Can you tell it was a happy day? No matter what is going on in my world, when I get painty it is always a fabulous day! These happy hands and my muse collaborated to bring me a bird-ephant with an important reminder!
I squirted a bunch of colors and closed my eyes! With my eyes closed I couldn’t worry about what color I was using or if it looked “right”. The more I painted on the the 18×24 canvas, the happier I felt.
Upon opening my eyes, the swoosh in the middle kept calling to me, so I outlined what I saw. This animal probably won’t be found in any zoo around here…
A bit of white to make my bird-ephant stand out, as if a bird-ephant wouldn’t stand out!
After doing this canvas I wished it was in my art journal…Luckily, I have a printer, so I printed out a smaller one and headed to my art journal!
I started to think about a bird-ephant as I built this quick art journal page. This bird-ephant doesn’t fit in the usual zoo circles. She doesn’t fit any one else’s definition and she doesn’t need too fit their definitions! She dares to be herself! A big thank you to my muse for giving me the reminder I needed today!
Notice the cool squares? Those are from Jessica Sporn’s new stencils over at Stencil Girl Products! Hope you are having a creative day! Want more creativity? Take a moment and check out Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day, Creative Every Day Month and One Little Word!
That’s. Just. Awesome.
Very creative. Very fun! Thanks for sharing her/him!
Jawdropping! That is just brilliant, I love it! Yes indeedy, dare to be you, whoever that is!
That is so cool! I love the idea of finger painting with your eyes shut. And copying your canvas to put in your art journal.
Rinda
That’s a brilliant message!! We should all dare to be a birdelephant which is by the way so adorable!! Good job!! Love the painty fingies too!!
Hugs Giggles
What a great story of your day, YOU ARE a birdephant and your muse spreads it’s wings and touches all of us! Thanks for the story of your painting and your journal page. Can’t wait for Jessica’s stencil to arrive, want to play with those squares! xox
Love it! Such a fun process. 🙂
Brilliant Carolyn., What a creation. Love the finger painting that’s so fantastic to do. And the Bird-Elephant is marvelous, really. LOVE IT.
lovely greet, nice weekend en big hug
Marja
What a fabulous bird-ephant, and gorgeous colours. And I just love your happy painty hands!
Hello Carolyn, I love the effects you got with this one, it’s so airy, lovely piece!
I love the happy fingers! It is really how many of us-or at least me and you-feel after getting our fingers all messy in the studio.
I don’t which I love more. Your bird ephant Or your painty hands. Love the colors and your embrace of what you saw, rather than trying to make it something recognizable. Love love it. And seeing my squares!! Thank you for using them and the shout out!! Xo
LOL brilliant fingers and loving your bird-ephant. Happy PPF, x
Very wonderful creation ~ thanks for being you ~ ( A Creative Harbor) ^_^
LOVE love this, it has such charisma and spirit -like you I am sure. What a great post! Have a happy PPF and keep on daring to dare! Ooh I like that ‘dare to dare’ that will be my mantra for tomorrow!
Your fingers made me laugh! Thanks for that! The creative animal/bird is wonderful too. Love the page! HPPF!
Love your painting, your journalpage and most of all I love seeing your process!
What a fun, paintful day. You really took it somewhere that I want to go. The word “dare” seems to be coming up a lot lately. A great page for an end of the week.. Happy Friday! Yay, for Jessica’s stencils. Can’t wait to play too.
Oh my goodness – those painty fingers just scream FUN! Then I scroll down and see the birdephant – FUN! Then I scroll down and see the journal page – FUN! and a good reminder. All in all, a FUN start to my day and inspiration for the weekend.
Very cool, Carolyn!
That is very cool AND inspiring!!!
Karenx
Carolyn, when I saw those painty hands, I just knew this would be a fun post to read. I was right. I think your finished results are fantastic. The colors are so beautiful. I can’t wait to try painting with my eyes closed.
what a really fantastic piece of art, process and birdephant-Love this!! And your happy hands and finished page make me smile all over! happy PPF and AJED!
It really takes the pressure off if you aren’t looking!
Ever since I started hanging out at your place in blogland, I have been interested in stencils. Funny, because I never gave them a second thought before. But you use them in such clever ways. And of course, that journal page is fantastic, as is the canvas.
I’ve done basically the same thing with paint, only I closed my eyes and picked three different colors of acrylics. It is fun to see the color combinations I come up with when I do that.
I think this one’s part flamingo! Love the colours too.
Fabulous painting and journal page, love the concept and colors!
What a wonderful bird elephant! So cute! Who knew there was such a creature. It does look like your world is a lot of fun. Happy PPF!
Love the painty fingers and the faces on them. Your bird elphant is gorgeous and the journal page is great love the dare.
Carolyn such a fun post! Love that you were painting blindly, trusting the process. That’s a wonderful idea to print a copy and incorporate it into your journal page. Good job! Happy PPF
Love the Birdephant! So needed your wonderful inspiration today! Paint on your fingers = happiness. Happy PPF
brilliant– i think a birdephant would make a glorious pet! love the colors, too!
Oh, I just loved this! No wonder you have happy fingers!! 🙂
Birdephant almost reminds me of a pterodactyl! I feel like a birdephant sometimes – I don’t exactly fit into one category 🙂 The colors are fantastic! Hugs, Terri
Very cool! I love following your process along and seeing how you integrated your painting into the journal page. So fun!
love the bird ephant… cool to see it emerge form that wonderful textured background and the page in your journal just extends its wonderfulness … xx
beautiful, beautiful! And the hands are so cute. Love!
Fabulous new specie and such a cool birthing process!!!
Wow!!!!!!!!!! Totally Wow!!!!!!!!!!
Haha, the fingers with the smiley faces .. love them! And your birdephant is just wonderful! You know, when I see it in close-up I can see a hunched figure in there peeking out from under his cape. Funny how we all see different things ☺
Carolyn! I am loving this page… you had me at the photo of your hands… but then I saw that funky bird-ephant and the huge smile broke into a full blown grin. Love your thinking and creativity… it’s a fantastic page!
I love your bird elephant. So wise! It is great to know who you are and what makes you happy. It makes the rest a whole lot easier.
I absolutely love seeing how this evolved, and the message that came out is fantastic. Thank you for bringing a smile to my face today. Happy PPF!
I cannot tell you what a smile this just put on my face! Incredible!
Love your birdephant, it came out great! It’s always fun and relaxing to explore new things while creating.
Have an amazing day!
Nora
Your artwork truly reflects the joy it brings you, so it makes it fun to see. Blessings!
This is wonderful, Carolyn. I love the colours, I love how vivid they are, and I love that you got all happy (as did your very happy hands!) while painting it. Great idea, too, to use your printer to reduce it down to journal page size. I love the whole idea of daring to be a bird-ephant, and having fun and just being yourself. I love the word bird-ephant – it makes me smile just to say it.
I’m still playing around with the chevron stencil, by the way. I think you’re right about becoming habit-forming (in the best possible way), and I think (actually, I know) I’m going to want some more of Julie Balzer’s stuff to play with. Thank you so much! And thank you for bringing some fun into an otherwise less-than-fun day.
Tomorrow morning, as soon as all the girls have gone home from my daughter’s birthday sleepover, I’m going to squish some paint around blindfolded! I love it!
I’m having a giveaway over at Art in the Garage to celebrate my 1000th post–hope you can stop by and leave a comment!
Your work is always so full of happiness, it makes me smile to see it.
What an inspirational post, love the ‘Birdelephant’ you have created a wonderful journal page.
I want to be a birdephant! Terah
Wondrous beautiful creation. The art journal page is very inspiring, especially adding the wordage. Very creative. Blessings, Janet PPF
Really, really fantastic, Carolyn! It’s a marvelous creation, indeed!! 🙂
wow I am currently doing a painting in what I am calling a freed up style for me. I am reading Flora Bowley so am sooooo trying to just work without expectation. This post is EXACTLY what I needed to start the day before I approach my piece again today. what an amazing experience & outcome!
cheers, dana
Such fun…so clever and creative. Love..love..love what you’ve done here!
I love the picture of your happy fingers, and the birdelephant is sensational, now I have something to aspire to. Thank you Carolyn.
Big love
AJ 🙂
What a fun post! And love the colors you used this time ♥
Oh I LOVE your artwork! So happy I found your beautiful blog at the Create with Joy linkup! Love the happy hands too. I love mixed media art and have been wanting to start an art journal. You have inspired me to get going on it. Off to subscribe now.
I really love what you did here. This is so inspiring.