Arty’s new adventure….when Tamara painted a woman with a swan headdress with a fairy on her shoulder I knew I had to paint a Canada Goose instead and then Arty, my little adopted dragon whispered it was time for a new adventure so I painted him in as well. You can read about Arty here: Arty As you can see, my little dragon is still blowing bubbles. This course has been a great journey and I am now confident enough to go off on my own as I did with this piece. It will continue with Life Book 2016 … I was granted Life Book 2016, how cool is that? Thank you Tamara.

I loved creating my muse after the exercises Andrea gave us. I have been using the sun as my symbol because it is the warmth of the sun shining on me and soothing the pain of many aches giving me the strength to follow. Here my muse is wrapped up in the warmth and heat of that sun.

For Donna’s lesson I used water colours. My figure is in repose and a bit pensive, a mood I find myself in at times as winter blows closer.

EOS, Goddess of the Dawn was my pick for this week’s lesson at Life Book 2015 with Alena. Who else when I find myself following my sun this year but dawn itself? I created her coming up through the water with her hair as part of the sunrise welcoming the warmth of the sun for another day.

When Rachael Rice created this hand with an eye and healing symbols. I wanted to do something different, something that would have meaning for me. Following the shining sun, soaring with the crows as they float on the thermals created by that sun has a lot of meaning to me. The sun is the most healing thing I know. My aches and pains feel so much better and I love the warmth it gives me and it lights up my world. My hand has a stylized sun and soaring crows with three more crows in my sky. If you look closely you can see the bumps of my arthritis and the way my fingers are slightly bending from the bumps. The sun’s heat is making the hands feel so much better so I can continue with my art.

I love how the background on this piece glows. I was never a fan of neon paints until this course. I always saw them as jarring but used along with regular acrylics they can create a glowing page. Flora makes it all look so simple and I had a great time doing these pages. I did however have to paint over my dull and greyed backgrounds and start again. I’m glad I did. Simply sitting and wondering what I can use to stamp another design with was tremendous fun and freeing. This is an exercise I want to do again and again.

This pair of ATCs was created for the Life Book 2015 swap that was set up in June. Unfortunately the person who was picked to swap with me has not answered me back although I have emailed her more than once. Here they sit and if I do not hear from her by the end of July I will send them to somebody as a swap. To me being brave is having the courage to follow the sun which shines upon us with it’s bounty, warming us and helping us grow. When we stay in the shade of our lives we begin to face inward and stop reaching. We have to spread our arms and reach out to grow.

I loved Andrea’s tutorial for last week’s Life Book lesson. It was another fun piece to do and I am finding my faces look more like they should and less overpainted. This piece used water colour for most of it and I love working with water colours, especially when using crayons. I am still following my sun and the crows are leading the way. If you have followed my blog you know I love the crows as they fly up to the sun and glide down on the thermals, trusting they will lift them lovingly as they slowly come back to earth. It can take longer than 10 minutes to come all the way down again. They are the only birds I know that love to simply play as if they have no worries in the world.