Back From Omega Institute Retreat - Wonderful!!

I had a truly wonderful time last week.
I went on a Rest and Rejuvenation retreat at the Omega Institute in the country near Rhinebeck, New York.
It was beautiful, peaceful and definitely rejuvenating!
My campsite was at the top of a big hill and the entire grounds are hilly so I can't say it was restful but the exercise was good for me.
The food was buffet style, abundant and wonderful - gluten-free options at every meal.

I spent many hours at a table in their cafe or on it's patio drawing and painting.  My favourite drawing was gifted to a woman there who gave me an Eden Energy Medicine session that I could immediately tell had changed my life.  The results have stayed and it's so awesome!  The photo is unfortunately not the best quality but I'll share anyway:

I found myself just being present and, as a result, only took photos on the final day - and not many!  I have a few regrets about the lack of photos but zero regrets about being that present and relaxed.  I didn't worry even once about my cats, gardens or house.  In fact I hardly worried about anything at all (I'm usually a chronic worrier).

Here are a few Omega grounds pictures.  Click on them to see a larger view:

Pathway to library and gardens

Impressive organic cantaloupes!  They were delicious.

Stunning views on the drive there and back along the wonderful Taconic State Parkway

Creating My Own Artist's Retreat... ideas wanted!

I am excited to be camping at The Omega Institute next week for 5 days.

I will be doing what they call an R&R retreat which basically means I make my own retreat.  I can attend daily open classes in yoga, meditation, tai chi and movement.  I can also swim in the lake, use the sauna, library and sanctuary and explore the 195 acre grounds in rural upstate New York.

Not many of the free classes appeal to me so I've decided to create my own "Artist's Retreat".
I will draw myself a schedule (that leaves lots of room for swimming, hiking etc).

I have come up with a few things so far and I would love to add some more!

Who among my readers has ideas or themes for me?

Please don't be shy!   
Leave anything and everything that comes to your mind in the comments section! ☺

 

Themes and ideas I have so far (not in order yet):

watercolour "dots and circles"

art journal/poetry/doodle themes: "inner peace", "dissolve pride, make room for love", "belonging to myself", "enjoying the now", "opening up", "expanding"

sketching/drawing "close up plant details"

watercolour "stripes and lines"

EFT on limiting beliefs about making a living through creating

sketching/drawing "shading practice" (I have zero shading skills)

watercolour "triangles"

Here are the materials I will have with me:

watercolour paints

limited supply of watercolour paper

coloured gel pens

black micron pens of various thickness

limited supply of markers

pencil and eraser

gluestick

scissors

loose blank paper

large art journal

small sketchbook

super tiny sketchbook

I truly will love reading your ideas!  I so much enjoy how other people's minds come up with things that I never would have - often things that are so rich and stretch me beyond my familiar patterns.

Summer Mornings... flowers and walks

Summer has been a time of less sitting in front of the computer.
I begin my mornings instead by visiting my flowers to see what colourful treats have opened anew each day.  Today I have, among other things, Morning Glories in blue, white, 2 shades of purple, pink, fuschia and red (cardinal climbers).  Scarlet and pink sweet peas astound me with their delicious scent.  Zinnias impress me with their long lasting blooms (over a month now!) and various colours of Cosmos satisfy my urge to 'deadhead' and keep blooming prolifically!  My camera is still getting repaired so I have no photos.  These poppy photos are from about a month ago:

'Poppy in waiting' and close up of a poppy petal shortly after it unfurled.

Many days I go for an early walk and marvel at wonderful skies, brave rabbits and the amazing aerial acrobatics of swallows harvesting bugs from the air! Although it was only a few individual swallows, it led me to find this awesome video - how cool would it be to see something like that in person!?!

I love being awake earlier.  When less people are out and about I feel there is more space and I can spread my spirit out.

Morning Glory, Zinnia and Cosmos from previous years:

Under the Shagbark Hickory Tree

A provincial park near me has a wonderful tree that I love to sit under.

It's a huge, mature Shagbark Hickory that takes a while each spring to fill out... but when it does... it's glorious!

Lush, thick leaves tower toward the sky, providing welcome shade on hot summer days.  It has a nice amount of space under it where there are no branches - more than 8 feet of clearance.

I take a chair, blanket, snacks, book and camera and can happily spend a day there.
Some lovely sights within a few feet of my chair:

This is the sunny St. John's/Joan's Wort, the plant that helps keep my mood balanced without side effects since I've become sensitive to pharmaceuticals. It works best for mild to moderate depression but I have found that it does help lessen my severe depression and SAD, especially now that I've discovered some other supplements that help including (but not limited to :) folic acid, selenium, B12, vitamin D and 5HTP.

One of these days I'd love to grow and harvest it myself instead of buying it.

(please consult health care provider before using anything I mention :)

Does anyone know what kind of butterfly that is? 

P.S.

Just for fun... here's a photo of my cat sitting on a box... why not!?  ☺☺☺  He loves boxes and was a bit put out that 'his box' had been turned on it's side so he could no longer do his fancy leap into it.  But he made it work for him this way too ;-)

Doodle: Don't Wait! Do Something You Love Today

Much to my excitement, I sold my first drawing recently.
It's on it's way, all across the ocean, to Finland!  How awesome is that!?
I have 2 more copies of it in the Etsy shop I just created and more can be made if there's a demand.

This inspired me to draw more - something I really love but hadn't done for a while.  'Kiitos' Michelle! ☺

Here is one of the things I drew in the last week.  At 2.75" x 3.25"  it's not exactly the right size to be a wallet card... or an ATC... it's just a cute little reminder.  The size was dictated by some cardstock scraps I had.
I laminated it when done to protect from moisture.  My opinion on self laminating sheets is not high after trying them.  I used the kind that does not require heat to bond - it's a simple adhesive.  It was relatively easy to use but not nearly as durable as I would have liked.  The bonus was no fumes.  :-)

Apropos of nothing I'd like to say that ♥♥♥ I love, love, love my Micron pens. ♥♥♥  Wonderfully crisp lines that, once dry, most markers will not smear when colouring.

Front and back before colouring:

After colouring (unfortunately I really can't capture how vibrant the colours are in real life):

If you have a keen eye, you may notice that more detail got added after colouring.  I always want to add more and more.  Hard to know when to stop!
I will be taking my camera in to 'repair'.  Which usually means they just give me a new, upgraded one :-)
Maybe I will be able to take better photos soon!  Yay!

New Hard Drive... and a minor earthquake!

Sorry to have been incommunicado for a while.  My hard drive died.
I have a new one now and have finally worked out all of the tech issues (I hope!).
Soon I will have my photos back on here and can share some of what I've been up to creatively :-)

My little bit of 'excitement' recently:
I experienced an earthquake yesterday!  Well... just the mild tremors of the aftershock :-)
There was a mild, 5.0 earthquake centered in Quebec and it could be felt up to 500km away.  Yesterday afternoon I suddenly felt the house shaking and things on top of the fridge began to rattle.  In passing I mildly thought, "Maybe it's an earthquake... nah, just a big truck somewhere nearby."  But later found out there had, indeed, been an earthquake.  Not a common occurrence here at all.  I think the last one was over 10 years ago.  Of course this can really only be 'exciting' if no one gets hurt - which no one did from what I could tell.

I'll leave you with a photo from a few summers ago of where I'm daydreaming of being (instead of in the hot, humid, icky weather at home):

Bruce Peninsula National Park, Ontario, Canada.

Wild, breathtakingly beautiful, freezing cold water even in August (which never, no never, stops me from swimming :).

If you're somewhere hot, what do you do to keep cool?

Creatively Processing 'Darker' Emotions

I am a person with tendencies towards deep depression at times and have found creativity to be one of the few things that can help get me through those times.
Sometimes the 'darker' emotions are strong enough that I feel stuck creatively.
Those are times when I pull out magazines and go through them to find material for collages or art 'journal' pages (a bit of a misnomer since there is often very little journalling... but I'm not sure what else to call them).


Often, the images I will be drawn to cut out reflect my emotional state.
By the time I have cut out images for a while, I've been brought more into the present moment and reconnected with my creative juice - and am then able to collage or art journal.
Sometimes, this process actually lifts me out of the difficult emotions.  It feels healthy and healing - like the emotions are actually being processed, not ignored or shoved inside to hurt me.

Here are a few pages I did a while ago - adding to them each time I was in a dark place.  Sometimes these pages get journalled on later.

I give  myself permission to be messy :-)
In the above page, the background was done, in part, using this technique I came up with to create a  random/chaotic look on thin papers that would warp with wet mediums.

In the above piece, I wanted a messy stamp and didn't have one so I carved one from an eraser (stamp carving is another thing that can totally absorb me and bring me into the moment).

Are there certain creative things that can help you when you feel sad, angry or down?

Finding Beauty In Everyday Things

I try to notice the beautiful in everyday things - pleasing colours, shapes, textures and light.
Here are some pictures of things that have made me smile recently (apologies for the poor photo quality - neither my camera or editing program are great):

Vibrant pollen on Jacob's Ladder stamens - these smell divine!

Variegated yellow corn on the cob dripping with butter looked so wonderful against the blues of this awesome plate my mom made (she's a potter)

Both of the cats fit together on the tiny stool!  Which is more impressive if you know how... erm... wide the cat on the left actually is :-)   The cats love open windows.

I loved the contrast of the purple and green on this spring violet.

Luscious buttercup soaking up the sun.

I couldn't resist another photo of this amazing plate.  It is the most perfect toast plate ever!  I eat some pretty curious food - that's gluten-free toast and sunflower seed 'butter' with stevia sprinkled on top (to make it sweet) and sliced organic banana on the sides.

Tutorial: Making Colourful Backgrounds That Won't Warp Thin Papers

I finally created a photo tutorial for the art journal backgrounds I've been talking about.

The technique can also be used in card and tag making, bookmarks, collage, ATC's, handmade wrapping paper or anything you can think of!
I'd love if you shared your ideas in the comments area :-)

This is mostly a 'dry' technique meaning that it won't cause thin paper to warp or buckle when applied.
I do also include a variation of this technique that is 'wet' for those who don't mind buckling or who use thicker paper.  The wet version has some really awesome effects like these (and even more fun ones if you colour-mix):

I confess that I hate typing so I've written the directions right in the photos.  If anyone has trouble reading my messy printing, please let me know and I will type out the directions below each photo.
Also, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask them in the comments area.  I've turned off that pesky comment security device so you don't have to type in any characters before commenting :).

Okay... here we go!

*note*
I should have specified NON permanent markers :-)

*other types of plastic may give different effects - experiment if you like!

Eventually I will post a video showing just how quickly this is actually done :-)  The faster, the better.

 

WET Technique:

 

close-up:

 

~

 

If you try any of this out and post somewhere online, please share in the comments area!  I love seeing what others do :-)