Nosey Nutty's eye candy (with a little bit of silly)

I'm browsing the creative community like crazy at the moment, a side effect of breastfeeding my little girl, and I'm stumbling across all sorts of eye candy. I thought I'd share some of the goodies this week with you to return the favour for all the goodies you've shown me.

First up is White Violet Art's resin experiments and her two beautiful blue mandalas. Two stunning pieces of art finished off with a technique I had never even considered and have been happy to have been introduced. And they are for sale! She has further information regarding her resin experiments here. And, WVA, did you manage to get the resin out of your hair?

I have also been dribbling rather extensively over Angela's pastel paintings. I dabble in pastel, but she really knows what she is doing. My latest favourites are Bleeding Heart and Amaryllis, though I have some serious attraction to the simplicity of Boat Reflection. The colours are so bold and confronting.

I came across this video on one of the blogs I read (sorry, I can't remember which one, apologies) and it introduced me to Helen Fitzgerald, a professional watercolour artist in New South Wales. Her finished works are absolutely amazing. I will admit that I do not want to paint like that, mainly because I really don't have the patience and it is not my style, but her work is beautiful. Watercolour paints scare me. The reason I'm posting the video here is because I was awed by the skill in her hands. To watch her work, a simple twist of her wrist makes marks I know I would labour over (and create mud in the process).  This video is part one of a series if you would like to peruse further. You can find all her works at www.helenfitzgerald.com

Over at the Happy Shack I was touched by 'How the birds and bees made me grateful'. I don't think there is a mum out there who wouldn't be.

I've also recently been introduced to the concept of 'zentangles'. I've been drooling over several artists who do mandalas and doodles, quite stunned at their work and baffled as to how to do it myself. Artists include White Violet Art, 2smart (here, here and a tutorial here!), and Jane (ow, my hand hurts just looking at them). I did have a short go at doodling myself, but failed miserably. I'm used to designing something in my head and then creating it, something I so totally proved to myself yesterday and today when I did the latest Art of Silliness exercise.

We were supposed to draw some elephants with a continuous line. Did I sit there and just draw that line like everyone else? No. I designed the drawing then drew the continuous line. Two out of three drawings were successful, but I don't think I did what the exercise was designed to teach me. I'm finding it hard to let go of what the final piece will look like. I got a glimpse of artistic freedom while creating 'Tree of Cyclones', which was genuinely created on the fly, but my brain reverts back to designer far too easily. This is at the core of what I'm working on. I need to relax and let it happen, like I do with my writing sometimes. I need more practise at letting go.

So The Art of Silliness 2.13 - Elephants in continuous line.

Elephant, continuous line, pen on bleedproof paper, approx. 100 x 120 mm

Elephant Chain,
continuous line, pen on bleedproof paper with quick digital fill when scanned in, approx. 230 x 50 mm.

Nutty
(in a bit of a creative humph)

PS: A question...I've seen images from Flickr posted to peoples blogs that are obviously not their own. Credit is given to Flickr and the owners of the works. How do I do this? I would have loved to share some of the works I mentioned above, but am unsure of the nettiquette involved. What is permissible in regards to Flickr? Are we allowed to share others' works in a promotional manner? I'm still a newbie at this, but I'm learning fast. Any help greatly appreciated.