Tulip Festival Rotorua , Online Exhibition of Spring, What Spring means to me by Janet Keen. All images Copywrite

Spring Moon. Spring to me means new beginnings. Celebration and a time to start new adventures.

Spring Rain. Spring to me means lots of rain and grey skies with a promise of brighter colours. 

Spring means nuances of shades, more light and bursts of energy and explosion of weeds. 

Spring means clear and cloudy nights with the chill of the air still fresh on your breath, with the call of moreporks echoing in the valley.

Spring means a time to revisit your wardrobe, recycle and reuse and  visit shops to buy clothes to co-ordinate with your ensembles that make you feel cheerful and  celebratory.

Spring is a time of spreading your wings and flying to places you want to go and believing in the power of possibility. 

Shaking off raindrops from people or your own thought process that try to with you drown with water. 

My mission is to give girls the tools to be able to blossom into their best selves. Elizabeth Berkley

Making flowers in visual diaries with coloured pencils and superimpsing them on top og blossoms is an addictive pastime in Spring. 

"The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also." --Harriet Ann Jacobs

I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant and autumn garner to the end of time. Robert Browning

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring. Samuel Johnson

"The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring."--Bernard Williams

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. Margaret Atwood

"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" --Robin Williams

Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. Marcel Proust

. "I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees." --Pablo Neruda

Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so. Doris Lessing

Prints mounted on wood for sale. 
Enquiries Janet Keen
073463436 email jkeen@clear.net.nz

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Creative Quote of the day 

“It has been said that art is a tryst; for in the joy of it, maker and beholder meet.”
― Kojiro Tomita

Planning a set of paintings using Resene testpots, process unleashed. What Spring Means to me.

Painting by Marti Somers.

I am planning to do a set of collage paintings for a show about Spring,  using Resene testpots and mixed media. 
Before I  begin  a series I always  do some research and brainstorming. 
I go to my Pinterest site and have a look through all of my boards
Then I pick out paintings with the colours and compositions that I like. 

What do all of these paintings have in common? 

 I try to identify the feelings and shades want to use.

 In this case its gentle pastel pick tones and reds mixed with greys and muted oranges. 

 This is the sensation of Spring to me.

  I never copy other artists images. 
I have them up around me so that the colours will influence me.

I will also gather images from books  and magazines that I like and place  them around me as well. 

  This is adorable and really inspires me, so I have the magazine open in front of me.

I want soft muted tones.
This makes me feel like drawing a girl in a Spring garden holding a chook.

Love these pinks, love the idea of butterflies

 

Love these soft muted tones of pinks moss greens beiges and creams.

Then I will go out into the field and take photos of the colours that I like and come back and make a double exposure of them. 
Trying to replicate the tones I'm after.

I work across a lot of mediums at the same time so that everything can feed into the body of work I am about to embark on. 

Rabbits are fascinating me at the moment so they are popped into the mix.

Professional artists often spend a lot of time in the researching stage.

 I will write haiku  about my ideas , dream about them  and let thoughts  percolate through my mind, body and soul.

Making art is another type of meditation and praying.

I will also do some sketches in my visual diary and some practise on canvas and make some cards.

Felt pen and pencils in visual diaries. 
Quick working sketches

 



 

Then I pick out flowers I like from the sketches and paint them onto canvas as samplers

 These samplers will be made into a series of cards to go with the paintings

I will go out and take more photos, so I build up a large visual map of ideas in my subconscious. 
While I'm doing this I am thinking about the process and adding my stories.
 Always on the look out for what the universe wants to present to me.
I'm wanting to be in the zone and sometimes you need to climb your way in there.

The ideas keep on coming and then it is time to start the real thing. 
 i usually mediate before each painting session. 

Eight reasons to be creative every day

Cathartic.

Think

Energy

Opportunity

Focus

Learning

Dedication

Results

Mindfulness

 

Meditation 

1.Cathartic qualities

A creative pursuit can become a great outlet for venting steam in a positive and cathartic manner.

2.Helps the way you think

Being creative forces you to adopt new ways of thinking.

3.More energy and better moods

When you become entwined in a creative project, it draws you in and you will suddenly find new reserves of energy to work with.

4.Helps you to see opportunity

 To be creative, you have to accept that your experiments will often not work out, but that you must keep on experimenting until you find that perfect colour or ideal sentence.

 

 

5.Always learning

  You can always get better, change direction or try something new, and this way of thinking encourages a thirst for knowledge and learning.

6.Helps you to focus

 It is a skill that requires patience and time, and one that most of us don’t practice that much of the time, as the demands of contemporary life and work normally require us to multitask.

7.Teaches dedication

 Creative thinking, like everything else, needs to be cultivated through dedicated effort. This takes time, it is not easy, but it rewards the people who endure in many ways.

8.Tangible results

If you decide to start painting for example, after working, learning, experimenting, failing, repeating and struggling, you will eventually create a tangible image.

9. Mindfulness

 Helps relieve negative mind chatter by staying in the present moment.

10.Meditation 

You go into the zone and it's like a peaceful  meditation

You can work things out by being involved in creative pursuits. 

Come to my studio for a lesson  or two in creativity and see how it will positively add to your life. 

Phone 07 3463435

Email jkeen@clear.net.nz

Cellphone: 0273513887 

 Creative Quote of the day. 

Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you'll see them all around you. Jon Bon Jovi