process

May 18, 2013 by Tara 6 Comments

TA DA!!!!

I don’t usually begin with so much pink enthusiasm, but something unexpected just happened. I finished a painting. {What the….} I’m very pleased because it’s been quite a while since I’ve a} finished a painting and b} done a process post. So yay on all counts.

As I mentioned the other day, I have a big old chunk of unfinished paintings hanging around in the studio, and I had some vague and ambitious notion to complete them all by the end of the year. As we come up to the midway part of the year I realise now that that was a hilarious moment of insanity, but I’m ok with that. {Aren’t they the best kind?!} You can see some of the piece that is underneath the painting I finished this morning.

I suppose you might say it was reworked, rather than finished, as pretty much none of the original remains. Since it was an experiment in colour and mark making I was happy to let it go and see what happened.

As you can see, the changes became more and more subtle as the painting went on. You can barely see what I did this morning because it was layer after layer of soft, pale glazes. I was quite glad I’d consolidated some ideas about how to finish a painting last week as I called on those ideas for this. In particular I went back and forth softening all the areas that were jarring to me {a benefit of having a long studio}.

Here it is hanging out with some buddies in the living room. Those colours make me die a little bit.

I’ll be putting it in the shop shortly. In the meantime, you can enjoy it here

In Flow by Tara Leaver

April 9, 2013 by Tara 2 Comments

I had an idea I had been mulling over for weeks, ever since I saw a stack of wooden pieces outside Jeanne’s house.

She let me take a piece to experiment on, and I developed the idea from a photo I saw on Instagram; just a simple hand lettered word on a piece of wood painted white and decorated with flowers.

Like most of my creative ideas, it had plans of its own and didn’t turn out QUITE as I’d envisaged, but since it was an experiment I’m ok with that.

I used some of the new things I learned doing Flower Crazy; I used watercolours instead of acrylic, and took a flower technique I learned from studying Alisa Burke’s flowers ~ splodge colour on, then use the shapes to draw in flowers ~ to decorate it.

I wrote out ‘namaste’ {the word Jeanne chose; I figured I would give the finished piece to her since it was her wood } on a piece of paper first, to make sure it was the right size and look. Then I used carbon paper to transfer it to the gessoed and sanded wood.

Then I doodled flowers all over the place, before finally going over the word with a waterproof black pen.

I had envisioned much more white space, and that lettering could use some work, but it was my first one {and possibly my last ~ there are very few things I like to do repetitively} and Jeanne loved it, so I’m happy.

Filed Under: crafts, creativity, home, just for fun, process Tagged With: decorated wood, namaste painting on wood

April 5, 2013 by Tara 3 Comments

My paintings can be loosely categorised into those which have some kind of message and those which just look pretty {or not, as the case may be!}. I realised this just now when I was thinking about the title of my newest painting, which took a while to come through but I’m pretty sure the wording is right now.

To clarify a bit ~ like any artist, my painting style evolves over time as I learn new techniques and move through different colour, shape and style preferences, as well as different moods and cycles in my life. I always wanted my work to be connected with the healing element of what I do, and for a long time it just didn’t feel like it was; it felt like everything I produced was, although often aesthetically pleasing, a bit ‘hollow’ or without any kind of depth and meaning.

I am not placing a value judgement on either approach; sometimes we just want to rest our eyes somewhere beautiful, and other times we want to be provoked into thinking more deeply or looking for meaning. Art is fantastic for this, like nature.

I suppose, to push that a bit further, anything that comes directly from Source is going to do that, because it reflects back to us both the simplicity and the complexity that we humans are.

More recently though, as I come more and more into alignment with my Self, with who I really am beneath all the conditioning and learned behaviours and limiting beliefs, I feel my paintings shift.

Jeanne always says that when we ask for things to change, not only can we not decide how those changes come, but they never look how we thought they would. We will always get what we ask for, but without releasing all our preconceived ideas about timing or what that will look like, we limit the possibilities. Spirit {God, Creative Source, whatever you want to call it} is infinite; in my experience asking and then letting go is the best way to bring solutions I could not have conceived of.

So I knew I wanted my paintings to be about healing, but I didn’t know how that would work and I couldn’t force it. I held it loosely in the back of my mind as an intention, and just carried on living my life and painting whatever I felt moved to paint.

The work will always be evolving, as I do, but since the beginning of this year I’ve noticed a couple of things. One is that, where before I couldn’t get enough bright colours onto the canvas, and even when I tried to not use them my paintings still ended up like a visual punch in the face {a nice one!}, suddenly I find myself wanting to use pale colours and a lot of white.

So yes, there is the ‘light’ factor ~ lighter colours, a feeling of light and something ethereal. And also images of figures, undefined and nebulous, keep appearing. They are only partially visible, and sometimes if they come out too defined I find I have to knock them back a bit. It makes me laugh really, because it reflects so neatly my own personal journey from ‘old me’ to ‘new me’, and the fact that what used to be invisible to me is starting to emerge from the mists, slowly!

I find that these new paintings are feeding me. I hang them up in my home when they’re finished, or almost finished, and find myself just looking at them for long periods; I don’t know what they are giving me but it’s something profound. I don’t know whether others who look at them will feel this; it doesn’t matter. For now I’m just intrigued as to where the painting is taking me.

What Was Invisible Begins To Be Revealed

‘What Was Invisible Begins To Be Revealed’

mixed media on canvas

60 x 90 x 4cm

Available for sale here

Filed Under: art development, creativity, journey, mixed media art, mixed media painting, process Tagged With: art for healing, how my art has developed, types of painting, what was invisible begins to be revealed by tara leaver

March 27, 2013 by Tara Leave a Comment

The name for this painting came from Jeanne. I was getting stuck on names that either felt twee or just plain boring, and new fields is very apt for me right now, so New Fields it is.

Step one – laying down watercolour and gesso

It’s another Flower Crazy painting, kind of a companion to Sea Flowers. I like the contrast of colours with that one, although it wasn’t intentional.

Step two – finding flower shapes and pulling them out by outlining with pencil, then a gesso wash around them.

I did not know you could make these cool little captions beneath photos! I learn all the best things by mistake.

New Fields ~ Detail

Again it was fun to pull it together under Carla’s calm guidance, and know that you were going to finish it and it wouldn’t be languishing in a dusty corner for months. I must find a way to be this accountable with my other paintings.

New Fields hanging on the wall

It must be a confidence thing. I’ve been staring at some for weeks now and still not a clue what they need. Sometimes you have to weigh up whether it’s because it needs completely reworking, or that it needs you to look to artists that inspire you for ideas, or actually it IS finished and you’re just pushing too hard. Or something else!

New Fields ~ Detail including watercolour, gesso, acrylic ink, pencil and charcoal

I really like how this one turned out. The flower shapes annoyed me for a bit but now with the shading and details I’m happy with them.

It’s in my Etsy shop now along with Sea Flowers. They look lovely together actually but I think they can probably bear to be separated.

New Fields
Mixed Media Painting on wooden panel
25 x 25 x 2.5cm

Filed Under: art class, art development, mixed media art, mixed media painting, online classes, process Tagged With: flower crazy class, flowers

March 20, 2013 by Tara 5 Comments

So lately finishing a painting is not an experience I’m intimately acquainted with.

Which is why doing a class can be really helpful; cause you HAVE TO. Something in me clicks when Carla says ‘today you’re going to finish the painting you started the other day’. It just goes, ‘ok’.

Why that doesn’t happen when I say that to myself is a mystery.

Anyway, this week we’ve progressed from paper to wood panels! I don’t often use wood panels. I just seem to love canvas. But the rigidity of the wood is good for holding big globs of gesso and pressing hard.

I took these photos with my phone during the process, mainly because I’m joined at the hip with Instagram {if you’re on it too, come and say hi! @taraleaver}.

Part of Carla’s process is to keep going back in, adding and knocking back, which I think is partly the reason why my own paintings aren’t progressing in a healthy way lately. I have a touch of the old ‘I-don’t-know-what-to-do-and-I-might-ruin-it’ paralysis. Also I have no idea what I want to SAY, which is also handily sidestepped by doing a class.

Happens to the best of us.

This one went through a painfully bright yellow phase and a disturbing ‘dirty’ looking phase, but using Carla’s adding/removing system and persevering because it ‘had’ to be finished took me through both with surprising ease and speed. {Note to self; DO THIS.}

After the addition of pencil and charcoal for definition and depth, we finished with some white acrylic ink.

I’m calling it Sea Flowers. I took the shape from an image I saw during week one, when we were sketching sea plants.

Here’s a nice little close up; the textures are a little bit to die for.

’Sea Flowers’

25 x 25 x 2.5cm

mixed media on wood panel

Available to purchase here.

Filed Under: art class, art development, mixed media art, mixed media painting, online classes, process Tagged With: flower crazy online class, gesso on wood panel, process, sea flowers painting

February 18, 2013 by Tara 11 Comments

One of my Christmas presents was a book token from my brother. I ask for them every year because books are my crack. My Amazon wish list is so long now it’s getting a bit silly.

Anyway, one of the books I bought {thanks Ben!} was Mati Rose’s ‘Daring Adventures in Paint’.

I heart it! Mati is a girl after my own heart with her love of the sea and all things nautical. I’ve loved her paintings for quite a while now, and while I don’t want to paint just like her {for all the obvious reasons}, I was intrigued to see how she pulls a painting together.

I devoured the book in about an hour, then took it up to the studio to try out some of the painting ideas. These photos show the process.

It was night time I’m afraid so the colours aren’t very true.

Mati shows the process of a painting from start to finish, something I have done in my book actually but not in quite the same way. But I thought I’d challenge myself to follow along and see what happened.

Not least because although I have a couple of paintings on the go at the moment, they are getting sticky and a bit of new energy is sometimes just what’s needed to get them going again.

Mati’s approach is layered, like mine, so I was familiar with all the parts even if I hadn’t put them together in that way before. There was laying down colour in two opaque layers, using contrasting cool and warm colours. I started with orange and then a deep aqua blue {natch}.

Then there were layers of brayering {orange and white}, using a squeegee {old credit card, pink}, dry brushing {white} and some vigorous sandpapering {as shown a couple of images up in front of the light}.

Next, collage pieces.

Then Mati did some silver leafing, but as I only have gold leaf and wanted to use silver in my painting, I made a fish stencil quickly from cardboard and used some pearly acrylic to make fish shapes.

Then spray painting through a doily. I also changed my mind about the main fish shape and whited it out.

Mati adds drawing into her piece using carbon paper. I leafed through some of my sketchbooks for inspiration, and in the end found it on my pinboard. See how I’ve made it nice and clear for you to see which image I chose.

I’m not usually one for repeating images in all my paintings {apart from circles, but that’s like breathing}, but I do like doing these stylised feathers. I used my actual feather cut to a point and Quink to draw the shapes, and painted them in acrylics.

Mati did a couple of things to hers that I didn’t do, like getting someone else to collaborate, and adding in a personal reference from a childhood photo. I was happy with the painting by this point, although I left it overnight to be super sure, and then signed it this morning. Boom. Done.

I called it Three One, partly because of the three feathers and the ‘one’, and also because I’ve been thinking about the Trinity a lot lately, so it seemed fitting.

Only ten days {and oh how I’m counting!} til I have the internet installed at home and no longer have to sit outside Jeanne’s house in my car writing blog posts and checking email! Yay.

Filed Under: art development, mixed media art, mixed media painting, process, techniques Tagged With: daring adventures in paint, mati rose mcdonough, mixed media art, mixed media painting

January 31, 2013 by Tara 8 Comments

So Jeanne, my Tai Chi and Reiki teacher, and General Mentor for life, has been helping me Feng Shui my flat with a mind to bringing in more abundance in various areas of my life this year.

fish mobile01
Among recommendations for placement of my desk and various plants and fairy lights, was also one for a fish mobile. Funds are {temporarily!} a little tight since the move so I thought, sod it, I’ll make my own. How hard can it be?

fish mobile02

I’m happy to report the findings: Not That Hard. {Yay! Usually I’m the one to start a project with gusto only to burn out at the first sign of it looking complicated.}

fish mobile03

Then again, the promise of untold riches and joy is a marvellous incentive for finishing such a project. {And yeah, I did the first part of it at night so the photos are a bit crappy. Sorry.}

fish mobile04

I didn’t really plan it, as that would be massively out of character {I only plan the big stuff, like the Creative Spark Sessions}. I started with a large sheet of thick paper taped down, some of my favourite colours in acrylic paint, a spray bottle and a brush.

fish mobile06

I sprayed the paper, dripped on some colours, spread them around with my fingers and then painted shapes and patterns over the top. No thinking required. I wanted them to be colours I’d actually like to live with; can’t go wrong with blues, aquas, a bit of purple and some silver.

fish mobile07

Then when it was dry I drew a quick fish shape in three sizes on the back and cut out a random {but even, obviously} number.

fish mobile08

I had some bamboo sticks so I used a kitchen knife to cut a piece off one of them {it’s all Totally Professional round here}, bought five little hook things, screwed them in at reasonably equal intervals and attached some silver thread. I love it when I just have this stuff lying about.

fish mobile09

I did lay out the fish to make sure they would balance visually, but ended up just sticking them wherever.

fish mobile10

Here is my set up: attach bamboo stick to table with tape. Pritt Stick the front and back of each fish to a section of the thread, making sure it’s horizontal and not lurching drunkenly up or down. {I figure, abundance fish are HEALTHY fish, so no drinking. Also, it’s more aesthetically pleasing and less like a five year old made it.}

fish mobile17

I found some little things to attach to the end of each string for stability ~ some plastic jewels, little silvery seahorses and a shell, if you’re wondering.

fish mobile16

And boom; done. Only took me a few hours in total. Oh, and I also glued some red ribbon {red is good for prosperity I think} to hang it by and put it in place as directed by Jeanne in an area where they will help the chi flow and make me very rich.

Kidding. Just, you know, abundant.

fish mobile12

Please try to look past the fact that I taped the whole shebang to the ceiling. I ran out of hook thingies. Fortunately artists don’t worry about such details.

fish mobile11

And actually, I’m pretty pleased with it! The fish all hang nicely and don’t crash into each other as I’d feared. And look, you even get a sneaky shot of my living room into the bargain.

fish mobile15

I know I still haven’t done the grand tour of the new home. It’s coming, promise. At some point.

Filed Under: crafts, creativity, home, interior decorating, process Tagged With: feng shui, fish mobile

January 7, 2013 by Tara 3 Comments

“New” alert!

I am abounding with newness. Specifically: I went up to the studio the other morning, having made myself a promise that I will spend at least a part of every day up there, and was painting for about 7 hours! That’s, like, almost a day’s work! Ha.

It occurred to me {rather late in the proceedings, as the most obvious things often do}, that if I am committed to this life path of working with spirit {which I am}, and if I want to make the focus of that helping others to find and explore their creativity {which I do}, then my actions really ought to be in alignment with my intentions, and that means spending most of my time in the studio ~ making art, having creative ideas and generally walking my talk.

It’s definitely easier here than at my last place, with the studio being on a different floor and dedicated solely to art.

And want to know what’s cool? Not only did I do a good seven hours, but even after I came back down to my ‘living quarters’ for the evening, I couldn’t stop being creative! I wrote poems, I made an envelope of joy, and I had so many ideas bouncing round my head I couldn’t sleep for ages!

Somewhere on a piece of paper I had written this down ~ that I wanted to be excited when I went to bed and excited when I woke up. I didn’t really think it through as being excited at bedtime is not exactly a recipe for a long peaceful sleep, but no matter; these things can be tweaked.

I’ve even had some initial interest in the Creative Spark Sessions after sending out an email to all and sundry announcing they’d arrived. The thing seems to be: act when inspired, otherwise wait for instructions.

Not a bad motto.

So as you can see this new painting is a reworking of an old one that just wasn’t going anywhere, although I was quite fond of it, and had one or two moments of mild panic that I’d just ruined something worth keeping.

As always, those moments passed though, especially once I’d started on the pencil sketching. And even more so once it was finished.

I used an old painting by an artist I don’t know {sorry, vague} as inspiration for the woman. I have no idea what she’s doing, although in the original she’s sitting down looking very demure.

The painting is now finished, complete with new style signature which I’m really loving, and is hanging in the living room awaiting a title {and a buyer, perhaps}.

Despite my desire to develop a more cohesive and recognisable style, this one looks nothing like the first one I did in the new studio. Apart from the ever present circles of course. Ah well, if you work intuitively you do as you’re told.

Filed Under: mixed media art, mixed media painting, process Tagged With: mixed media painting, process

January 5, 2013 by Tara 1 Comment

I discovered Kat on Instagram. Her website, Kat Can Paint, is a treasure trove of tutorials and art, and her blog is both thoughtful and funny, not to mention inspiring.

If you sign up to her newsletter you receive a great tutorial about how she paints butterfly wings. You can see her own lovely versions in her Etsy shop.

{taped the paper down and washed gouache over it}

{mopped up excess with a rag which made nice patterns}

What I like about these paintings is, as Kat points out, that you can create them as paintings in themselves, but also they are great for backgrounds, art journal collage pieces and so on, and you can change the colours, the shapes and add embellishments, making each one your own.

{started painting in the wings}

So I had a go.

Kat says painting these is one of her favourite things to do, and it is a simple and meditative process. I also love that it’s quick to do, has instant impact and has multiple uses.

Most pleasing. I can see that other colourways, sparkle, additional dots and blobs etc could take these wings to all kinds of places.

I started off quite tight and neat, then rechecked the tutorial and saw Kat’s was much freer and looser; I much preferred that approach.

Not sure what I’m going to do with this, but in the meantime I’m putting it up in the studio so I can admire it. I’ve made an inner commitment to spending some time up here every day, and already am loving it. The space feels so different from my ‘living’ area downstairs; I love that feeling of ‘going to work’ in my own home!

Filed Under: art development, creativity, painting on paper, process Tagged With: butterfly wings painting, gouache, kat can paint

December 16, 2012 by Tara 8 Comments

I’m in! I have no internet, so posts will be sporadic til mid Jan {WHAT ~ really? WHY?!} as I borrow and scavenge interweb access where I can. I can’t wait to show you properly what’s been going on here, but am swinging by quickly to share some new work and some images from the First Day, taken just before the removal men turned up and filled my house with ~~crap~~ my beautiful things.

I MISS you guys, and blogging and sharing and being part of this little online world. {Not that little, in fact, is it, really.}

Here is the studio, empty and ready for New Stuff to happen in it.

Please note the butler’s sink, the skylights {which open electronically!?!}, the storage and table space.

The way the light falls in, the fact that that entire right wall has storage running behind it. There is room for four people comfortably I think.

And the porthole windows with views of the sea! Seriously? I get to live here?!

It takes me, oh, a good thirty seconds to reach the beach. Although the first few days I wasn’t physically able to leave the house ~ it was too lovely! Now I’m down there every day. It’s better than tv, always changing, always soothing to my soul. And as much as this move is a glorious, exciting thing, other life things continue to happen and they are not always glorious and exciting, so soul soothing is required at the moment.

So then, I had to try out the studio! I have a STACK of unfinished, unloved canvases, just waiting for renewed life, so I started on a big one that just hadn’t worked although I had loved the idea. I forgot, of course, to photograph it before diving in with the paint, but you can still see a little of it underneath the first strokes.

If you follow me on Instagram {@taraleaver} you will have seen most of these. This palette is unusual for me; I rarely use black but I was inspired by Mati Rose’s recent pieces on there too.

Besides, a new start is the perfect time to try doing things differently. It has been quite interesting putting things in place in the flat in accordance with how I live and want to use the space. That will evolve over time and a lot of it is provisional just to get rid of the cardboard boxes, but I find myself intrigued by the possibilities of how I might like to live that is different from before, from the obvious {beach alert} to the tiny daily details.

I’m really loving this painting; it’s not finished quite yet but not too far off I think. I have ideas growing and turning over in my mind as I slowly pull the studio together. Right now it looks NOTHING like the above images, as everything is unpacked but not yet put away in an orderly fashion {ha}; I have enough art materials to amuse a small army it turns out!

And I hope that I will. Amuse, inspire, offer a healing and fun place for people to find their way back to their own creative selves. It would be a crime not to share that space. And although I’m kind of terrified, now that it’s so much nearer {I’ll begin in the new year}, it still feels right.

It feels so good and comforting to be speaking to you again. Moving is a discombobulating thing, whichever way you look at it, and it feels a little like a touchstone to come here and show and tell a little bit. Thanks for being here.

Filed Under: acrylic painting, art development, creative spark sessions, home, journey, mixed media art, mixed media painting, painting, process, studio Tagged With: art studio, new home, new painting