home.

My family travelled away for Christmas to be with extended family. It was only a few hours away from Auckland, on the east coast of the North Island and near the ocean. Always a favourite place to be. 

As I walked along the very long shoreline taking in the fresh sea air and feeling the cool water licking at my feet, my #2024_creativegrowth theme suddenly came to me. 

It’s a simple one – Home. Home to me is my local surroundings, being at home, feeling home, considering my region, city or country, home. I guess it really is a feeling of belonging and a sense of where I am and feeling I am Home. I haven’t always felt like this. Home for a period as a child wasn’t always a refuge for me, but making my own home and lifestyle has made me appreciate Home so much more. I’ve realised too that it’s ok that I do not have to have a desire to explore the world physically.

So many people across the world have lost homes in 2023 to war, wild weather and economic hardship, so my appreciation of Home is amplified.

I found these quotes about Home which clicked with me. What resonates for you? 

“I climb, I backtrack, I float. I ramble my way home”
Mary Oliver (1998). “West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems”, p.63, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“Home is the nicest word there is.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder. “Little house on the prairie”.

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” — Maya Angelou.

 “How does it feel to be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?” — Bob Dylan.

“The traveler can get the greatest joy of travel even without going to the mountains, by staying at home and watching and going about the field to watch a sailing cloud, or a dog, or a hedge, or a lonely tree.” — Lin Yutang.

“We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.” – Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness.

If you feel this theme has meaning for you, I would love you to join in and post your images that convey Home to you using the Instagram hashtag, #2024_creativegrowth.

Do please tag me @adiandbert otherwise I may not be able to see your recent posting given the changes in the way posts in hashtags now appear on the app. This way, I can also share your images in Stories as I am alerted to them.

Here’s wishing for a more peaceful 2024 and for the basic right of a Home to be restored to so many displaced people. 

I am giving away an acrylic art work (20cm diameter) below, created in late 2022 called ‘Rangitoto dreaming’. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that I often post videos or photos in Stories of Rangitoto island, located off Auckland’s east coast, as it conveys a special sense of place for me.

DM me on Insta if you’d like it and in exchange I’d appreciate if you donate to Save the Children – whatever you can afford, and I will mail the 20cm in diameter, original acrylic art work (on a canvas panel) to you.

Here’s wishing you a creative 2024 and to not take your freedom and safe places for granted. Create, create, create. As much as you can. 

Claudia x
Home, January 2024

Shapeshifting – loosening the line

I ran a short tutorial called ‘Shapeshifters’ as a contribution to the inspirational sharing of ideas and techniques within a generous online art community of which I’m part.

The purpose of this exercise is something I discovered in my recent 100 days project and which helped me loosen up my tight drawing lines. It helped me shift shapes and render more interesting lines to my drawings. So here’s the technique for you to try for yourself.

Materials check in

Charcoal stick

Artist ‘s Eraser

Water-based paint – water colours or gouache or inks-  something that dries quickly ( this technique works with acrylics too)

Hot pressed paper is best,  180 gsm

Objects to draw for example-  shells, insects, flowers, cups, pots etc, 3- 4 objects

Black pen or hard pencil 

Paper towel or something to blot the paint you use, or a hairdryer to dry your work.

Work fast and loose, and spread out your drawings all across the page.

Step 1: Time 7 mins 

Choose an object and take your charcoal stick and start drawing the shape. You can draw detail for this part of the exercise, but don’t spend too much time doing it. Create multiple versions over the page or on top of each image. Use thin and thick lines. Turn your object and page around to get different angles and perspectives after each drawing.

Step 2: Time 7 mins 

Now take some paints and start ‘colouring’ your objects. Paint can be inside or outside the lines, but leave some charcoal lines visible so you don’t cover all the charcoal.

Step 3: Time 10 mins 

Repeat the previous steps 1 and 2 on multiple pieces of paper. This means you can let some dry while you draw and paint on new sheets. Then you’re either going to blot the paint dry, give it a few minutes to dry, or use a hair dryer to speed up the drying. Better still, go and make a cup of tea while you wait for your painting to dry 😉

Step 4: Time 5 mins 

When the paint is dry, start erasing back the charcoal in places to see what effect it leaves.

Step 5: Time 10 mins 

You can now add back detail with pen or pencil and/ or draw other objects over these drawings.

Below are some examples – before (with charcoal) and after (charcoal edited out and some new lines added).

I find this technique helps to soften the lines. If you feel it’s taken away too much charcoal, you can always go back and add more lines.

I discovered it also works with ochre conte chalk and acrylic paint.

Let me know how you found this exercise.

What have you discovered? Has it made some interesting lines? Does it help you think of the negative space? How did your paper thickness cope with the erasing? Did you find you needed to add more lines back to add detail? Is it something you could use?

And finally, what helps you loosen your lines? I’d love to hear your tips.

Keep on creating! Until next time.

Claudia x

100 days project … what I learnt, and a little giveaway

I recently completed the hundred days project Scotland 2023. Whenever I do this project, I try to do something different. Now, I know I took the easy route and made my theme ‘what will be will be.’ The advantage of this is that it gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do, including portrait sketch, paint, print and even write a poem.

What I learnt is this 

1. Having an art practice every day, is difficult, but having a challenge to focus on, gives you permission and informs those around you that you have a good excuse to do art every day.
2. Having a topic that included anything, gave me lots of scope to play.
3. I found it difficult to create from my imagination, and had to draw a scene or object/s. 
4. Trying to abstract my drawn objects, was really difficult, I’m so literal in my approach. How could I loosen up more?
5. When you draw in public people seem to think they can look at what you’re doing (not sure how I feel about that?).
6. When I didn’t get precious over something, it turned out better.
7. I missed not being able to follow chronological posts to the 100 days hashtag feed (or any for that matter!), to interact more with others doing the challenge. (What’s that about, Instagram?)

Well, as you can imagine, I have quite a few pieces now, so am running a giveaway (with a few T’s and C’s).

I have selected some of the images that were the most popular to give away. These are on my feed with the post starting ‘100 days giveaway’ and 5 numbered pieces.

But here’s the thing.

I live at the bottom of the planet and postage costs have become pretty expensive. So what I suggest, is this.

I will post five images of 5 pieces on my Instagram feed that I am giving away and that I will mail. What I’d like from you in return, is the following:

1. DM me the number of the image you would like and and your address. 
2. In exchange, please indicate a charity to which you would like to pledge a donation. The amount to pledge is your choice.

These are the charities I would appreciate you contribute towards:

1. International Committee of the Red Cross https://www.icrc.org/en
2. Women for Women International https://www.womenforwomen.org
3. Birdlife International https://www.birdlife.org/
4. Save the Children https://www.savethechildren.org.au/ ( or your local site)

If I get a few queries for the same image, I will do a lucky draw to select the recipient.

Hope this sits well with you.

Have a great October and stay creative!
Claudia x

This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.

Moving ‘to do’s’ into ‘ta da’s’

A quick review of my art goals set up back in January reminded me of some of the goals I wanted to focus on this year.  And yes, I have to confess, I haven’t looked at them until now!

Also, my word for the year is ‘heart’ and it made me reflect that that’s exactly what I want my art to evoke. Heart, feeling, an emotion, something that stirs and brings joy, mystery or soul. 

One of the ways to help achieve this I feel is to loosen up my drawing and painting style. I am still learning how to draw and get proportions correct and still honing my observational skills. Drawing is a skill one can learn, but bringing heart or emotion into a drawing I find, is much harder. I am ready now to try to focus on working on this aspect.

I tried an exercise which I’m sure isn’t original, but working through it has helped and given me ideas to further explore this concept.

So I have put it together as a recipe for you to try out. (The good news is this recipe has no calories. In fact, you will only burn calories making this ‘dish’. 😉 ) (And thanks to my friend Ann Davis @annld60 for the recipe idea!)

A loosening up exercise soufflé

Ingredients 

an object to draw 

1 sheet of drawing paper 

1 sheet of tracing paper (could be the same size as the drawing paper)

Any of these drawing tools – Pencil, ink-pen, coloured crayons or pastels 

Recipe

Step 1. On a sheet of drawing paper start a blind contour drawing with a pen or tool of dark colour and draw the object without looking at your drawing. Try to use whole arm movements and long strokes, and try to not lift the pencil from the page. 3-5 mins

Step 2. On the piece of tracing paper (preferably the same size as your drawing paper), using another drawing tool, draw the object by observing it more closely. Feel free to look at your drawing. 5-10 mins

Step 3. Now overlay the tracing paper on the contour drawing and using a contrasting colour, look for ways to trace the contour drawing and bring parts – or all- of the contour drawing into your tracing paper drawing. 

What did you find happened?

Did it add more interest to your drawing? 

Here’s my attempt, the first is the blind contour and the second is the tracing paper with some parts of the contour traced through.

Variations of this exercise could be using one sheet of paper and doing a drawing alongside a contour, or a blind contour over an existing  more detailed drawing. 

Here are some examples.

A loosening up exercise with the contour done first, adds a charming accompaniment to the more detailed drawing done alongside afterwards, as Barbara shows below. @mater-et-magistra

Julie chose to use the contour drawing as a shadow to her ‘seeing studied’ drawing using a charcoal medium. 
Julie Avisar @julie.avisar / https://www.julieavisar.com

As you can see there are many options for this exercise and is definitely one I plan on using in my practice to help me loosen up my style and lift my drawing.

Let me know below if the soufflé exercise helped to lift your drawing.

Some questions you could use to help reflect on how things are going with your art goals or rethink your art focus include

1. What was a successful art practice I’ve completed in the last 3 months? What made it successful?
2. What did I try that didn’t work? Why didn’t it work?
3. What did I learn from this?
4. Revising my goals and being keen to achieve them, what is holding me back?
5. What steps can I put in place to reach for those much desired art goals?
   

Well that’s quite enough for one blog post. I hope you will try this exercise and let me know how you get on. If you haven’t any goals set for the year, it’s never to late to start. Sometimes you’re not even aware you’ve set goals, so just give it some thought. And remember, every day is a new day.

Keep creating and stay safe.

Claudia x

2022 Creative Growth in review

#2022_creativegrowth

My 2023 calendar created from art works made during 2022 represents many new learnings. These come from my @art2life_world Spark course I did in 2021, trying out an abstract style, using collage and discovering portrait art.

Some art challenges included @LouiseFletcher_art ‘find your joy taster’ and which lead to doing my 4th 100days project, @100daysprojectscotland2022 and this time using a limited colour palette on library index cards. Keeping it simple, small and doable helps you achieve any daily goal you set.

I’ve dabbled with printing (stamp making, gelliprinting and monoprinting) with a lovely group of inspiring and generous women I’ve met online. I’ve made a collaborative book of which the contents have travelled more than 35 500 kms.

Last, but not least I’ve partaken in life drawing portrait sessions with @pencils4tea and @drawingisfree and discovered a new style I would never have thought I’d have or love. I look at faces differently now and am finally embracing colour with my new neocolour sticks and promarkers.

I have learned so much from these artists this year.

Lucia @azul_luz_ and Chloe Briggs @drawingisfree have been such leading lights with portrait painting through @pencils4tea and #drawingisfree, respectively. Lucia has also encouraged me to learn about new printing techniques, which have been surprisingly simple and easily done at home.

Julie Hamilton @juliehamiltoncreative has made me embrace colour.

Christine Evan @christineevans_artist for Abstract art, and for great live check ins.

And just for fun and to cheer me up @rosiemadeathing which always makes me smile.

A huge thanks to these creatively active participants of the #2022_creative growth monthly challenges – thank you for travelling alongside.

Pam Delucchi @dogearedjournals for the #creativegrowth_mindful

@meandmamad for #creativegrowth_gratitude

@coombessusan__my_pics for #creativegrowth_fly

Amy @studiofourcorners for #creativegrowth_collage

Rima @rimaberzin_art_photos for #creativegrowth_light

Laura @laurarivierowilson for #creativegrowth_friend

Jamie @reverieinblue for #creativegrowth_water

Ursula @ursula.achten for #creativegrowth_tea

Camilla @camilla.centerwell for #creativegrowth_books

Rose @roserobertswriter for #creativegrowth_science

Anna Marie @anna_marie_orourke for #creativegrowth_simplify

And a very special shout out to Ann @annld60 and @ald65walks who always joins in with every monthly challenge and uplifts us all with her Monday morning recipe to help us enjoy the simple things.

What have you got planned creatively for 2023? How open are you to learning new techniques and technologies, use new materials, engage with others and share what you’ve learned?

I have no pre-set challenges for 2023 and will let let others take the lead.

However, if you tag your posts to #2023_creativegrowth, I will feature your posts in my Stories.

I hope 2023 brings much creativity and along with that, huge joy into your life.

Until next time, Claudia x

A time for tea

It’s nearly halfway through 2022 and I have only done a couple of posts this year! Oops!

As the topic of Tea was such a fun theme to create for, I decided I would put a few words together to celebrate the participants who posted to the #creativegrowth_tea feed in May.

In addition to this challenge, there were a few other tea challenges to participate in too. I’m part of an international group that had some energising, intercontinental zoom tea party gatherings. We discussed and interpreted a wonderful quote by Thich Nhat Hahn and used it to inspire our creations and our art practices. We also used a tea table setting to create an abstract collage art piece. It was an amazing exercise, enabling me to see more abstractly.

Before getting onto next month’s challenge, I wanted to share some of my favourite posts to the #creativegrowth_tea. BIG thanks for tagging and joining in.

Ann’s @annl60 floral delights and vintage tea mugs

Annie’s @creatively.annie striking visual tribute to Ukraine with a summary of her favourite reads.

Camilla’s @camilla_centerwall multi challenges and sketchbook fodder

Kathy’s @kathyhuttonprints simple charming prints

Rosemary’s @rosemary.drawingsvintage watercolour tea party.

 
Barbara’s @mater_et_magistra imperial blue tea party on a box

Pam’s @dogearedjournal cloth handmade book with delightful stitched pages 

Jo’s @jojoodles bright inviting setting

Lucia’s @azul_luz_magical dreamy interpretation of clouds in her tea

Some nostalgia from Susan’s @coombessussan__my_pics with her vintage thrift shop willow pattern finds. 

A cuppa with an ocean view, by Laura @laurariverowilson in remembrance of a recent beach holiday

I offered to send my card to one of the participants this month and since I couldn’t choose one, I decided to do a random draw and pulled a name out of a bag. The lucky draw winner is, Annie @creatively.annie!

I will be sending this card to you in the mail, Annie, so please DM me your address on Instagram.

Now onto June’s theme, which is ‘water’. It is such a broad topic and could have so many interpretations, so I look forward to seeing what interesting creations fill the feed. If you’d like to join in, simply post to #creativegrowth_water during June and I’ll continue to feature posts in my Stories.

I do hope you will find some creative joy this month, in amidst all the harshness.

Keep safe.
Until next time, Claudia x

Creating is freedom

February was the month of love and the start of the year of the Tiger. So many positive signs to kick off the month that have turned out to be unexpectedly sad and devastating for many. I committed to the creative growth challenge, but have already got behind. I decided though not to beat myself up about it, and to just keep going at my own pace. Creating is a process and you just have to show up, even if a little late and sporadic.

The January challenge #2022_creativegrowth was ‘Simplify’’ and my favourite posts are these ones below.

A simple, but dramatic still life by Jamie @reverieinblue

A beautiful candle cake captured by @gingerbakesmv

Using a few colours and repeating patterns, Camilla, @camilla_centerwell did an exercise to practice shapes and used a simple colour palette. The images look so good together.

Laura @laurariverowilson was inspired by a fir grove to paint trees in her sketchbook.

February’s ’Science’ theme was tricky for many. Science has been in the headlines of late and taking some flack, but was also my early career choice. However, I have not had a great love of some science disciplines. I was terrible at chemistry and remember adding sodium to a test tube and it exploding and shattering the glass, because the test tube hadn’t dried properly and had water in it. Water + sodium = BOOM! I’ll never forget that learning though – lol!

Below are my favourites from the ‘science’ theme in February.
Science is about discovery and measuring and Jamie @reverieinblue called this work ’The weight of things’.

Rose @roserobertswriter talks about time.

Ann @ald65walks brings the natural world of butterflies into the theme.

And so onto March’s challenge, which is ‘joy’. It may be a challenge to find that joy given current world events, so I hope you can find joy in little things in daily life like this discovery I had the other day. I lifted a pastel pack that belonged to my children and discovered a delightful message underneath. I hope you will find something that makes your heart sing too, this month.

Thank you for joining me on my creative journey.
Have a safe and gentle month. Claudia x

PS Don’t forget to tag your posts to #creativegrowth_joy and and I’ll feature your posts in my IG stories. 

Hello World!

Welcome to my website! As part of my creative journey I am learning how to use WordPress, so bear with me if this doesn’t all work perfectly. Writing is part of the creative process and that’s why I feel a website and blog is so important to develop along with your art. So join me on my website and blogging discovery with WordPress.

My previous blog is located at adiandbert.blogspot.com where you can find many posts about my challenges and collaborations with artists, and will give a taster of what to expect on this platform.