New Exhibition Work

Wow what a full on week Ive had, Im not sure whats harder, getting ready for an exhibition your putting on and hanging, or getting ready for an exhibition you are having nothing actively to do with.

Im still not up to big travels, or little ones for that matter, so i sent my artwork off with my exhibition partner and hoped for the best, i still have no idea what it looks like but have heard great stuff from my friends who attended the opening, so all good!

Here is the 3 new pieces I hung in this show as well as my older Paper Moon pieces.

But first my artists bio...

Spiritually speaking, Im awakening, Mentally speaking, Im losing it, Physically speaking, Im breaking down... Whatever you want to call it, Im going thru a change, a change that leaves your past in the dust, your life in tatters and your emotions dangling on the edge of a cliff. I started Paper Moon when I was the old me and first exhibited this work in February, I hit rock bottom in May and am now re-emerging with a style that is telling the same story but moving in a whole new direction. As a 32 year old Mother/Artist this is a journey thru my evolution. From Screenprinting to Fashion Design, Photography to Bookmaking, Painting Florals to Landscapes, Mixed Medias and Dyes... I have found myself coming back to simplicity in life and art, Ink, Goldleaf, Water Colours and Pencil. Small pieces with big stories, and even bigger lessons.

Paper Moon started to be a huge part of my artistic journey quite by accident. I was home alone drawing and painting and felt the white paper I was using was soooo lifeless and boring. I tore a page from an old book and did an ink painting, a girl emerged and by that afternoon I had completed 5...and so the Paper Moon journey had begun. Some may see it as the destruction of books. I see it as breaking down old forms so they can reinvent themselves with a whole new purpose...Art...
 
 

My New pieces come in 3 parts

 

Part 1

The Feast

 

I had a life so easy,

I lay in a bed of flowers compared to a lot of people, yet here I was having a meltdown.

So as I lay crumpled and broken on that bed of flowers I was watched over by my ever comforting wise Raven, keeping the fears from creeping in and completely taking over....

as my old life dropped away..

petal by petal...

releasing the darkness that lay within in me...

the darkness had been building and building...

shutting me down day by day.

This is the unfolding

This is the feast

 

 

 

Part 2

A Tune A Day

 

Rediscovering my inner quietness, learning to feel at peace with my world again was not an easy task.....The trust was gone.

Where was my village, where did I belong, my path was paved with comforting support from loved ones but my own death loomed close in my eyes and the days seemed too harsh and real.. I found solace in the quiet of dark moonlit nights with moths emerging from the darkness signifying the recognition of self we must all achieve to survive. I was re-learning to meditate, breathe, trust and be in the moment, these were my new lessons.

No more past

No more future

Just Be

A Tune A Day

and nothing more

 

 

 

Part 3

From Top To Bottom

Everything going on inside you is worn on the outside like clothes, could you see my pain??

My new lesson is health, making friends with my fears... offering them gifts of love till they are no longer powerful. My roots are stable and large and here I stay supported by the lights of hope, that loved ones have offered in my journey...What is fresh and healthy is not what it seems, take this beautiful apple and relish in its perfection and taste, never seeing the hidden poisons that lay inside...

they will one day lay inside you too...

and when its too much for your body....

then you will also be on this journey...

Healing your body

From Top To Bottom

 

 

 

they were all framed too

 

So hopefully the exhibition goes well, its on for another 10 days.

Well I must be off, the art room beckons, me and Indi are already starting work on our next exhibition, and yes you heard right, OUR work.  I took a print of one of her paintings the other day and then I did my artwork on top of it, so we are getting a collection together.

By the time it goes up this summer she will be nearly 3, not bad for a first exhibition, it took me 29 years longer!!!

 

 

Wonderful days to all my readers

 

hopefully I will be back to posting every few days from now on!!

 

Love Sheree

xxx

Paper Moon Evolution

As I sit here with a itching sunburnt back from 2 days ago, I right now cant see further than 100 meters around my house for all the fog and drizzle?????

Spring is here!!!

And a New Zealand Spring at that, 4 seasons in one day.

Damn I just rushed to the kitchen and I have burnt my chickpeas for the hummus gggggrrrrrrrr

Im such a vacant multi tasker at times.

Ohh well, I will stick to art.  Im here to show a new piece I finished in one day, I couldnt stop, Im sure you all know this feverish pace when something is wanting to be made so badly.

Its a very large painting  done on a collage of book pages.

So this is the evolution of my paper moon character, she is now in colour with real arms and a face and some better clothes to wear than a shaded triangle.  A few people asked me to do colour pictures earlier and all I would say is "I dont do colour", I needed simplicity, so that is why all I did was black, a lot less wrongs to be made.

Take a look....

all the pictures in this new collection have this frame in them...

The whole picture..

A puriri moth, which will grow in a tree trunk for up to seven years just to live for one night.



full moon

angels Trumpet or Datura

sleepy villages of magic



pom pom grass

There is alot of symbology going on in there which I will write about later, they are going to an exhibition in a few weeks so I will need to get the stories ready for then, here is the next one I started



it has my first ever attempt at a horse

and of course some beloved bird cages

Enjoyment is the word I use to describe these paintings, I do a pencil and sometimes pen out line, watercolour paint and then sit there for hours with pencil doing all the details and it gets all the colours to be so much more vibrant, sometimes watercolour can look so dry and un shiny.  Colour pencils are perfect. 

I have to give credit to someone for this part of my journey and thats Cameron from Paint Myself Pretty.

She loved my Paper Moon pictures so much so I gave her permission to use the style and gave her pointers and help whenever she needed it.  Cameron fell in love with the style and felt it really opened her heart up to being an 'Artist'.  It felt very special to be able to effect someone this way just by being open and giving and not holding onto my art style like I ever owned it in the first place.  The inspiration has returned back to me with the ability to move into colour, maybe I was stuck in my little black and gold box and couldnt even see my way any more.  So thankyou Cameron for now inspiring me, lets hope the art giving train just keeps on going, we could all learn so much from each other, I so want to learn how you make those stop motion videos. anyone who knows, Im open to lessons!!!  So here are a few of Camerons pictures, take a look at her blog if you dont already, much talent lives in this ladies bones and not just in paintings!

Her blog link is HERE!

Cameron makes her art into prints, cards and books and tags etc, so go check out her shop link too

Clever Lady!!!



Ok well I have feverishly cleaned today and am now going to take a nap, here are some rascally photos of the shenanigans these poor puppies have to put up with.

"OK Your coming with me"

"Ohh no, help help, I just had a turn!!!"

Trolley Rides For Everyone!!!!!  Poor Puppies : (

I will draw the winners of my witchy T shirts in the next post this weekend, and the DevaWood Hangings are only up for sale in my Etsy shop for the next week (till Thursday) because they are off to the city to be part of my exhibition.

Have fun Ohh carfty ones

Ohhh I almost forgot, I will be seeing alot of you in stripey socks soon at the Fanciful Twist Halloween Party,  Hmmm Halloween in Spring in a country that dosent celebrate Halloween!! sounds great, I will think of something!

Ciao Bellas  xxx 

(Im reading Eat, Pray, Love)

Practical Magic Party

So here we are at the Practical Magic Party Day

Well technically Im a day late, but I played with my daughter for the whole day which I havent been able to do in months, so I think thats a good enough excuse. dont you??

Im going to be having a give away with my little story so stay tuned.

What torture to pick a part you like best...not an easy task, I love that the music is done by Sheryl Crowe and Stevie Nicks, is there anything better??  And who dosent want those Aunts living with them, in the house, ohh drool... anywho I had to chose so...

A part of the movie I love is the Amas Veritas spell...

I still have my diary form that age, day to day ramblings of a 12 year old, ohh the troubles of a 12 year old!

But its not this diary Im telling you about...when I turned 21 I could either have a huge party or use the money to go on a vacation.  I chose to have a 21st picnic in a park and then go on my own tropical holiday! seeing I was obsessed with Deserted Island movies and mermaids and living on an Island walking around in near to nothing but a bit of muslin, eating fish and bananas, Ohh my imagination!

I went to Beachcomber Island in Fiji for 10 days.with my darling Miss G

It was the best holiday ever, party party party, and for a single girl (one of the only times in my life), boys boys boys!!! woo hooo.

Before we left another wonderful friend Rufeo made me a first aid travel pack, it was a wonderful bag full of jars and potions, film cannister to document talent on the island, condoms, herbal teas, anti shark attack medication (shark lollies), heartbreaker pills (heart lollies), male magnet capsules, please use carefully, effect is irreversible (tic tacs!)... and the main part im getting to was a beautiful blue bottle with a scroll of paper in it to send out a message in a bottle...to send my own message out into the depths of the ocean.

Now because I was single and in the company of many available HOT! men, of course I had male brain..

So I sent out a spell, not for a man that didint exist, but for a man that would finally understand me and be happy with the life I wanted to live (never before found!)

Now Im a huge diary writer, and spent most of my time on this island documenting every move we made, there wasent much else to do in the day! apart from nurse our hangovers...

So here is the original draft for my spell, it was sent out into the ocean, hidden in the coral when we went snorkelling one day....The funny thing is I obviousy didnt send it out far enough, when I had been home from the island for 2 weeks a random girl rang to say she had found my bottle! and wanted to know when I was there, I think she was thinking in terms of years and when I told her it had only been two weeks, all we could do was laugh, she was nice enough to re plant it, but this time a little further, so far in fact that it will probably never be found!..



But thats OK, because I have found my perfect man, and as strange as the world works, he is not much like the man I wrote about, but he is so perfect for me in every way...especially proven over the last six months when Im sure most males would have run..

So thankyou to my wonderful Smelly Kelly, a strange story of fate in itself that I will reveal some other time.

XXX

So love and spells and fates aside I decided that a giveaway was fitting for a wonderful day.

I love natural witch craft, nature, earth etc so I printed some wiccan T shirts.

I have two to give away, a size 12 (pictured) and a 14 (nz sizes)



just leave a comment and then I will draw from the names.

If you want one but dont win, no fretting my sweets, I have 3 in my Etsy shop for $12USD.



So enjoy your Practical Magic hopping, I have been painting all week for an upcoming exhibition, so I like to do this in front of the TV with DVDs playing, its great.. I dont have to watch the screen and can just listen and know what is going on, I look up for my fav parts!

So I have watched Practical Magic 3 times this week trying to find what resonated with me. Hard when it all does, although I have never jumped off my roof, killed a man, buried my ex in my back yard, ripped up my floor boards, invited my girls over to 'Clean House', trained frogs to do tricks, had a sister, burned rose bushes or made a cactus pancake!

I do however live in a small coastal town which my family has done for generations.

If only in that house...ohh phewey!

Thankyou to the ladies who organised this wonderful party.

La Boheme Magique and Frosted Petunias

To see all the other parties follow this link.

Practcal Magic Blog Party