Out & About: Too Many Words Local Art Sculpture

A small group of local artists working under the name Too Many Words created a sculpture out of old books in a local park recently. We didn't see the artists creating it, which they did during our busy local farmers market as a performance art piece in strange anonymous green suits, though we were happy the sculpture was left in the park for a week or so so we had a chance to explore it.

Approaching the sculpture

All of the books used were deemed unsaleable or unwanted and collected from the local library and an op shop. It's interesting, as I'm sure one persons opinion of unsaleable might differ from the next persons. 

The sculpture was intended to make us think about consumerism, and what happens to our stuff when it's no longer wanted.

I couldn't help thinking that each and every book used here was written by someone and at one stage that project (writing a book) would have consumed a lot of their time and creative energy and been something of great importance to them. So really, so much time and history within each building block (book) of the sculpture.

The page corners gently flapped in the breeze as we wondered around it. 

The inside floor of the sculpture was covered in maps.

The girls thought it was a wonderful cubby house and place to play! They were very interested in it and explored the space looking thoroughly at all the details, and reading some of the words.

So many words by Too Many Words...

I love the fact that their are local artists out there creating thought provoking art to enrich our experience and local town. It satisfies me to show this type of thing to my kids and then listen to the thoughts that evolve from that and discuss what we think it means.

You can read more about the idea behind the sculpture & the art performance here and see the artists in their strange green suits.

You can catch the art collective Too Many Words on Facebook too.

Jules :)

Art Book Review & Road Test: The Painting Workbook by Alena Hennessy.

Art book review time! Today I'm reviewing The Painting Workbook by Alena Hennessy.

*This post contains affiliate links (see bottom of post for explanation).

First of all, I can't believe I'd never heard of this artist before. I thought I was fully immersed and up to date with all this arty stuff online. But when I saw some images of a fellow artist friend's work on her instagram that she had completed whilst taking one of Alena Hennessy's online art courses, I immediately googled Alena and I was so happy with what I discovered. (Surely I have seen her work around, and just not known who she was? Surely!)

When I first got my hands on this book I couldn't stop to read any of the information as the pictures were so beautiful it teased me to just look through the whole book first! The first thing that jumps out at me is her colours. They are bright and bold, which is what I like to use too.

Once you've got that out of your system, you can focus on the information and 52 prompts given in the book. I love that they are prompts so that you can take some inspiration or guidance from them but create your own individual & original artwork. 

Some of Alena's breathtaking art...

Just so amazing and beautiful.

As the title suggests this book is about creating art/ paintings. It goes through materials and tools and the uses and applications of different paints, mediums, surfaces and extra things you might like to use whilst creating art. Then, some basic techniques, colour theory and other thoughts regarding creating art are discussed before moving onto the prompts. Some of the prompts are followed by mini workshops, where she goes through a certain technique in more detail. 

This is not a how-to-draw book, but a book full of prompts that Alena has outlined with an explanation for each on how you might get started. You can use the prompts to push your own boundaries, try something you've never tried before (like paint a picture with a minimal colour palette for example) or use it to help get out of a creative slump. Or just for plain fun!

I think regardless of if you were wanting to get some prompts to start painting, the simple act of just flicking through this book is inspiring enough for me and just makes me want to paint anyway!

I decided to try a bit of 'finger painting' and 'paint with prints'. You know, I never finger paint. Maybe I have with my kids but not on my own personal artwork. 

So I took out a half finished painting, one that has been sitting around in my studio for a while and I added some components from some of my old unusable prints.

 ...And then dipped my finger in some paint.

Very fun and liberating! I added some splodgy marks here and there.

Other prompts I focussed on during this painting from Alena's book were 'repetition' (which I added in the form of repeating patterns), 'add some script', 'layering' (always!), 'draw on top', and 'found objects'. I used some bits and pieces from my mosaic stash :). 

My finished "prompted" artwork 

I really love this book and was so happy to discover the gold that is Alena Hennessy's work and teachings. It's the kind of book that will happily live on my coffee table just for the pleasure of reading through it to kickstart some inspiration, or just as valuable accompanying me in the studio.

I do think this book could be used as a fantastic tool for kicking some creative block. Just start with a prompt and hopefully the flow will return. And with 52 prompts there is one that's sure to spark some inspiration.

If you'd like to know more check out Alena's The Painting Workbook here or visit her website here.

Jules :)

*Affiliate Information: Affliliate links help me earn small commissions on products (at no extra cost to you), which helps support my love of blogging and sharing creative things. I only ever recommend or link to products that I'm genuinely into.

Art Book Review & Road Test: Daring Adventures in Paint by Mati Rose McDonough

Today I'm chatting about the art book Daring Adventures in Paint by Mati Rose McDonough.

This post contains affiliate links (see bottom of post for explanation).

Daring Adventures in Paint

I have admired Mati Rose McDonough's artwork for a while now. She has this amazing ability to create modern artworks that look like they are directly from the inner child. Like gallery-quality-kids-paintings! And it may look like an easy thing to do, until you try to do it. It is in fact, so hard to do. Personally I think she has perfected it.

Some of Mati Rose's work. Those elephants are just so wonderful.

In Daring Adventures in Paint Mati includes ideas and prompts for creating art, and shares some techniques that she uses.

She talks about ideas for getting inspired, plus where she personally pulls inspiration from. I always love to hear where other artists get their inspiration from.

There's an honest story in there about her own beginnings and feelings as an artist (and I can totally relate). 

She talks about habits and rituals and finding your own style/ voice. All important stuff. Being an artist and creating is not all about the physical act of painting or making, it's a whole jumble of feelings, life experiences and your perspective that make up the unique-you, which all comes together to make the artist that creates. She talks about finding your own unique voice: "Your voice is a mixture of all the sparkliness and grit that tells your story." I love that. 

I also love the bright colour and the beautiful photography in the book.

I think you would gain something from this book if you like the style of Mati's work, and are interested in learning about some of her techniques and how she creates her paintings.

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So, here's the road test! The book goes through creating a piece of artwork, and you see how she completes each stage until the painting is finished at the end of the book. There are also other paintings in there with different techniques explained.

I chose to create my background with a few techniques Mati describes, including covering the background with some paint applications with a couple of Mati's techniques, and I also chose to do some collage with decorative paper. 

Paint, collage, then more paint

I then chose to invite collaboration (another prompt in the book). Luckily I have two little artists living in my house! "Miss 6!... I need you to draw a tiger!" We both have a thing for tigers lately.

In she came and sat down and boldly drew a tiger. I've said it before and I'll say it again; we need to learn from kids' fearlessness when it comes to creating art. She had no issues about taking the pencil and just drawing top & centre over my art!

I then continued with some collage and added a few more elements here and there. In the book it describes placing other elements over the top of your prepared background so I used some of the ideas in the book plus a little artistic license.

I like the previous collage element and how you can still see a glimpse of the patterned paper above the tigers head.

And then the finished painting. 

Close up detail of Miss 6's tiger

I had fun with Daring Adventures in Paint and I'm sure this book will be out on my coffee table often for random perusing.

I hope you enjoyed this review & road test. Do you own or would love to own Mati's book? Or love her artwork as I do?

Jules :)

*Affiliate Information: Affliliate links help me earn small commissions on products (at no extra cost to you), which helps support my love of blogging and sharing creative things. I only ever recommend or link to products that I'm genuinely into.

Book Illustration Inspiration From The Past

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Hello! I'm going to chat today about the inspiration that lead me to where I am today: immersed in a creative world of art and illustration.

My Nan (rest in peace) always said I'd be an illustrator. Ever since I was young she would tell people that. Even before I knew that's what I would do.

At one stage in our lives she ended up in a TAC centre (a place for road accident victims to recover) after a pretty horrible car accident. I used to visit her in my old Gemini car (that had handmade bear seat covers complete with faces and ears on the top) and hang out and draw pictures for her walls. I always drew pictures for her.

A copied May Gibbs illustration by my younger self

The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie

The iconic Australian illustrator May Gibbs was one of my first illustration loves. Gumnut baby after gumnut baby I drew. I especially loved when Snugglepot & Cuddlepie ventured underwater and met Little Obelia. I remember clearly drawing Little Obelia and shading those pearls with my cherished set of 72 derwent pencils. I think if I ever got a tattoo, it would probably be a homage to May Gibbs. Probably Little Obelia!

Holly Hobbie was another fond memory. My Mum painted pictures of her and I got my hands on my Mum's imagery, I don't know if it was books or her own paintings, but I remember copying the Holly Hobbie images. I was fascinated with the detail in them.

Me and my Primary School bestie at Dromkeen

In primary school we took an excursion to Dromkeen which is a place that exhibits and houses picture book art. I distinctly remember the end of the tour where we were taken to an area that held crisp new books and I had some money so that I could buy one. I remember holding a ten dollar note in my hands. My childhood was not filled with extravagant amounts of toys and possessions, so I really valued this chance to buy a book. I remember a stack of The BFG books and that was the book I chose. This also spurred a love of Quentin Blake's illustrations. His seemingly haphazard line work is quite intentional and brings out the emotion and movement of characters. He captures personality with the free flowing lines, and lessons of studying this flow seeped in to my psyche and became part of my understanding about how shape and line can come together to form natural expression.

Quentin Blake's illustrations are full of flow, life and fun

The BFG

I read The BFG book many times, to the point of it literally falling apart. We have a new copy that I am currently reading this book to my girls, but the old one is still a treasured possession. 

I also loved Dr Suess illustrations for their flowing spilling wavy look. It looks as though some of the drawings have been squeezed out of a tube, know what I mean!?

And I'm sure Golden Books were are part of many people's childhood. I had a few favourites in there, but as an adult I can't go much past the texture and detail of Richard Scarry's illustrations. I love the paint work which looks like he uses dry brushing that gives the illustrations a textural look. 

Ah, such memories. And I am grateful to all these amazing people that have inspired me along my journey. I'm sure there's more that I haven't thought of! I'll have to update this post if I do. I'd love to hear your favourites!

Jules :)

*Affiliate Information: Affliliate links help me earn small commissions on products (at no extra cost to you), which helps support my love of blogging and sharing creative things. I only ever recommend or link to products that I'm genuinely into.

Instagram Loves

I love Instagram. And I love to share other people's work too.

Here are some creative art accounts that I am swooning over at the moment.

Becky Blair. Beautiful, amazing work with a soothing quality. I think the blurry elements she places in her paintings make me feel soothed.

Frances Ryan is an Artist living in Ireland. I especially love the contrast between elements in her paintings. Such as intricate little details next to an expanse of flat space.

I really enjoy all the fun and colour on Lori Siebert's account. There's a lot of really fun energy flowing out of her Instagram feed.

Jill Mayberg. The texture and colour! And the texture and colour! No, that's not a typo, I just needed to say it twice! :)

And Bandicoot Art. These works kind of remind me of doodles. If you happen to be a top-class professional doodler, that is. Seriously, it's really intriguing art with a naive feel. And the works have got that textural quality. And colour. You know I love texture & colour.

Ahh, Instagram. My fave of all the social media beasts.

Hope you enjoyed that line up.

Jules :)

Inspiration on Instagram

I luurve Instagram <----- That link unashamedly goes to my Instagram page!

I find for creative people, and people who love creativeness and pretty pictures, it's definitely at the top of my list as far as social media goes. I find it a 'nicer' space. People seem to be more interactive and kinder there than say, Facebook. But that's just my humble opinion. I haven't got into Twitter so can't comment there.

Sometimes I get so excited by pictures I see on IG. It's so inspiring. I thought I'd share a few today of my latest favourites. Every time I see photos from these creative Instagram accounts my heart skips a beat.

So today I'm sharing the love. Enjoy!

I love the eclecticness and pure creativity that channels through Magpie Ethel's Instagram feed.

These house photos are scrumptious goods for my eyes. I wish that Lisa Loves Vintage would come to my place and style the whole thing for me.

Colorful Sparkle. Colour. Colour, colour, colour! Happiness, home life and inspiration. That about sums up this Insta feed.

Part Shade Full Sun is homely and crafty. Down to Earth with lovely family-life sentiments. 

Liz Payne. Crazy cool crafted art, so modern and fresh. I love everything in this feed and wonder if she makes it all herself? So much work!

Happy Instagramming. Yes, that's a real verb now.

Jules :)