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Welcome! I’m Carolyn Dube – This colorful journey is all about the freedom of play!

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The Fine Print

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Flora Bowley’s Class

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Taking a class at the Makerie with Flora Bowley was amazing- especially since I am trying to reducing my “tightness” when arting.  She had so many ideas for how to overcome that.  Thought it was perfect that her new book, Brave Intuitive Painting,  came out just as I finished the class.  You bet I bought it.  You can read about my trip to them Makerire there in this post.

This is the painting that was my neighbors.  Flora had us give 1 of our 30″ x 30″ paintings  to the person on our left.  Wow, was that stressful.  I had never experienced this in a class before.  Even with all the shock I am glad she had us do this.  It really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

 

 

 

I started adding some of my marks to the canvas.  I had no idea of where this was going.  AT ALL.

 

 

 

 

 

Still more mark making.  Guess what, no idea where it was going.  Shocking, I know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen a bird like thing in it. Outlined it and decided to add some leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding colors around the bird to make it stand out more, fiddled with the leaves, but realized, oops.  I don’t like the leaves too much.

 

 

 

 

 

Much happier with the bird with a neck injury now that I have blued in the body.  Still don’t like the leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

For some reason, I kept trying to save the leaves, redeem them in my eyes.  Not working….so obvious to me now but when I was painting it was not so clear…

 

 

 

 

 

Adding the white above the body I thought would help the bird be more defined.  I am starting to see the red blobs at the bottom as red tulips.  There were the most wonderful red tulips blooming all over Chautauqua.

 

 

 

 

At last I fave up on the ugly leaves and covered the entire bottom with red tulips- my favorite part of this painting.

 

 

 

 

 

The odd head has become the feathers on top of the head since that head was at a weird angle.  More paint and colors around the bird to define it more.  Not sure if this is a work in progress still or a finished piece.  I’ll step away from it for a while.

 

 

 

I left my comfort zone many many times during the 2 days with Flora- and I LOVED IT!  How have you been leaving your comfort zone lately?

If you have a moment stop by all the wonderful artists at Paint Party Friday!

 

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Mork and Mindy and The Makerie

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I went to Boulder, CO to the Makerie and Flora Bowley’s class.  My first stop was this house.  Recognize it?  If you do, you are showing your age.  It’s the house from Mork and Mindy, the sitcom staring Robin WIlliams.  Yes, I searched out the house.  Okay, I Googled the house and then used my Garmin to find it.  Then I went shopping on Pearl St. which is the cute little area where Mindy’s dad had his music store.

The Makerie was at Chataqua, an adorable little place from a time long ago.  Wonderful little cottages and  houses.   My room was decorated in Quaker chic and it let me soak up the sunshine and enjoy the peace the mountains radiated.  No tv. All relaxation and art.  Throughout the weekend it was clear that this was an event that came from the heart.  Ali Dejohn had  personal touches in everything from our boxed lunches to a library of art books and fresh cookies to the welcome bag of goodies.

Such magnificent mountains so close, I had to take a hike. This sign was posted at the start of the trail. I  am a city kid, so I read carefully.  I really wanted more details on how you fight back – I think my main fighting skill is hair pulling and I don’t think that would bother a mountain lion.  Just saying…

On to the art!  Flora Bowley was well worth the flight out there.  Watching her process and being able to ask her questions while painting- heavenly!  Looking forward to taking more of her classes in the future!

She not only nudged me out of my comfort zone, she sent me 3 time zones away from it.  The canvas below was one I was finally getting comfortable with when she said we were giving it away to the person next to us.  We would not be getting it back.  I received my neighbor’s canvas. I’ll share how it turned out on Friday.

Just hope I can swing the time to head out to the Makerie next year!  The event was filled with wonderful people and great conversations.  It was such a treat to be able to relax and enjoy because they had it all covered, including my pesky food allergies. A great weekend with friends and art- what could be better?

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Chaos in my Head

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Do you do morning pages from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron?  I do & I often use my morning pages in my art.  I use a handful of paint pens and just write, especially when I am feeling stuck.  That became my base for this art journal page.  Here is a video showing how I did the first part of this page.

I just started smearing paint on it making some circles.  As I looked at them I saw heads – heads full of chaos- just the way my head feels on way too many days!

 

 

 

 

 

I added a bit more paint and carved more circles into the paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chaos in my head- all things I want to do, all the things I need to do, all the things I should do, and all the things I haven’t done- were just swirling around.  I realized that what I needed to do was just breathe.  Just take a moment and breathe.  So simple and so powerful.

Got a moment?  Stop by these great blogs to relax and soak up the creativity!  Creative Every Day and Inspire Me Monday and Just Journals!

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