Creative Art Journals

I love creating art journals!
 After a very creative winter the first signs of spring are here!  The days are a little warmer as I gather my ideas for workshops later this year.
The very first of 2012 is an art journal workshop. I'm taking bookings for the 24th and/or 25th March, so I thought I had to show my own art journals and pages, or some of them anyway, here on my blog page.

The first to show you is a painted fabric journal with just black and white sketches inside. These pages tell of a few myths and snippets of folklore. I love the contrast between texture and colour on the cover with smooth paper, drawings and words on the inside. This journal has only eight pages but I'm hoping to add more signatures as I go along.

Here are a few more fabric journals I have made in the past.  One of these is a painted canvas journal and others are a mix of textures with fabric, mica and colourful buttons.

This is a recycled, hard backed book that I've altered for another art journal.  This has loads of pages, so many that I can't close the journal. It stands as a piece of art on a shelf with other colourful books. Here are a few of the pages inside.

The next journal to show you I finished a few weeks ago.  This has just the images inside that I plan to make into greeting cards.

I'm looking forward to teaching others how they can create their own art journals. I have been thinking of teaching for so long now, so start, I must!

Fairytale Art Exhibition

 I have showing The Tree people and fairytale landscapes showing in the wonderful  i-2 Art Gallery from the 4th Feb.   Other stunning art here too by amazing artists.  This gallery is situated in a lovely town called Saffron Walden and the gallery is an 'Old World' building with big wooden beams, looking like a place from a fairytale story. If you are ever this way, please pay a visit.         www.i2artgallery.com

The Tree people

I've been busy painting the first new pictures of 2012 and wanted to show you the idea behind them. It may seem a little strange but so are my favourite fairytales!

Inspired by the 'Old Masters' with these renaissance kind-o-style paintings. I didn't quite know how these were going to turn out. Painting in acrylic with a subject that has taken months to paint in oils was a little tricky. These were painted as small paintings on board, some with added mica.

I feel that these should have a deep and profound fairy story behind them....based on true and ancient beliefs. Maybe one day I will write about them properly but here is a beginning. I had to start off from somewhere........Once upon a time, the tribes around the Earth had a magic man or women, a Shaman. This was the tribes King or Queen that they would come to see for healing, guidance, insight and wisdom for the times and journeys to come. Long before the Egyptians the shamans wore crowns on their heads with symbols, feathers, stone and gems, so you can see how our kings and queens still have these crowns (?).
The fae have the best crowns. Are they the shamans of old still on this earth plane?  Of course they are!!!.........

Please feel free to add anything to the story. This could get very interesting! I'll keep close to see how the story goes.  Good luck. X

I've finally managed to post again after a little problem with my server and just in time to wish you a magical and wonderfilled new year. Here we are already, 2012!  I feel this coming year is going to be filled with new doorways of creativity.  My plans for this new year are already nearly full with joys of painting new paintings,  new workshops, books, teaching Megan, veg garden planning, flowers, herbs and dreams to grow, and even more love to give.
So, a gift for 2012 for you all, there are free ebooks to share. Tell your friends and who ever you want to share this love with.
These are all of the four books I have illustrated for the author Robin C Clark, my brother.
Love to you all and thank you for following my blog page.
 Here is the link to the amazon link and another to view the books   http://amzn.to/uRLZf7     www.peliguin.com

Have a beautiful new year!!!

Creative Art Classes

I have finally decided to teach the mysterious ways of the artist.  I'm gathering an assorted amount of materials for the first theme of 'Old Fairytales', first sketching and creative drawing techniques and different ways of seeing.  Do you remember when you were a child when shadows in your room sometimes looked like something to be a little concerned about?  Maybe shadows under the curtains or shadows your clothes made in the closet?  I remember vividly the shadows under the window that my curtains made, mostly strange profiles of faces but some were also quite beautiful.  These are the imagination of children that as we grow older we sometimes loose this magical ability. We may get a glimpse at angels in the clouds or a dryad in the bark of a tree  that can bring back, even for a moment , the magic of this special sight.  This with the fairytale theme is what I want to show and drawing skills and experimenting with watercolour paints.

I love all of the illustraters of the 'Old Fairytales'.  Kay Nielsen, Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac are but a few.  Their paintings and illustrations  of beautiful landscapes and colorful characters for these timeless tales have let us carry these treasured images into our adult lives.

Illustration from East of the Sun, West of the Moon.   Kay Nielsen.

Cinderella.  Kay Nielson.

Dreamer of Dreams.  Edmund Dulac.

Edmund Dulac.

Undine.  Arthur Rackham.

So, with a good stack of cotton paper, graphite, and watercolour paints, we will see what magic can happen!   I will show you the work of these wonderful creative souls in my classes...if they will let me.
Later, next year, I will be teaching at full day or weekend workshops along side the classes with all kinds of inspirations. Artists journal making. Drawing from life. Decorative painting. Healing art and Abstract painting.  If you would like more details, please contact me.

Here are more of these wonderful  places to see more of these illustrations.

http://www.arthur-rackham-society.org/
http://windling.typepad.com/blog/
www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/index.html
http://www.childillustration.blogspot.com/

Art Exhibition

I'm so thrilled to be exhibiting around 10 of my paintings here at the beautiful i2 Art Gallery in Saffron Walden.  This is a beautiful gallery!  Please go and see for yourself, or at least the i2 gallery website. http://www.i2artgallery.com/. 

Manifesting beauty!!

Midway through October and the warm and sunny English Indian summer is over.  I will soon be lighting cosy fires and I'm thinking of sewing an art quilt of sorts, and cuddle up in and read a few books.  I feel I need a rest from the busy summer and Autumn and re-stock inspirations and dreams for the new paintings ahead.

Night Bearer

 by Amanda Clark 2011

A dear etsy friend told me about a book called The Wood Wife by Terri Windling, 'a book I must read!' she says.  My paintings reminded her of the story in The Wood Wife.  So I ordered it two weeks ago and have just finished this amazingly magical story .  I have read a similar story, but told in a completely different way by Charles De Lint, Memory and Dream.  These stories tell of a magic that these artists had within to be able to create a portal for these mythical and enchanting creatures to be able to pass through into this world, exactly as they painted or wrote poetry about them.  A must read for anyone that loves fantasy, fairytale, and  I feel, a connection to Carlos Castonada books.




Imagining through the paintings I have created over the years, did the subjects already existed here or in the ether or maybe even on another dimension?  There's so much talk on manifesting these days, if I ever had this kind of magic, I would choose to only bring more beauty into our world.

Home schooling Megan (Pixie)

Over the last few weeks, I have (what it feels like) taken the big leap of change and started to homeschool my daughter Megan.  She had just 4 days at High School of her choice and hated everything there was to hate about public schools.  Megan is a sensitive soul and I've always given her the choice for home schooling.
Sooooo...... everything she is learning is through creativity of some sort and how you can be creative with every moment that comes to you.  No matter what comes your way you can change it for the better.  As she is 11 years old and coming into her teenage years soon, I feel this is important to learn now and hopefully something she will not forget  completely while in times of heart ache and wild emotions.  God knows, I wish I knew all this when I was her age!
I feel I'm just beginning to really know my little girl. I know it sounds crazy, but really, what time did I actually spend connecting with her soul and dreams. Every day now I can let her guide the day. Whether its art and crafts, natural science,the cosmos and stars, creative writing, book binding, doll making, watching music videos, playing music, designing clothes and there is still so much to explore!!  Megan still loves to learn as much as she can about the world  and maths is now becoming one of her favorite subjects as she has learnt where the possiblities are for using such a subject. Sciences especially!   We have found an amazing book by Floris Publishers called 'Maths in Nature, Space and Time'  I've ordered so many wonderfilled books from this publisher lately and our days are filled with learning and creating together.
A list of books I have already are listed at the end of this post.

Please let me know about any of you homeschooling or have been homeschooled yourselves.  I feel that I'm starting over again with the things I should have learned as a child, but we never stop learning do we.

We hunted around a few second-hand shops for more cupboards and bookcases, and this is what we found!!    I had to divide it in two with the bookcase separate. Our ceiling in just 1'' too low!

Flowers from our garden.

Beautiful little soul, Megan.

http://www.florisbooks.co.uk/

Geology and Astronomy.
Mathematics in Nature, Space and Time.
Muscles and bones.
The age of revolution.
Botany.
The age of Discovery.

http://www.hawthornepress.com/

New eyes for Plants - for observing and drawing plants.
Colour Dynamics.
Words in Place - Reconnecting with Nature through creative writing.

http://www.steinerbooks.org/

Soul Development through Handwriting.

http://www.northlightbooks.com/

Keys to Drawing with Imagination

With all the books I already have on art, mythologies, fairytales, crafts etc. We should have a couple of years worth of learning ahead.  But always looking out for more!

Megan will have her blog page up and running soon, so I'll let you all know about it soon.

Postage free on these three! (In my etsy shop.)

Meeting Damh.

Moonlit Hare

I'm going to see if sales improve on these three prints with postage free for a while, and maybe add or change the prints  later.  Think I'll give it one month from now and see what happens.

Winter Fairy Tales in August!

East of the sun and West of the moon.

This month ...still in August I know. I have been reading wintery tales and folklore and one of my favorites has got to be a Norwegian tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.  Even the title of this story brings amazing images to my heart and mind.  Some how it reminds me of winter and the cold feel of the North wind.   How did I ever miss this one as a child!  The young girl in this story saves the prince! 
I have seen many illustrations for this fairy tale and I wanted to try to capture the feel of the story  as a painting.  I have the perfect frame for it too. Chunky white wood with an inner frame of icy soft gold.

Shaman Flight.

Ok, so we all know that 'Santa' is a shaman in folklore, right?  Usually the rein deer would fly with him after both eating the mushroom, 'Fly Agaric' . So if this mushroom did give the rein deer visions and altered states of their usual rein deer happenings, maybe they would see themselves as unicorns as well as the magical ability to fly! Anything is possible. In any case, shamans must know about the unicorn and all matter of magical, mythical creatures so who knows where the rein deer must have taken him!

Winter's Dream.

The inspiration for this painting is from the fairy tale of the 'Ice Queen'. Another tale I seem to have missed as a child but seem to remember images somewhere down the years.  Winter is a time to go inward to a creative and meditive space of which I'm really looking forward to.  This Summer has been so busy with all the running around and crazy fun.  Autumn isn't far away. It will soon be time to slow down and dream those far away dreams.

Celtic Festivals

We are into August already and the berries and fruit trees are ripening early this year. Soon I'll be getting ready to gather as many empty glass jars as I can for jams and pickles to last for the 4 or 6 months ahead.  Already there are black currants, plums, crab apples, tay berries and in a couple of weeks the elderberries.  Last year we make hedgerow jelly with rosehips, haw berries and black berries.  Pear and cider apple chutney, and a few others that I can't remember the wonderful things we put in. The veg garden is growing in abundance and all around us countryside is bursting with wild food for foraging.
Sitting in the garden drinking mint and lemon balm tea from the wild knot of herbs, I wonder what adventures our family blackbirds have had this summer. Always meeting me at dawn with their song and never far away during the day. Their beautiful singing balancing the energies of the new day.

Early last Spring I started painting the Celtic Festivals and have finally finished all 8. I love the colours of the seasons here in the UK. The warm bronze and rusts, golds and earthy browns of Samhain to the gentle yellows, greens and violets of Ostara.  I will soon have all of these ready for prints and I'll be making card sets for the 'Wheel of the Year'.

Inspirations and illustrations

I've been thinking lately of a book to create of the inspirations for my work.  I need your help.
What would you most like to see in this book, paintings, illustrations, fairytale, folklore, tree moons and goddesses?  Information on animal totems and meanings?  Ideas of sacred, healing gardens for your own use and meditations?  All of this and the 'wheel of the year' associations and the tree ogham.
Here are a few illustration for this book.    Looks like I'm gonna be busy for a while, but I will keep you posted on my progress.