One of the promps for The Fall Fearless and Fly #5 challenge was to create a journal page based on "What lessons I have learnt from people I admire".

One person that I really admire is Deepak Chopra. The below journal page includes some of his wisdom. The way he describes consciousness really fascinates me.

" The simplest definition of consciousness is awareness. The two are synonymous. Consciousness is the potential for all creation. The more consciousness you have the more potential you have to create."

There are many famous people that I admire and that have taught me lessons... but I do have 3 people very close to me that I should listen to more and learn from. They still have a very uncomplicated relation and dialogue with their imagination and intuition and I want to encourage them to keep that!

Today me and my 6 year old daughter had a "Creative Wander". We packed our Art Journals, some coloured pencils and some watercolour. We wandered around the neighbourhood and stopped in different places to draw and paint in our journals. My daughter was leading us and I listened and followed her to inspire me. It is very exciting to let the kids lead and see what happens. I am not that good at it but I have decided that I will listen more and let their imagination and creativity teach me. I am really looking forward to our next Creative Wander!!

Stunning weather, a lot of people browsing through and great fun to meet potential customers and discuss art:-) Meya (my 6 year old daughter) helped me from 7 o'clock in the morning to set up until closing in the afternoon. Great day!

These two paintings where delivered to "A Square Foot" Exhibition at Creative Tauranga, New Zealand.

Two paintings delivered to "A Square Foot " exhibition held at Creative Tauranga Dec-Jan. The opening night is on Thursday!

These two girls are for sale at the Turner Gallery in Te Puna.

My solo exhibition at the Lightwave gallery has been extended another week:-) Last day will be the 18th of November. It has been a big success and I have sold a bunch of paintings.

The exhibition is called The Voice Within and includes 14 paintings. There is a little compendium, that goes with it ,that describes my thoughts about inutition, how I have been guided through the painting process and the lessons I learnt through the process. I have add all that information to my web The Voice Within - an Exhibition by Jenny Grant (This is the link to the exhibition page). Happy reading!

Below are some pictures from the opening day.

Date is set and paint is almost dry:-) My next solo exhibition will take place at the Lightwave Gallery in Mount Maunganui. Thank you Ken for all your help!!

The last couple of weeks has been very busy. I delivered the below 3 paintings to The Artist Den and Art Gallery in Auckland last weekend. The Lady in Black is already sold:-)

On Thursday I was featured in Sandra McCall's blog. Thank you Sandra:-)

On Friday I delivered the following two girls to The Turner Art Gallery in Te Puna.

And I am this week preparing for a solo exhibition at a local gallery starting on Saturday. Great fun! I will let you know more about this soon!

Have a great day!

Last week I finished The Lady in Black. She is painted on a 120 cm (47") long MDF board and is therefore quite solid and heavy. Her dress and the background are very textured. I have used both moulding paste and crackle paste and she has real feathers over her shoulders:-) 

The Lady in Black dances and enjoys life!

"Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions."
–Dalai Lama

She is for sale in Auckland. "The Lady in Black" is one of my three paintings that are being part of the Affordable Art Exhibition at the Artist Den and Art Gallery in Auckland that opened today.

The last 5 weeks I have been very brave and I have been focusing on trusting my intuition even more. I have been busy working with an online class by Flora Bowley, Bloom True. It has been great fun and a challenge at the same time. Flora is a lovely teacher and coach and she teaches her process and philosophy straight from her heart. She presents an approach to painting that celebrates intuition, connects body, mind and spirit and allows unique and expressive paintings to emerge naturally and authentically. Hey, do I looove that, or what!!

These five weeks have been very fun and intense and there has been a lot of frustration at times. Many nightly hours when the kids have been asleep. I have got stuck several times and I have also experienced some frustrating trying to finish some of my old paintings in parallell. But by letting go and being brave and trusting my intuition I have today finished one of the 10 paintings I have on going and I am very happy. In the beginning of the course I was a bit afraid that my paintings would be "Flora look a likes" but I really feel that my voice has come through in this process.

I will post more pictures later when I have time to make the last finishing touches. This weekend I am going to Auckland to deliver 3 paintings to a gallery. Great fun. I will also visit a new friend that I met thruogh the e-course. Isn't that cool! I met a friend through the net☺

Be brave and have fun!

I have had a very busy couple of weeks. We have had school holiday, which means that I have all three kids at home. I love it and we have spent a lot of time in the studio but there is not much time to do my own art.

I have been finishing a couple of paintings that I will post soon. I am also about to finish off the last couple of things for my next exhibition starting the 23 of October at the Artist Den and Art Gallery in Auckland. I am very excited about that. I will post more regarding that later.

I have also been painting in the on-line class Bloom True with Flora Bowley. I love it! Her process is based totally on intuition, which fits me perfectly. It has been great fun but has also introduced some frustration and I will post more regarding that soon☺

Today I finished an art journal page for the Fall Fearless and Fly challenge at Artists in Blogland that I am participating in. It is hosted by two talented artists Jessica Sporn and Carolyn Dube. They also have a great line up of guest artists. The first challenge is to create around what my goals are for 5, 10 and 15 years from now. I started my page without thinking too much, as usual. I let my intuition lead me, which is a very interesting process indeed. The left page is including the Flower of Life Mandala. The right page is a face doing Namaste. During the process of creating these pages I concluded that my goal for the next 15 years (and beyond) is to live in harmony. With this I mean to live in peace with myself. To achieve that I need to love myself as well as being compassionate to my self and others. Nothing is holding me back to reach this... but my self.

The Flower of Life Mandala is considered to be a symbol of sacred geometry and has provided deep spiritual meaning and forms of enlightenment to those who have studied it (Wikipedia). Leonardo da Vinci fascinates me and he studied the Flower of Life's form and its mathematical properties and included it in his art.

Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart chakra. The gesture is done by bringing the hands together at the third eye and lowering them to the heart chakra and it increases the flow of Divine love. Bowing the head and closing he eyes helps the mind surrender to the Divine in the heart. Namaste is done as a symbol of gratitude and respect and to allow the truth to flow—the truth that we are all one when we live from the heart (Aadil Palkhivala ).

This is all for now but I will soon be back with more:-)

Namaste

I am in a real flow at the moment. I have heaps of paintings going on at the same time  (as usual). I love it! Music is on high, moving from one canvas to the other, adding layers after layer. The studio is a mess!  I am amazed that I can find what I am looking for while working... but I let the mess be a part of the creative process. Sometimes I pick up the "wrong" colour, splashes from one painting ends up on another canvas or I can't find what I am looking for so I grab something else instead. It is great fun to let that be a part of the process.  It is amazing what appears when you let the painting develop kind of by itself...

I hope that I will be able to show some finished stuff soon.

Have a great day! 

I have been working on a couple of big canvases lately (I hope to finish them soon to show you)...  but this morning I did not have any inspiration at all. I picked up my art journal and found my flow!!

It is amazing how changeing format or medium can kick of the inspiration. The girl is inspired by a doll that I found on the net a long time ago and she spoke to me, so I had to paint her:-) I started with gluing a paper bag into my journal. I love the texture that gives me. I then used graphite, color pencils, water soluble pencils, acrylics and inks. I love the result!

I am now part of The Trodden Path artist community and my friend and teacher Joyce van der Lely is giving a way a FREE spot at her new Fresco Class. Click on the picture below and you can read all about how to be part of the draw. Make sure that you have  a look around her blog while you are there. She dose some great stuff!

I am getting ready for my first Open Studio Event. Tomorrow I will open the doors at 9am. I am very excited and are looking forward to discuss my art with people.

Latest  canvas off my easel.

"We need to listen to the voices within us that want further expression in our lives. We must make the unconscious conscious." – Julia Cameron

This painting has been hanging in my kitchen for several weeks, before finishing it the other day. The painting has evolved without a plan nor a goal. I love the process of adding and taking away as it feels right. To find the flow and just go with it is great. When I get stuck I hang my unfinished paintings in the kitchen. There they stay until I know what to do next.

Here I have used acrylic paint, paper, coloured pencils, glimmer mist and crackle paint. The texture is great. Her hair has changed colour along the way. She has had both blond and dark hair and ended up kind of red☺

They different objects in the painting kind of appear in my mind when I am zooming out, looking at the painting from a distance. When I finish it I check what some of the objects symbolizes. Usually very interesting!!

The lantern symbolizes light, such as intelligence, truth, and illumination. In Hinduism and Buddhism a lamp is a symbol of life. It can also be a symbol of clarity coming through and life revealing precious gifts to us. The tree has meant many things to many people throughout history, but the theme that runs through them all is humanity's psycho-spiritual journey from ignorance to consciousness. With roots that reach deep into the earth, arms that reach up to heaven, and trunks that connect the space in between.

I have finished two new paintings and one more is on its way. One of them will be donated to the kids school and it will be used as part of fundrasing for the new play ground. The painting will be auctioned tomorrow night at a Quiz Night Event. It will be very exciting to see the auction.

I joined Suzi Blu's online art school  Suzi Blu's Les  Petit Acadamy some time ago. Suzi is known for her unconventional art videos. I found Suzi's Inspiration Videos on Youtube and loved her down to earth style, her openess and the way she makes art. Her videos are informative and yet entertaining and Suzi gives alot of her self. She has such an uncomplicated relation to art.  It is fun to be part of an on-line community where art is shared and discussed. I also love to get hands on help and comments from Suzi.  

Thank you Suzi for the fantstic atmosphere and brilliant community that you have created! You give so much of yourself and I hope you get tones back!

The birdies below are inspired by the latest lesson in the workshop A lovely Dream. I have never been painting birds before but I loved it. It will not be the last time birds appear in my art:-)  The journal page is work-in-progress. I am now adding to the page based on comments from the artists in the community. Very exciting to see where it takes the page:-)

We had our last creative Tuesday in my Studio this week. Angela is moving back to Hong Kong to further develop her art and craft. Hope to see more of her on the web:-) We have had great fun beeing creative togther.

Angela, me in the middle and Sylvia on the right.

I was working on my painting "Love makes a house a home!"

One of my goals this year is to be more here and now... to be more mindful. Work-in-progress for sure. It is not easy but I remind myself several times a day to stop, relax and be happy in that moment.

I finished another face the other day and when I see her face I think she is mindful. She is neither sad nor happy, she is quite peaceful even though there seems to be a storm around her.

I love drawing these faces in my art journal. They do tell me a lot about myself and it is great fun... I did go a bit crazy with my new stamp set  in her hair but it kind of works:-)

I love the saying "The sky is the limit". There is no real limit, you only limit yourself. If you want something just go for it! It might take time and it might take a lot of hard work... eventually you will reach your goal BUT make sure you enjoy the process while going.

I started the journal page below while waiting for two friends that I paint together with. I drew the face in a text book, tore the page out, glued her into my journal. My friends arrived and  we were working during the day painting canvas backgrounds and at the end of the day I had some scrap paper and paint left.  When they left I continued on my journal page. I used the scrap paper and the left over paint but got stuck and did not know how to finish the page. The page was sitting for a day before I found the saying in my paper scrap box. Voila... that was the missing part for my journal page.

Finally I have the new look for my web site ready and published and my blog is up and running. This has been a-work-in-progress for some time. I have very high expectations for myself and I am almost never really happy with what I acomplish. I am good at focusing on the things I can do better instead of the things that I have done well. This is at the same time a big driver for me, but sometimes it makes me get stuck and not finish things. It also creates negative energy and I hate negative energy so why do I keep doing it? Good question! I always wants to do better. But face it... most things I do are "good enough"!

So I have decided that my website is good enough! Sure I can improve and add more but this is good enough!... for now:-)

I will try to be better at accepting "Good Enough" on a day to day basis! I was really good at it when I was preparing for my maternity leave at work this time last year (we have 18 months maternity leave in Sweden!). I seem to have forgotten that lately. Maybe "Good Enoough" is what I should call my Journal Page below... I can not decide if it is finished or not... hmm... let's call it Good Enough and just leave it there.

Talking about the journal page below, do you know the symbolic meaning of the butterfly? It fits well with my life at the moment. The butterfly is in many cultures and myths a symbol of transformation because of its impressive process of metamorphosis. In just a month the butterfly goes through the amazing transformation from egg, to caterpillar, to pupa and the pupa emerges into a fantastic beautiful butterfly. Think about the huge transformation she is undergoing and think about the energy that goes into that process!

Have a happy week!

Yippie!!! My friend Angela came back from Hong Kong this weekend and had a whole bag full of goodies for me. Some really nice stamps and dies. I can not wait until I have time to get to use all the stuff... I guess it will be some late nights ahead.

This week I also helped Angela to produce 30 tags for a trade show in Hong Kong. Great fun playing around with dies, inks and stamps. Work-in-progress shown below!

I cleaned up my "studio"... a corner of our garage:-) It very seldom looks like this though, but it's kind of cool when all the things are put away in the drawers. It feels like I should start something new... and I will:-) I will show you when it is ready!

This corner of the garage is, by the way ,my favorite corner of the house... and the kids love it as well. My husband is ok with it but he does not love it:-). I spend hours and hours in this corner. Mostly during night when the rest of the family is asleep!

Flow is such a fantastic state to be in. It is magic and I love it! The Wikipedia definition of flow is:

"Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity."

What amazes me is that in art the result  of flow is obvious. The amount and the result of me being in a state of flow is magic.

When painting this girl I was not in a state of Flow. I was pondering about how to get there and how obvious the difference is when working if I am in a state of Flow or not. I will definately get back to this in future posts. It is a subject that really interest me!

Hope you find your Flow and Magic!

I have been playing around with stamps and scrap paper lately wich is great fun. I  used a Suzi Blu stamp on this  canvas and I am really happy with the result. Her dress is made of scrap paper, stamps and distress inks. I love the process of creating the background. Layers and layers of paint, ink, paper, stamps and more. There is also mica powder and glimmer mist on her but thtat does not show that well in the photo.

Had a great day learning some new techniques for working with metal. We covered techniques such as embossing metal by hand but also using a Sizzix Bigshot. We were embossing decor pieces and I made a pen holder for Meya. I learnt about alcohol inks & paints on metal. Time just flies when you have fun. I would have loved to learn more:-)

This week I have been playing around with Distrss Inks, Stains and stamps together with my good friend Angela. We made some tags and a small canvas. Great fun! I love the effect of the distrss inks. The colours are very vibrant but still transparent. I will definately use these inks in my art journal and my art.