Artist Renee Mak

I've recently completed three colorful owl paintings! They were created using pencil, water colour crayons, oil pastels, acrylic paint, glitter and last but not least... a collaged beak!  I've already sold one and these two are left! It all started one lazy Monday afternoon when I noticed a fabulous background that needed a focal point! I had been doodling cute little chunky owls for another project and so that's what came out!  And my doodled owls were very girlie with long curled eyelashes. Owlie Glam Series  11" x 14"  ...$98 The backgrounds are stamped and stenciled  with my favorite tools and  the layers are painted  with whimsey and freeform marks! Owlie Glam Series  11" x 14" ... $98 It was very important to me to keep a light, happy feel with painterly marks.   I like how the water colours add a dreamy quality to them... and how the backgrounds still peak through in different place...

   Flora Bowley! As part of celebrating my birthday all month long,  I signed up for an amazing painting adventure with artist  Flora Bowley !  Her new studio!  I'm so excited for class to begin  because I really love her work and also love learning new things about myself and painting!   Her eCourse is called "Bloom True" and it's about being  brave with art, exploring intuitive painting and  having tons of fun in the process! Here's the video introduction to the class... Flora Bowley Paints Online (2012) from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo . She travels all over teaching her fabulous style... her blog  often showcases the people she meets  and the beautiful places she goes. Book by Flora Bowley, 2012 Like many of my favorite artists, she has just finished  a book, pictured above, that I'm sure will be a great asset to my art library!  It's called  "Brave...

Doodles~ Week Three! Part One... Part one of Stylized Faces was to create a colorful mixed media background. The lesson started by taking a blank piece of Strathmore Series 400 Mixed Media Paper and markers and writing a few words on the page.  It could be anything... and won't really show in the end. I wrote CREATE  LIVE  LOVE.  Then several other marks  with markers was added. After that I added paint with a brush over the entire surface, using several similar colors.  Paint and glazing gel was used to  color over the words without entirely blocking them out. Everyday items, like bubble wrap, a medicine bottle and a plastic lid where then used to stamp a complimentary color onto the painting. I also used the back of a Starbucks coffee sleeve and a handmade flower stamp to add interest and layers. This process continued until I added several more layers and felt the piece was ready for step two... a styli...

CuRREntLy WoRKing oN! Here's what I'm currently working on... and... These are two 10" x 10" gallery wrapped mixed media canvases that I started as samples for a mixed media class.   The text is a page from a vintage book and you can faintly make out the chapter title "My Fight With A..." This intrigued me and so I plan on keeping it visible!   We all have  fights on our hands and I really like the idea of taking a "fight" and turning into something positive.   That's the point of my mixed media  class called "Trash to Treasure" . One of the things I LOVE so much about mixed media is the layering process and how the painting seems to get a life of it's own and tell you what it wants! I'd say that these two are almost finished... with a few more layers, a mantra and just a tiny bit of glitter! Happy Painting! xoxo

It's time for another Blue Mondays post ... I've been spending so much time painting doodles and have,  quite frankly, gotten carried away!   The studio is a wonderful place for me to get lost... even if just for a moment. I let the brightly colored paint take me places far far away... where the sun is shining, flowers are blooming and the leaves are still on the trees! Finding and following colorful doodles is easy and extremely freeing... with no plan or expectations, I just let the paint flow! The brush and  paint carry my thoughts out onto the paper as if it's magic. Of course the color blue always appears... and is always a welcome addition to  my piece! And so... here's one more post dedicated to the fabulous color Blue... and all the wonderful places it's been showing up in my doodles this past weekend! Have a fabulously colorful Monday... and don't forget to be creative today! ~XO~

Doodles... Week Two! The second week of Traci Bautista 's Doodles Unleashed Workshop is called Spontaneous Watercolor Backgrounds ! I love this exercise! I got to randomly spread color around and then  "find the doodle" in the color! I made this simple foam stamp and added green to  my yellow and orange background. Next I used silk flowers as stencils and continued  to build up my layers. "Finding the doodle" is the most fun... Layer by layer... Color by color... And mark by mark! Now to add additional marks, letterforms and any final details until I think it's done! Stay tuned for the finished piece... and if you still haven't signed up for this FREE workshop... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! It's just soooo much fun I want to share. xoxo

Sometimes life's road is filled with pot holes... This is something I know for sure. Sometimes we can see them.. and avoid them. Other times they completely surprise us and give us a very bumpy ride. This is just life. But... ..no matter what life's road brings... it's always better...  when you can paint!!! These pics are details of my latest works... not quite finished!