I have recently been spending a lot of time on Instagram, given that I don’t have access to my craft room quite yet, and drawing inspiration. On days, that I get desperate, I unpack some supplies and steal 30 minutes to just paint something quick. Art is like therapy for me and I can’t stay away from it for too long. The good news is that our home is almost ready for us to move back in, so I’ll be back to my daily practice soon enough.
Today, I’m sharing this mixed media multi-layered journal page with influence from the works of Andrea Garvey, a local artist whom I’ve had the pleasure to meet. Andrea’s work is always so colorful and vibrant with such positive vibes. I bought a mermaid painting from her for my daughter’s room and recently also purchased a set of her gorgeous floral tea towels as a housewarming gift for myself. Her art truly does fill my heart with joy and I hope you can see some of that joy carrying into this painting.
As you’ll see in this video, I started out with very loose flowers filling up the entire page with three colors and then incorporated acrylic inks and color-shift paints. Whenever I paint over my base images, my daughter lets out a little gasp and cries, “Why did you just ruin the painting? That was so pretty!” I always smile and tell her that it’s fine…they will still show when someone looks at the painting carefully.
This mixed-media multi-layered page makes me think of our individual journeys…influenced by everything around us.
We become who we are, not in a silo, but by being part of a community, a family, a network of friends and acquaintances.
A tapestry of varied experiences lead us to find our voice, our identity, and makes us uniquely who we are. Just like this flower, emerging from the background.
Like I always say: “create with your heart and your hands will follow” — this journal page is no different.
Uniquely You
Sometimes you can draw inspiration from another artist but what you paint on your paper will reflect your style in big or small ways.
And you may not even know what your style is…but the more you practice, the more you’ll discover elements that repeatedly show up on your pages. Those elements may be specific shapes or marks you lean on, certain colors you always incorporate, or words you always incorporate.
You just have to give yourself the permission to play. What you create will be uniquely yours, no matter the inspiration.
If you’d like to shop for supplies used in this project, please follow this link. For specific dye ink colors I used, please refer to the table below. These are affiliate links that may generate a small amount of money for me at no cost to you.
