Thursday October 21, 2010

Spring cleaning

Hello all,

I am doing a big 'sorting and cleaning' of my office space and have unpacked boxes that I didn't know I had (you know how it is :) and I just discovered some treasures...

One of these wonderful finds was my daughter's first lock of hair! As you can see on the right, she's now a beautiful teenager with plenty of gorgeous hair to replace that lock that I snipped off 18 years ago :)

In that spring clean, I found a whole bunch of other memorable things, including a stack of journals that I had lost.

And so I started to read one of them from many years ago, in which writing about how grateful I was to my good friend Simon for a gift he had given me - a wonderful book called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Simon gave it to me the very year I took up studying art... and boy did that change my life!

"Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable" -B. Ueland

That was one of the lovely quotes in The Artist's Way - its a treasurehouse of wisdom to bring out the creativity in you. Julia Cameron has written many more books since, all highly recommended.

Nurturing Creativity: a great TED talk

Elizabeth Gilbert is the bestselling author of the book Eat Pray Love, and I just found out, she's also an amazing, inspiring speaker. For an entertaining and intelligent 18 minutes check it out here .This talk was just wonderful and it reinforced my belief that creativity can and must be nurtured in EVERYONE, and how excited I am to be able to help others tap into theirs through the medium of paint.

Painting for Beginners: in just Seven Steps

I truly feel that anyone with an interest in painting can learn, you just need to be shown how! My Seven Step process is one way, and if you'd like to 'nurture your creativity' at one of my One Day Intensive Workshops for Beginners.

This is what one of my very lovely students said after last Sunday's workshop:

"Thank you so much for such an enjoyable workshop. We have been talking about it this morning and both enjoyed it very much... the flow of the Beginner's Class is perfect... together with your style of teaching which is brilliant and puts everyone at ease." - J.P.

It's amazing what people will say when you give them chocolate :)

If you'd like to give it a go, all my Beginner's Classes this year are now full, so I have opened a new class on Sunday Nov 14th at my Shenton Park studio. To register your interest in a class, or to go on my waiting list for next year, just email me. I also do lovely decorative gift vouchers, which make a thoughtful, creative gift that keeps on giving :)

Visit the site »

This summer, on some Mondays and Tuesdays,I will be holding classes at a wonderful new venue in the Eastern suburbs: The Old Bakery Gallery and Cafe on Eighth, in Maylands. I have held 2 solo exhibitions there and 4 workshops, and it is a lovely place! We start there on Monday Jan 10th, check out the other dates on my website

Done a Beginner's Class? What next?

If you're thinking of doing a Follow up class:

Workshop no. II (Taking it Further)
Fri Oct 29 (Shenton Park)
Sat  Nov 13th (Shenton Park)
Dec 5th (in the Hills)

Workshop III (Focus on Colour)
Sunday Oct 31

Or simply repeat a Beginner's Class as a refresher for $135

Contact me for further details.

On a personal note...

I'd like to thank you all for the warm wishes for my husband, Greg's journey with cancer. The good news is that he is getting stronger and responding well to treatment, and we are very thankful for all the support and prayer directed our way.

As always, thank you for your friendship and time :) and hope to see you around the next creativity corner...

I wish you all the very best,

PS I'd like to recommend some other ways of nurturing your creativity both with your hands (and your tummies): If you are interested in pastels, and exploring your personal growth through art, I thoroughly enjoyed Dawn Meader's class, and the wonderful fabric sculptures taught by Brenda Sinclair-Jones, Wrapture Art workshops - these artists are lovely people who teach their skills with excellence and joy. And for the most creative and delicious cakes that are completely edible art, visit Cakes by Shanthi.