencils on the same page. You can still purchase Imagine Monthly and get immediate access to the two mini-courses already published. Sign up here!
Fun in February
Finland is definitely not full of greenery at the moment. The winter has been cold, occasionally so cold that Stella has had to wear a hand-knit sweater!
But even if I am not very fond of the winter season with cold weather, lots of snow and early darkness, I quite like February. Maybe it’s because February always seems to be full of events. My birthday is in February. I also like Valentine’s day and this year we will also have an old friend from the UK visiting us. (If you hear me pronounce some of the words more with British than Finnish accent, that’s her influence!)
With snow, there’s a lot of white in Finland at the moment. Whether it’s strawberries picked from the freezer or fresh oranges in my art journal, I crave for those colors!
Another February event – and also full of colors: Inspirational Drawing, my “the drawing class”. Whether you want to approach drawing from an artistic angle or learn more about the designer’s mindset, this class will make you enjoy drawing.
New Video Series: 14 Answers about Creating Art
To celebrate Inspirational Drawing, I am publishing a new video every day for the first two weeks of February! These short videos give focused answers to the questions that people usually ask from me. You can follow them via Facebook, via YouTube or by visiting this blog (already published: Question 1, Question 2). Feel free to share the videos and spread the word!
New Class: Imagine Monthly!
I have been preparing for the spring season and composing my newest class: Imagine Monthly. This art journaling class lasts from January to June and is slower-paced than my workshops. It also includes less tutoring, but will be perfect for developing artistic skills through regular practice, compelling techniques and new ideas. Hopefully I will see you there! (If you read this in November 2015, you might actually want to stop reading now and purchase the class, as it’s on Black Friday Sale!)
Planning a New Class is Like Creating a New Collection of Art
When I am planning a new class, I use notebooks. I have Moleskine sketchbooks where visual ideas get recorded and a green Moleskine notebook that I use for plans that need more writing. Building a class is a creative process that requires not one idea but hundreds of small ideas that are processed into one focused entity.
When planning a new class, I try to keep the collection of ideas as diverse as possible. I try to include not only technique-oriented ideas but also philosophic ideas, principles, practical problems, various motifs and styles etc. This also affects how my notebooks are filled. I try to be open to all kinds of things and write single sentences, play with different styles and break the content in modules that I can use for building new kind of combinations.
In my opinion, even most elaborate art journals should have occasional style changes and imperfect pages. It’s in the nature of art journaling to support creative process and not try to keep everything as tidy as possible. However, I have noticed that short sentences that made a perfect sense a couple of weeks ago don’t always remain useful. Same thing happens with fast sketches: some are just plain ugly!
That’s why I think it’s important to make more detailed pages too: focus on the shapes and coloring and put more effort on saving the original idea.
Like combining all kind of different ideas for one class, creating art is also a process of building new entities from smaller motifs. These motifs are like building blocks. If you have problems with your imagination, maybe you don’t have enough building blocks in your toolbox? Or if you want to take your style to a new direction, maybe you need new building blocks too?
In my opinion, best art journals include quick sketches, collections of reusable building blocks and luxorious, imaginative pages. These art journals can work as creative portfolios – notebooks that we browse with pleasure to find new ideas for the next pieces.
Imagine Monthly – Pre-Order Now!
Sign up for a 6-month art journaling journey Imagine Monthly to get new building blocks and create pages that will take your art journals to a new level! To thank you, my most active followers and customers, I have tried to make the class as affordable as I can. And if you buy the class during Black Friday weekend, including Cyber Monday (Nov 26th-30th 2015 PST), you will even get a special discount price!
Am I the Same as My Coming Book?
November has been a folk bag month. In the beginning of the month I thought I would be writing a craft pattern. The more I worked with it, the more obvious it became that it will be a book. If I knew that before I started, I would have spent the whole month just procrastinating. But now it’s too late! The book has been written. Just some Finnish translations and single word check-ups has to be done before putting it all together visually. There will be 9 chapters and over 100 photos!
Most of the days, including the weekends, have been spent on a computer. Luckily I have two dogs to take care of, so I need to take breaks!
At the same time, I am excited and worried. I am anxiously waiting to be able to see the bags that you will make using the book! At the same time I am worried if I have included all what I have to give and put it in a way that you are able to comprehend.
I have also been thinking about my connection to my business. How I could understand the difference between the work I do and me as a person? All the creative people have to deal with this someway, I think.
During a month like this, it is very difficult to remember that I am much more than a folk bag or an intuitive painter. Have you felt that you take the result of your creativity very personally? I think it’s normal behaviour as we have put so much of ourselves into our work. But at the same time, it is good to remember that we are much more, and can become much more. Luckily, for Stella, my little beagle, I am something totally different than a painting or a book!