Exhibition!! 6th-12th of July!

This blog is most of the time about zentangle. But this time it is also about my painting . I am working towards an exhibition in Harg´s bruksgård 6th - 12th of July. It is lasting only for one week but I look forward to do this, the place is beautiful and filled with ancient history! I am sharing this exhibition with my dear friend Gerd Vading, since the place is large and we are going to have a lot of fun during this week when we are together! Today I finished the last of my bigger paintings, 100x80cm, so now I will begin the work to frame them and get them all signed properly.

"Letters" - Tempera/oil on canvas 80x100 cm.

This painting is made in tempera/oil and also a little collage-work. The last years I have been working a lot with mixed media and I will also show these works on the exhibition besides Zentangle and ZIA:s of course. 

Has the zentangle method affected my other artwork? I belive it has. At least I am not aiming for perfectionism any more. I paint for joy. And I am convinced that there are no misstakes in painting either. Since I work with non-representational art I also try to leave the planning as much as I can and work intuitively. Ofcourse technique has to do with it, working with oil and tempera includes some planning, if it doesn´t the painting will fall apart pretty soon. But I am trying not to worry and not to overplan anything. I am doing sketches, yes, but that is most of the time just to set me off! The zentanglemethod has been encouraging in itself and I hope this will be obvious in my work on this exhibition. 

Zenbuttons and My Tile 2

Zenbutton is a quite new word in Zentangle World. Marguerite Sammama brought it up. Here is the background and how to do it!

I practiced on Bijou some time ago, during the Valentangle-period, but didn´t get hooked. I have seen a lots of beautiful buttons around which made me want to give it a go one more time. This time I didn´t think button at all, but reticula and fragments. Which happened to be the clue. Yes I have read Marguerites guide before and I knew where she got the idea from. But it just didn´t speak to me. This time I made it on a tan tile 8,9x8,9 cm, which I had got from my friend Marie Penzing. I have run out of rennaisance tiles...
 Don´t exactly know what was the difference this time, but I didn´t think much of the result but focused on one stroke at a time. Oh there was an Oops! I appreciated this Oops, it led me into another direction, making my Chop as a fragment on the button! I think I will use it some other time, it was fun! The fragments I used on this Button are: G23, D16, C4, V5 and Lisbon Fragment (Henrike Bratz). So happy with this button I had to do one more the next day:

Well I have ran out of rennaisance tiles and I am looking for substitutes, since the originals are not easy to get in Sweden. I took a cardstock from the back of a watercolorpad which is accid-free. It is heavyweight though and with a hard surface. My cutting-machine didn´t like it at all. I forced it to cut though and now it has got a terribly squeezing sound when I touch it! It maybe kills my cutter but I loved this surface a lot and the pens didn´t have any problem with it.
This time I used the fragments: T5, K3, H16 and Chrissie Frampton´s fragment from her pattern Jackstripes. Instead of using a fragment in the center I made a little gem, which I don´t draw often. 

Today´s meditation. I wanted to do one more for My-tile-project. I wanted to try it on a black tile, which was really fun! My firs tile you find here.

Tangles of my choice except for the month:
And (Sandra Harsveld) : Anita 
Wacho (Livia Chua): Westin
Cubine (Zt) : August
Tipple (Zt) : Favouritetangle

I am thinking of using this concept further on but not referring to myself. It is such a good concept, I love it. Thank´s to Nancy Domnauer who came up with the idea!

16th-18th of July and IAST 252

The summertangles continues with Dillo (Lori Manoogian), a day for a Gem in company with a lot of stuff and then XYP (Zt) with Cubic (Karl Stewart) and Cubine (Zt). About the Gem. I seldom draw gems, though I find them quite interesting and relaxing to draw. I also find them meditative. But they are dominant and easily takes the focus from the rest of the drawing. Here with my gem the other patterns drawn are Meer, Tagh, Tipple, some baby Mookas (all Zt), Cruffle (Sandy Hunter) and LZ´s (mine).

IAST 252 was somewhat different this time. We should use Deeday (Angie Gistles) in a simple grid-string and then use this pattern also as a string. Here is what I came up with:

First I want to say that Deeday is an interesting pattern/fragment in itself worth exploring so I think I will go on with that further on. But here I used it as a string too and the patterns added are. Purk, Printemps, Striping (all Zt) an Zenplosion (Danny O´Brian). I made it on a tan tile, not original, but this surface is quite good to work on too.

Today I also finished a zentangle-inspired painting made in mixed-media. The heat outdoors makes me live in my cool studio which means I am very happy!!!

The pattern showing up in this painting is my latest favourite: Gottago (Lianne Woods). 

25th-30th of June and IAST 249

Arriving home safely from a trip to Östhammar, where we had a wonderful workshop with amazing people, I am able to post again! I start with the calendar:

The summer is in a mighty bloom and this shows in my calendar too! I started with Arc Flower (JJ La Barbera)- a long time no seen, I almost forgot how much I appreciate this pattern! Then I ran into Mumsy (Sandy Steen Bartholomew), with some Purdy (Margaret Bremner) and then Tri-Bee (Beate Winkler). 

On the 28th another flowerlike pattern was the starter: Cyme (Zt). And Cyme went into Daniel Lamothe´s Dreamcatcher! On the 29th I came to Östhammar and of course there was a lot of Rock´n Roll going on!! Giving the birth to Undu (Daniel Lamothe) and Asian Fans (Suzanne McNeill) and then ending with Mookas and Tipple.

I just have to show you the results from the workshop, since it was so lovely! Here are the pics:

Yesterday, before I started my travel back home, Gerd Vading, my hostess and I made a trip to an exhibition outside town. There I saw some wonderful pictures made by two participants of the workshop! These went straight into my heart:

 

Marja Forsberg has made a portrait of Lars Lerin (a Swedish great artist of watercolor). It is a weave, and it has so much of life in it! Here is a closeup:

And her son Leif Forsberg is a great painter. You can see for yourself:

I love the color and the unique expression in these two paintings!

Well, back home I sat down doing the challenge from Adele this week. It is challenge 249 and it is all about getting Abeko (Lynn Shelton Mead) and the Diva Dance into a string. 

The way it went was a little surprise to me, the Abeko totally took care of the rocking Diva Dance! I loved that!

Exhibition opening 12th of May!

This post is not about zentangle especially. Some patterns are to be seen though! tomorrow is the opening of the exhibition "Konst vid Rättviken" and this evening me and my friend Inger Meyer finished our collaborative work. We hope the weather will be fine tomorrow at the opening event at 12:00. Here comes some pictures:

One before pic:

The rest from tonight:

Close ups:

When we were finished Inger found these small mandalas beside the big one! We don´t know who made them, but we loved to find them!

The mandala will have a name: "Altering the News"