Colour me beautiful

Jamie's question this week was really interesting. "Has the wrecking moved to other parts of our lives?" Well, I've already mentioned that my house has never been so messy and frankly it is getting worse by the week, but it's also interesting to see the enthusiasm with which I'm using up all my art products - especially the ones I've been sitting on for years. I'm no longer so precious about them. I've been having a creative old time this week collaging on little boxes - ripping, sticking, painting... if the paper dries a bit creased it doesn't matter, if the rip goes wrong then that's cool too - it's just opening up another creative possibility.

It's funny, but as I wreck I often find myself planning out my blog in my mind; but the other day I did it the other way around. I lay in bed unable to sleep and thought about a page I had to tackle (colour the entire page). In my mind I wrecked and journeyed through the wrecking. You see, my original plan had been to paint a pretty picture but as I lay there thinking about it (and then jumping up to capture these thoughts on paper), I realised that I should just save that for my sketch book or an art journal. This is for new and unleashed creativity! So, I planned to just get out some colour and slosh it about in a Jackson Pollock fashion. Splashing, smearing, dragging and generally getting mucky. I imagined that at some stages the result would look quite cool but that I'd resist the temptation to just stop there and preserve my 'art' and carry on until it felt well and truly wrecked!

So, that's what I planned to write about then go and wreck. However, this felt a bit like cheating. It was too staged and planned. So, a few days later I just sat at the table surrounded by artistic paraphenalia and stuck colour on the page - paint, paper, fibre... you name it I stuck it. I even sprinkled some salt onto the watercolour (a large quantity of which seems to still be falling out of the journal). So, what did this exercise tell me - err not sure? Don't cheat? Was I cheating? Ah, what does it matter? I had fun and the page got coloured! I like it, it's messy and fun.

The gold page reminds me of being a child again and being oh so careful not to colour over the lines (I think I did better when I was 6!). The addition of shoe and handbag was another example of me being a bit bored by the task and adding a little extra interest and challenge - plus finding a use for these free stencils I got with a magazine a couple of weeks ago!

You can just see some writing on the facing page. Guess what... it was me blogging as I created again! I love the fact that I just grabbed the first piece of paper to hand - my journal - and wrote. I got wet gold all over my knuckles too!

Last thing to show you this week... a bit of fun with my 'sunset strip'.