Blue jay day...

It's dry and cool-ish this morning out on the lanai. 

That meant morning meditation was headed outside today.

I even opened the slider a bit so my furry friends could join me. Pumpkin, the meditation cat, settled in right away! 

The blue jays, butterflies, dragonflies, bright blue sky and the gentle breezes helped me ignore the drone of the ac units near by.

All decked out in my new feather earrings I made for myself, I started the day off right. 

Headed in to the studio for awhile. Still being totally inspired by Tracy Verdugo's Paint Mojo e course. 

This butterfly flew into being yesterday after a mono printing exercise. 

Happy bluejay morning, Beautiful Ones! 

September in the Queen of Arts Studio and a L,C&C Giveaway

Wow !

I can’t believe how fast time is going ?

Don’t you feel like the days are just flying by ?

Here we are the 22nd of September already !

Only 18 days until I turn 50…

Yikers!

But more about that later…

September has been all about the Tracy Verdugo Paint Mojo E-Course for me.

This is a great class in creativity and in intuitive painting.

Tracy is so very generous and dedicated to giving her students a positive and rich experience. I have been totally immersed in the activities and in the creative flow that Tracy has inspired. Loving it !

One thing we are doing is gradually adding layers to a canvas,

a bit at a time, over the six week class.

   

My blank 24X24” canvas went from white to this with symbols and marks…  to this with the addition of a bit of pastel color

to this with the washes of warm and cool colors.

In week three, we went in deeper and added more layers…

And this is where my work in progress piece is now. Loving that purple ! 

Three more weeks of layers to go !

Another thing I love about Tracy’s class is that she encourages you to see everything as a potential art piece.

Everything including the palettes that you use to spread your paint on.

These two pieces are from watercolor paper that was used as a palette and the shapes left behind inspired the bird and the angel to emerge.

I am excited to see what else will develop as I continue this Paint Mojo journey for the next few weeks !

 

I have also been continuing my 50 Days for Love, Compassion and Connection leading up to my 50th birthday.

I have to admit that my crappy accounting skills took over and I don’t have an exact count of how many acts of L,C&C I deliberately committed.   

I will say though, that when you make this intention to spread the love, opportunities arise all the time and when you share what you have done, other people get inspired to join in. I really love that part of the journey!

It becomes a lovely love ripple flowing out from that centering intention.

Some of the things I’ve done include providing food and water for a homeless person I passed in my car one day,

paying the entry fee at Fort DeSoto state park for the car behind us,

sending out surprise love notes and thank you cards to some dear ones,

donating some time and some Rock My World rocks to some fund raising  for causes close to my heart,

and working on looking people in the eye and making a genuine connection with a smile whenever I can.

This experience has been wonderful for me. I definitely see how life can feel much more positive when you make kindness and connection a focus in your world!

And now :

A 50 DAYS OF LOVE, COMPASSION AND KINDNESS GIVEAWAY!!!

I will giveaway 5 bags of 13 Rock My World rocks to the first 5 people who comment here.

But instead of sending the bags to the winners, I will send them out to the person of their choice with a little note of love and appreciation,

To win, leave a comment on this post with the first name of the person you would like to receive the Love Compassion and Connection rocks and what you would like the love note to say. Also include your email and  I will email you to get the address of your little gift recipient.

I will be sending the rocks out by the end of this week.

Thanks for reading through this long post !

Sending big love out there to all of you !

Pass it on… ;)

Haiku My Heart–What Are You Building ?

What are you building ?

Does it reflect your Deep Soul ?

If not, make it so.

 

*******************

So I have a few visitors in my Art Journal today.

One is a teacher of mine who I was lucky enough to spend two days with last fall at Art Is You in Stamford, CT.

Tracy Verdugo, who is from Australia, teaches intuitive painting and I feel her influence in this piece in at least two ways.

First off, the elephant.

Tracy has been painting gorgeous elephants in her work lately and when I saw this red blob of ink appear on the page, with its curled trunk in place, that is what came to mind immediately.

Tracy also just happened to share this link this morning on her FB page.

She was pondering this same question “What are you building?”. That question seems to have inspired this whole piece, though it was the last thing I added with alphabet stamps.

The second visitor has to do with the elephant as well.

Today, I welcomed Ganesh, the Remover of Obstacles onto my page.

image from here

image from here

 

Ganesh’s visit makes a lot sense to me.

I am in a kind of limbo land for quite a few things in my life right now.

Focusing on the larger picture and what kind of life I want to be building, as well as staying in a place of great gratitude for what I have right now,

seems to be the work of this time.

I am up for it !

And having a bit of Ganesh’s help sure can’t hurt !

 

****************

What are you building today, Beautiful Ones ?

I hope it is a happy Friday for you !

 

 

I believe our hostess, Rebecca is away this week, but be sure to visit recuerda mi corzaon for more haiku love soon.

Sunday, inside and out.

It’s a good morning…

inside

and out !

Look what came from inside…

out last night.

Wowza.

I created this.

Tracy Verdugo inspired the style and gave me the stepping stones

but I think it is all me.

I am loving intuitive painting very much right now.

And on Tuesday, I will have my friend Lois here at my house,

and we will let the intuitive creators inside of us out to play!

Enjoy the ins and outs of this sweet Sunday, Beautiful Ones.

Big Love !

My Joy of Many Colors

From my Joy List this week…

Maple orange in my back yard.

My last orange rose and some yellow orange friends (which may or may not be from my neighbor’s garden), saved from the hard frost and placed in my favorite turquoise vase.

This kooky but cute doll who is a new little happy in my studio.

She is a creation of artist Linda Willis, who taught and sold her colorful, whimsical and perfectly off the wall art at Art is You. I had to have this Mini-Zombie doll. She called to me. My mom had given me $$ to get myself a treat at the Art Trunk show for my birthday,

and this little one, now named Little Heart Walking,

and her beautiful treasure keeper bag were my little happies of choice !!!

Thanks, Linda, and thanks so much, Mommy !

There is some other colorful joy in the studio this week.

I created this painting on a 9 X12 piece of watercolor paper using the techniques I learned in Tracy Verdugo’s “Sacred Marks” class.

It is kind of crazy and frenetic in some ways, but then again, so is my brain some days !

There are many sweet spots that grab me though…

Like this “Cat Creature”.

Or this “Bird Nose Beast”.

It even has little landscapes in it, I think…

“trees against a red sky”

“throw a rock in the pond”

I really like this piece and I love this style of intuitive painting, using symbols that mean something to me, that are my artistic language of sorts, and building layers upon layers by defining sweet spots.

I am excited to do more work in this style! I think my creative soul has some things to express this way !

I have a few have-to’s to work on as well. Momma’s gotta keep her art supply fund liquid !

But these have-to’s are colorful joys too.

I am making these “Moment of Quiet” boxes as holiday gifts for my mom’s office employees from the big boss’s wife.

Open the tiny decorated box and…

have a moment of quiet breath…

ahhhh…

Sweet gifties, no ?

I hope your week is full of colorful little happies and strong, solid joys, Beautiful Ones.

Love and light to you !

For more joy, join the joyful gang at Meri’s Musings.