in pursuit if a blissful studio

i so love books. can't get enough of them. mainly non-fiction though.

i recently bought an android tablet so i can carry a library of books around with me.  loving the download.

but when i buy art books or decorating books, or books with pretty pictures i still really like to look at them in hard copy. not sure why. i can do mags on the tablet, but books are a little different for me. i am sure this will change though.

my latest book obsession is this ....

 ... from the people that publish WHERE WOMEN CREATE magazine and books.  

me oh my, the studios that some lucky ducks get to work from. i have no idea how they do it.  how they keep them so tidy and looking so divine (perhaps they don't and they all had a big tidy blitz before the photographer arrived ...hmm can't fool us).  i want to move in to so many of them and live there. such inspiration.  i particularly am crazy about the studios that use all sorts of vintage goodies and furniture to store and display.

here are some pages of total gorgeousness ...

 this is my favourite of the studios in the book. it looks like a vintage conservatory doesn't it?

 i so love the shelving. at first i thought it was some kind of vintage wall cupboard (which it may be), but on closer inspection it looks like it is a back piece of timber, funky brackets and shelves with rails so things don't fall off.  love it, and don't think it wouldbe too difficult to make one.

 more shelving with rails

like this room although it is a little too organised and neat for me, and I think I'd need lighter walls, but I did like the dimensions.  check out the legs on that desk ... me oh my...

i am so inspired to decorate my studio, and have all the vintage bits i would need as i have been collecting for years. but i have a small work room and far too much stuff and every time i decide to start I get so overwhelmed when i realise all that has to be done that I decide to have a cup of tea and think about it (or buy some more organisational books like this one), and then nothing gets done.   

but I know this book will inspire and motivate.  yes it will.

quick & quirky quote no. 6

inspired to paint ... true bloom is for you

no ... i didn't paint this (oh how I wish) - flora bowley did

back here i was mad for signing on to new art courses then found i didn't have time to do them as they overlapped and i was doing other stuff ... i'm sure you know what i mean.  well i am now about half way through the online fantastic-amazing-loving-it-more-than-i-thought flora bowley true bloom online course (fortunately for me the course is available online for six months after the class closes so you can catch up. phew).

even though i am only half way through, i so so so recommend this if you are interested in art in any form.  forget that you can't paint or have never ever tried ... her thing is teaching you to paint intuitively and at the end of the course i know you will say 'yay - i can paint' .  you might even say  'yay i can paint and i just found a new career'.  really.

  flora's intuitive approach is based on just going with the flow and discovering what emerges ... layering paint and laying some more paint.   so enlightening and encouraging and FUN.  i'm only half way through (is that the third time i said that?), but am transformed in my thinking and my approach to painting.

so what i am trying to say is that if you would like to learn to paint, don't know where to start, have never painted before, have been painting for years but love to do art courses, open to new experiences ...... then this is the girl and the course for you. and flora is soooo delightful.

if you check flora's blog you will see some examples of students work from the first ever online class (that i enrolled for but am just getting to).  the next course starts in the next week or so, so get to it if you're interested.

 ... and here is a photo of the the very talented flora in her studio.

date with donna

back here i was waffling on about all the art courses i was trying to get through, so i thought i'd report back on the donna downey course as that is the one i have managed to actually finished (nothing like having to physically turn up to something to get it completed).

if you have not yet encountered the lovely donna, she is this kooky (i love kooky) american mixed media artist.  she is totally mad for the colour teal - her own admission - and was wearing a teal cardie, her glasses were teal in the dame edna style (with diamantes of course) and the front of her hair was also that gorgeous teal colour (she said that she stands out dramatically in the vanilla town where she lives and receives both positive and negative comments about her hair).

the class was great, learnt lots about backgrounds, colours, techniques.  it was an art journalling class and we were all given these deee-vine hand made fabric covered journals to start work on.

my biggest stumbling block with starting an art journal has been messing up a perfectly good and usually beautiful journal with paint and glue and stuff that i may not really like when i'm finished.  so going to this class and having to immediately get stuck in and  into a apply paint to this totally glorious journal was very ... what's the word .... liberating!  i had no choice but to dive in and smear a heap of paint on a very white page in a beautiful journal.  i now realise that its ok to mess up something that is beautiful, well hopefully not messing up - more like enhance it's beauty.  yes, that is what i do isn't it? 

  you can find more info about donna here .

 so here are some photos of the day.

Donna in action

a couple of girls came over from NZ for the weekend course and one had this hilarious (and very NZ) apron which Donna found hugely amusing ... as we all did.

the kept us fortified with delicious food

my beautiful handmade journal

 

this is one of Donna's amazing art journals ....

.... and this is one of the pages from the journal.

courses and classes

i am crazy for doing courses at the moment. 

i've just finished the most amazing course for creative businesses called 'Hello Soul Hello Business' - how to have a business with soul.  loved it loved it loved it.  met some great women from all around the world, and  I seriously could not recommend this course more. it so exceeded my expectations ... i think it exceeded them by a thousand per cent if that is possible.  having said that there was a lot of content and a lot of homework, and it was really easy to get behind (which I and others did regularly so much so that they added an extra week long break in the middle of the course so everyone could catch up). they covered so much more than i expected and i learnt so much more than i thought i would ever need to know.  the course was created by two highly experienced women that I totally and utterly admire - kelly rae roberts and beth nicholls .  so worth considering this course if you run your own business. love love loved it.

typical me thought I would be able to manage and juggle far too much, and then drop half of it. when I registered for the HSHB course, i also thought i'd register for the Flora Bowley course True Bloom and do the two together.  clueless.  then again that's maybe being a little tough on myself .... i really didn't expect the HSHB course to be as in depth and time consuming as it was. so i did two classes only of true bloom and that's it.  fortunately you can access the classes for 6 months so that is my next little adventure.

there's more ..... this sunday i will be at a 5 hour art journalling course run by donna downie .  so excited i could ... well not sure what i could do but i'm sure you get the idea.  it's going to be great!!

Is it Christmas in April??? My ABCD Meetup Stash...

last night at the ABCD Meetup was just great. i met so many wonderful and talented and fearless girls, i was in awe of so many of them.  makes me realise that i can make a living from my art.  

and i got such great and needed information that will save me hours and hours of research.  thank you so much.

..... and the stash from the goodie bags. wowee.  such beautiful and creative things, check out the photo .....

bliss.