Day 2 - Saturday
We woke up later than normal, which helped a bit after I experienced another restless night. Being able to take an afternoon nap was very welcome and for the first time this past week I could say I felt more rested. It was the first day I felt I could really sit down in my studio and do some intentional mindful creativity in my art journal. It felt freeing to create with no specific image in mind, no thinking and just playing in my Art Journal. As artists we need to play more. No judgement, it doesn’t matter how good or bad it is, more importantly it is to just play with colours, shapes and patterns. After all it is not the end result, but the journey that is the most important.
Art Journaling on Day 2
In the evenings when I
sit on the patio and look up at the stars in the night sky, one is so aware of
the silence. No noise made by
humanity. The only sounds that exist are
the beautiful sounds of nature, which normally gets drowned out by the sounds
of humanity...the discussion between two owls, the crickets singing their night
song, the plover parents talking to its chick which is a couple of weeks old,
teaching it to hunt for bugs. There are
small, beautiful blessings in every day.
The plover parent with its chick.
The plover pair have been nesting in the communal garden of our estate for a couple of years. We have seen quite a few chicks hatch. They hatch two eggs at a time, but sadly the one chick didn't survive.
So why have I been so
quiet on my blog this past year or more? Almost 3 years ago I started working at our local Art and Craft Shop in
our village to be able to financially assist our household. I also started presenting workshops once a
month on a Saturday morning at the Art Shop.
The workshops I presented were Acrylic Pouring, Colour Mixing and Theory
as well as a Beginners Lino Cutting and Printing.
Our son and
daughter-in-law have been living with us as they were both struggling to find
employment. The end of February 2019 my
husband resigned from his job and we used his pension payout to start
our own family business, De Rooi Bosch, our speciality tea shop was 'born'. We believed that starting our own business will
enable us to create employment and a future for our children and future
grandchildren. The business was
registered and the hunt started to find suitable premises for our Tea
Shop. A huge amount of time, effort and
creativity went into our business. Each
one of us has been working very hard and our son and daughter-in-law have been
manning and managing the shop at a small local shopping center. I did acrylic pouring on the counter top and
display bench. Designing our business
cards and drawing up excel documents to keep track of weekly and monthly
statistical data. We do not have an
automatic point of sale, thus everything needs to be captured manually.
Above is a watercolour painting I painted of the rooibos flower, which was used in the design for our logo by our graphic designers.
Our business logo
Below, keeping in line with the logo colours are the counter top (1,2 m long) and display bench (90 x 60cm) shortly after the acrylic pours were done.
Our son and daughter-in-law came up with the brilliant idea of a "teacup notice board" and I made it into a reality. Below you can see the different stages of the work in progress.
The bare essentials
Knotted the handle from cotton twine. I painted the signage on the notice boards, which will be
glued back to back.
Painted the inside of the cup white. The handle of the cup was painted black and then gold paint dry brushed on top of the black. Once the paint was dry I added gold leaf to the rim of the cup as well as highlighted areas of the cup handle.
The finished Notice Board
Photograph taken by my husband in front of our shop with the Tea Cup Notice Board.
Thank you Jason and Alicia for your brilliant idea for the notice board.
De Rooi Bosch Tea Shop
On Friday, 27 March 2020, South Africa was downgraded to full junk status by Moody's Investors Service, which has placed us further into an economic recession. So between this further down grade as well as being in lock-down due to the Covid 19 Virus, it will truly test the financial market in South Africa. We hope and pray that our business will survive this as we have invested everything into it.
So between the Tea Shop (once it opened officially on 1 June 2019) and working at the Art Shop, I was left with little time for my own creativity. Creativity feeds my soul. Towards the
end of last year I have been taking part in various creative mini online
retreats, which has kept me going creatively. Wonderful magical mindful and intentional
creativity. Below you can see some of the projects of the online art retreats.
Part of Magical Mandala's retreat. Here you had to cut out random words and then make up a sentence.
Magical Mandala's - Mandala based on the area in which I live. Table Mountain, the ocean, fishing and the winelands.
Magical Mandala's - You start with staining the paper with watercolour. Once dry, you draw a small circle...and around this circle you follow with another circle and repeat this process trying to avoid touching any lines of the previous circle.
Moon Phases
Sun Mandala
'Balancing the brain' and above was my creative interpretation.
Conscious Art Therapy
Playing with mixed media
Painted Prayers 1
Painted Prayers 2
Painted Prayers 3
Painted Prayers 4
Just playing around with watercolours and creating texture.
I hope that you have enjoyed the updates, photographs as well as the bits and pieces of Art Journaling.
From Day 3 I will write a couple of days in one blog post so that I don't flood your inbox with daily updates.
Please stay safe, look after yourself and if you are in lock-down too pop me a message of what you are up to.
Sending love and light your way
