Find Your Joy 2025 - Excellent Class

It has been almost a year since I picked up a paint brush to do any creative visual work. That said, I'm so glad I signed up for this course. It has prodded me to 'do' rather than to 'think about doing'.

The first four weeks have passed...and seem to have flown by. The primary focus of this period has been on mindset of the artist--which has been eye-opening and exceptional! I'm really liking the revamped course that Louise Fletcher has rolled out this year. Her video presentations, instructions and demos are so much more thoughtful, clear and authentic than the last time I took FYJ. What I'm also liking is that Louise and her coaching staff are referring to the assignments as making studies--not finished paintings. That, in itself, takes a lot of the pressure off students in terms of completing work and encouraging play and exploration.

So far, I've done most of the assignments in an abstract manner sprinkled with a bit of realism. These are a couple photos of recently-completed work. As I wrap-up my commitment to pottery this week, there will be more time and energy for painting-- with FYJ25 serving as a brilliant reset!

Have you had a significant creative reset that has caused you to move from one type of artistic expression to another?

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Highjacked Blog Photo

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Life Book 15 - Week 36 Project Completed (or nearly completed)

This project went in an entirely different direction than the Life Book 2015 lesson. That's ok because we're also working on accepting those times when we move in our own direction using the lesson purely as a launching point. This piece involved experimenting with collage on a substrate (muslin covered with joint compound), followed with paint, more collage, and then the felt, fabric and beaded plant. This piece was created through a class offered by Tamara Laporte from Willing Arts Ltd. For more information, visit this link: www.willowing.org .

Pottery Play Day

Today, I threw a couple of bowls, but my ability to center was not working. It could have been partly due to the new-to-me clay I tried using. In addition, I trimmed three others. One of those three ended up being very experimental...in that I tried a version of mishima on the interior of the bowl. Mishima is a technique of painting a leather-hard vessel with an underglaze(s), then waxing the layer, and finally...carving a design in the underglaze/wax surface before the vessel is fired into bisque. I tried it, and we'll see how it comes out. Below are the five vessels of Batch #8 that I brought home today. Of them, there are two new things I tried. The stripy one was done with one base layer plus a second layer of alternating painted stripes of the base color and mulberry. The other first is where I used a base layer and added two different lip colors of different widths. Lately, I've noticed other potters getting some great results...

Cay Denise

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