Impressions of Singapore

 My husband and I went on an eight day holiday in Singapore, staying in the central business district in a condominium with a pool.
 It was so humid we really needed that pool.

 

If  I could sum up Singapore in  four  words during Chinese New Year, it would be "lights, food, fireworks and flowers".

 

 

Every night we were treated to a feast of fireworks.

The flowers festooned every spot of exposed concrete  façade along the Highway as you travelled from the airport to the city.

 orchids and

 

 

haliconias were my favourites  

 

The colours of the lights at night on the water

Along with the large and long lighting displays.

Transformed the city at this time into a kaleidoscope of  romance and wonder.

The city of gardens certainly gave me some photographic images that I could manipulate into Impressionistic abstracts for years.

 

The water  in Singapore was abundantly flowing in a myriad of fountains throughout the city.
The taste of it was clean and  light on the tongue.
It was so soft it made my hair feel curly and feathery
Singapore imports all of its water from Malaysia.
It imports all of it's food.
And everything else.
The people are very focused on getting to where they were going. 

 I think the above photographic manipulations tells you of the essence of Singapore.

The lasting impression is of a place bursting with colour, flavour and fragrance.

 

 

The Jurong Bird park is enormous and in the humid heat it was only possible for us to stay for a couple of hours.

They had a mini train that transported you around the place which made it easier.

 

 

 

 The Flamingos were the brightest shade of pink that I have ever seen in a bird.

Due to  the humidity we did not  cover as many  tourist places as we would have like to because it was necessary to go home each day after a couple of hours and have at least two swims aand a mid afternoon nap.

 I am grateful for what we had and I am planning our next overseas adventure.

We should have booked for fourteen days to do it  justice.



Creative Quote:
Singapore is one of the greatest places in the world
Henry Golding.


 

Birds in coloured pencil

Miles with the rare Blue Mcaw parrot  in visual diary.
 Miles is a pleasure to have in my after school art class.
He is enthusiastic about mastering coloured pencil and has a genuine interest in illustrating birds.
He finds art making very relaxing and enjoyable.

 Miles with parrots in his visual diary
Coloured pencils are really good quality these days and they  are a no mess way of  achieving a colourful and surprisingly subtle and realistic result.
They are portable so you can make art easily.
They now come in a vast array of beautiful colours.

Water coloured pencil on water colour paper.
Water colour pencils are also easy to use and can give a luminous result depending on the quality of the paper.

Mixture of watercolour pencil in background with coloured pencil in foreground.

I have  a number of brands of good quality coloured pencils I use in the studio, so that pupils can have the experience of using resources like professional artists.

The pencils are fade resistant in case they want to frame and display their work.


Quote of the day
What can a pencil do for all of us? Amazing things. It can write transcendent poetry, uplifting music, or life-changing equations; it can sketch the future, give life to untold beauty, and communicate the full-force of our love and aspirations. Adam Braun

Vision Boards. Ask the universe you shall abundantly receive.

 

Vision Boards.  Ask the universe you shall abundantly receive.  

People are divided into two camps.

Those that believe in the power of vision boards to materialise success, joy, good health, love, and anything else you desire.  

And those that scoff and say “that’s too childish, I’m not doing it.”

 I believe that as an adult if you are not prepared to focus on your inner child sometimes, you are missing out on a lot of fun. 

 All work and no play make Jack and Jill dull people.

 I always encourage my pupils to make one at the start of the year so they can dream and plan.  

A simple activity like cutting out images you like from magazines or newspapers and sticking them on boards where you can see them daily are possibility magnets. 

 If you Google vision boards online you will see testimonies of people from all over the world who live by them.  

I would love to be run more paid vision board workshops for people and places so I’m going to put that on my next vision board and see what happens.

I ran a vision board workshop at a Toastmaster convention for around thirty people and all of them,   gave me glowing feedback about how much they enjoyed it.  

Some of them even emailed me later telling me how creating the vision boards had clarified their public speaking goals and reignited their desires to step out of their comfort zones.

Vision boards have a number of benefits. 

They don’t cost much to make. They are quite easy and quick to create.

 They teach people the magic of goal setting and faith.  

You don’t have to have any art experience. 

You feel plenty of pleasure cutting things out with scissors because it’s relaxing and meditative

So why not give it a try, what have you got to lose? 

Materials needed

Blank piece of A4 paper.

 Black pen or coloured felts

Scissors

Pile of old magazines

Glue

Paintbrush to apply glue

A3 to A2 sized cardboard

Instructions

On a piece of white paper write out five key desires.

Grab your scissors and magazines and flick through them, when an image or a word jumps out at you, cut it out.

Cut out around ten to twenty images plus words you like, depending on the size of your board

Stick them onto your board.

Cut out your five  hand written desires and place them on your board.

Don’t worry if the images and words don’t match. 

Place the board somewhere where you can see it every day

See what happens and expect some super surprises.

Creative Quote of the week

In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.

Dalai Lama

Art and mosaic classes and workshops for adults and children, Monday to Wednesday mornings and afternoons.

 Phone Janet Keen on 346-3435 or email janet@jkeen.net

Art pupils to be grateful for.

 

Each person is encouraged to express themselves. 

In this case gold is a favourite colour and a cat is a favourite animal.

 
 People are encouraged to follow his or her dream as far as art producing goes. 

Robots in this case were a strong interest so i say go for it.

 

Anthropomorphism ( depicting animals with human characteristics)  is my favourite thing and  I  think it is these series of works that I really like a lot

 But  I  don't  decide  what what type of animal  the pupils depict.

 In this case he liked the pug dog so we went with it and we made up a story about him afterwards. 

 

This pupil loves MCaw  parrots so my husband cut out the outline and she mosaiced it in glass tiles.

Horses were an obvious favourite in this mixed media work. 

 

I love children to work in series.

Mosaic bunnies in broken china are so cute. 

I am grateful to be working with such lovely young people. 
I enjoy helping them to discover their creative dreams. 
I am lucky to be doing a job I like. 

Quote of the week  
"Celebrate what you want to see more of"
Tom Peters


After school Mosaic and painting lessons. 
Monday 3.30 to 4.30 and  4.30 to 5.30
Tuesday 3.30 to 4.30 and 4.30 to 5.30
Wednesday 3.30 to 4.30 and 4.30 to 5.30

 374 Clayton Road,
Rotorua 

Ring 3463435 or 0273513887 for your free  creativity consultation.

New After school lessons and Adults lessons using Resene Testpots . Enrolling now

Make a series of six paintings with different painting techniques using Resene Tests pots. 
(All lessons are  exclusive and copyrighted in Rotorua by Janet Keen Painting School) . 2019


  All paintings are students work.
Floral Fun texture and dripping with Resene Acrylics
No experience necessary

 Children's book illustrating, depict your favourite nursery rhyme with Resene acrylic paint 
It's fun

 Do a Jackson Pollock expressive painting with Resene testpots.
It's exciting

Do a patchwork  collage bird  ( fantail) with magazine cut outs and White Resene testpots.

It's vibrant and relaxing

 Collage and mixed media with Resene paint.
Everyone is different 
It's a mindful, peaceful, time out, experience. 

Pupils work copyrighted.

Simplified landscape using Resene paints, gold leaf  and black pen, also teaching you how to paint  with additives to  glaze and make your paintings glow.

Adults  two hours for 6 sessions :
Wednesday mornings 9.30am to 11.30 am 

After school Children one hour for twelve sessions.
Wednesdays from 3.30pm to 4.30pm  

Phone 346-3435 or 027 3513887 
To enrol. 

374 Clayton Road, 
Rotorua.
Email :janet@jkeen.net

 If you are genuinely interested, Ring for a free consultation. 346-3435 or 0273513887.


Please note to achieve a finished product you will most likely need to do some homework.
I will provide materials here and tell you which Resene testpots to buy.

 You will also be set some  simple drawing exercises that will be relaxing that you can do infront of the tv.  
 You will need a visual diary and some graphite pencils after the first lesson.
The only way you are going to have accelerated success is to commit to the six weeks, do the homework, have fun and don't be too critical of your first efforts.
Be kind to yourself it's not a competition, Rome wasn't built in a day.  
 We are all on a journey and I am a very patient and understanding teacher.

Every child is an artist the challenge is how to remain one once you grow up. Picasso

Art of Illustration Classes For Adults and Children.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Mornings from 9.30am to 11.30am For Adults.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Afternoons from 3.30pm For children and young adults.

374 Clayton Road, Rotorua
 If you are genuinely interested in lessons
 Phone 0273513887 or email janet@jkeen.net for a free creativity consultation.
Enrolling now for 2019

 The idea of dealing with demons was suggested by a writer friend of mine.

 A hedgehog ran up to me when I was weeding at the back garden.
 He snuffled my toes and ran off.
 I was quite surprised but I felt he was trying to tell me a message.
If I go into my intuition I think he was trying to tell me that there is a place for everyone in my garden and to leave some areas messy for snuffling in.
The garden is organic, no sprays, plenty of snails for birds and hedgehogs.

 I went to the Auckland zoo and saw the Meercats.
 About two thirds of the zoo was closed and the Meercats were one of the most interesting displays.
I love the little watch cats who  sound alarms when threats turn up
I was a bit disappointed with the zoo that day because I wanted to see lots of animals.

 I was at Ohiwa harbour by the sea and lots of birds were swooping around chattering.
 I have a theory that all living things have a language and we need to be still to hear  and decipher what they are all talking about.
Quite often I sit in the country and just be still and which birds turn up and I always  talk to them.

I would love to have a free pet bird that I could get up close and personal with. I don't like birds in cages. I spend a lot of time talking and feeding birds but they are a bit wary in my garden because of my cat.

My cat follows me everywhere in the garden, in the studio, to the compost and inside when I'm playing my keyboard and working on my computer.
He has his own chair at the dinner table but he's not allowed to have food scraps from our plates. Occasionally he catches rats but not often, he seems to prefer to sleep. he also is not a great fighter so his ears are intact not like Gary my last cat who was a great warrior.
 Gary was a devoted as jasper but in a different way All cats to me are Gods.

Wherever I go I illustrate.
Every country is different, every location different.
It is a rewarding pastime because it makes you appreciate your surroundings as you lose yourself in mindful creation.

Picasso said that painting is another way of writing a diary and it's true.
  I look back at my visual diaries full of illustrations and I can recall exactly what was happening with me psychologically, spiritually physically and mentally.