Tag: creativity

100 days in my studio

What would 100 days of a creative practice look like?

On 18 February the #100day project began again. (which was the day after my birthday so it also feels like a New Year project for me!)

The 100 day project is a creative marathon I’ve taken part in every year since 2017. Up until now I began each 100 days with a clear idea of what I hoped to achieve.

In 2023 I made 100 spiral images. In 2017 I filled a book with 100 drawings inspired from the photos in my phone. Each year has had a theme… until now.

thoughts on themelessness

This year I had no idea… maybe collage? that felt limiting, I know I want to spend more time stitching in the next couple of months and could incorporate that… but I’ve already got so many projects to juggle…

I thrive by having a lot going on so I can butterfly between them and keep my attention energised, but it doesn’t take much to disrupt the *just enough* chaos levels and I fall into overwhelm and inertia.

So I began posting some of what I’d been making through the day and by around day 4 I figured that I’d fallen on my theme without realising it: 100 days in my studio.

So far I’ve shared bits from the Book of Days, the TWELVTY project, a collaged landscapes series I’m developing, some color swatching, digital edits for a new illustration project to name just some!

If you’d like to follow along in real time, join me on Instagram where i’m posting daily. If that isn’t your thing, I’ll be back with a run down of the first couple of weeks, and what I’ve learned from it.

Are you doing the 100 day project? Or have you done it before? Tell me your thoughts about it in the comments, I’m intrigued by everyone’s perspective on this crazy epic ride!

Hi – I’m Mixy!

This is Mixy 🙂

I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.

I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.

You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too

Join Me!

Get monthly-ish Studio Musings Newsletter.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Birthday FLASH SALE!

“50% off everything in my Etsy store until Monday! Check it out.”

HALF PRICE everything in my Etsy Store until Monday!

art postcards, zines, stickers, everything!!

Hi – I’m Mixy!

This is Mixy 🙂

I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.

I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.

You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too

Join Me!

Get monthly-ish Studio Musings Newsletter.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

TWELVTY-ONE: yellow-ish

Mixy presents TWELVTY 2024, a year-long color exploration through watercolor and mixed media.

In my year full of color, I usually begin with Yellow, then trip clockwise around this color wheel a month and a color at a time.

What’s happening in TWELVTY 2024?

I dug out this lovely little square watercolour sketchbook from my stash.

It has about 30 pages, just right for 2 spreads per month/per colour. 

I like to break the ice by noodling some sort of title on the front cover, I can go back and add more as and when the whims of fate decide.

My “This Color: This Month” rule has loosey-goosey-ed up as I’m in Color/Month 1 and we’re well into February.

Also I don’t think it’s ‘finished’, so I’m open to adding some more bits in the future.

Already the whole thing feels way more relaxed!!

Up to now Yellow has been a vivid array of sunflower, egg yolk and banana yellow, this time I’m looking at the subtler edges of what I call YELLOWISH, with ochre, Naples yellow, gold and cream. 

That’s the plan today, watch this space to see if I can keep this far out from my loudest-colored-comfort-zone! 

BIG bold yellows from yester year!

+ Contrast!

I also relaxed the just one colour  aspect this time. This time I’m experimenting with each color being accompanied with flashes of something from way over the other side of the color wheel.

Here’s how I kicked off this year’s 12 color project!

Yellow-ish Page 1

This watercolour paper is handmade and heavily textured, it takes wet media like a dream.

  • Starting out with water soluble markers (Tombow, Ecoline) 
  • Then water soluble pastels (Neocolor II), then water to blend
  • Followed by gouache (white, Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre).
  • For a bit of darker contrast I used a fountain pen with a mix of black ink and water.
  • Water soluble pencil, then some collage pieces.
  • Finally highlighting squiggles in gold & yellow marker pen.

More updates soon!

Be first to see where this project leads me next by signing up to my monthly newsletter.

Hi – I’m Mixy!

This is Mixy 🙂

I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.

I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.

You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too

Join Me!

Get monthly-ish Studio Musings Newsletter.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

TWELVE years since TWELVTY!

Well, can we have a big “YIKES” to acknowledge that 12 years have elapsed since my very first 12 colours in 12 months project?!?!

I had to double check my numbers, but it’s for real. TWELVE years indeed!

What is TWELVTY?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, 2012 was a tough year for me…

my home life had been turned upside down, and creativity kept me afloat.

At the time I’d recently discovered fibre artist Marlene Glickman

Her piece “Day by Day” appealed to every part of my colour-hungry soul.

Making color and design decisions is sometimes difficult so I challenge myself to use only one color from the color wheel each month during my daily design exercises. A box sits on my worktable containing all the supplies I collected at the beginning of the month in one color.

From this I choose bits and pieces creating a 5″ x 5″ design/collage/drawing. The small format offers me the chance to explore a design and decide whether or not to enlarge it or expand on an idea. I also keep a journal for sketches, fabric swatches and working out future ideas and larger pieces. 

Marlene Glickman 1948-2023

A Year Full of Colour

On Marlene’s advice, I decided to dedicate a sketchbook to single colour experiments, with one colour each month for a year. This is how it turned out (excuse the wonky video – this was new to me!)

the original 12 colors in 12 months art journal from 2012

Over the years I revisited this idea, and reimaging the monthly format. For a few years I ran a year long class sharing my process and guiding other creatives in their own 12 colour projects.

3d mixed media sculpture of a color wheel

TWELVTY 2024

I can’t let this 12 year marker go uncelebrated, so this year I’ve got a new twist on the old idea in mind. Catch this month’s studio newsletter to see what I’ve been making, and find out how this year will be a wee bit different!

Is this something you’d like to join in with?
Comment below to LMK, I’ve got so many ideas to share!

Hi – I’m Mixy!

This is Mixy 🙂

I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.

I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.

You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too

Join Me!

Get monthly-ish Studio Musings Newsletter.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Unfashionably late to the new year!

Mixy, the London-based mixed media & textile artist, took a relaxed approach to starting 2024, sharing a flip through her Book of Days series. She’s brimming with plans for the year and invites followers to join her newsletter for updates. Follow her creative journey on her blog, Instagram, and website MadebyMixy.com.

I took such a relaxed approach to beginning 2024 that it’s already February before my first post of the year!

Let’s kick off with a little flip through from the end of last summer in my always-a-bit-behind series from the Book of Days.

If you enjoyed this, check out the rest of the series here 🙂

I’m full of plans and ideas for 2024
join my newsletter to find out more – Feb’s mail goes out this week 🙂

Hi – I’m Mixy!

This is Mixy 🙂

I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.

I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.

You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too

Join Me!

Get monthly-ish Studio Musings Newsletter.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

YELLOW MONDAY

Does this talk of ‘Blue Monday’ get you down? Who needs the media reminding them to feel any less bouyant and joyful than they already do?

I need to counteract this craziness, and my way (as in all things) is to use color!

Monday 16th January 2017 is now YELLOW MONDAY.

Yellow is the color of sunshine, the color of hope and happiness, and the color of January in my year full of color program, TWELVTY.

To back that up there’s a 24 hour offer for new TWELVTY folks: from 9am GMT Monday 16th January for just 24 hours you can get 12 months of color for the price of 10.

Join us HERE

And if TWELVTY isn’t for you, know that you can make your day whatever color you want it to be. Have a great week my friends – don’t let the media tell you how to feel!

********************************

I made this little ebook all about color if you’d like to get an taste of TWELVTY.
It’s all yours when you hop on my newsletter list here.

yearfullofcolorbypenngregory_page_01

(Your email is absolutely safe with me, I’ll just pop by and check up on it time to time, feed it treats, plump up its cushions, that sort of thing.)

**********************************

Let’s Light up 2017

Things have been weighing heavily around here lately, you noticed that too?  Even when you do your best not to get dragged down there’s still an underlying sense of being, at best, completely unsettled. 

As I’ve shared here before, if it weren’t for my art practice I think I would have sunk many times.

A few days ago I found myself re-watching this TED-X talk by artist Callie Curry, aka Swoon. She’s a real inspiration to me. I love her style, but I most especially love her – her persona – her magic.

She talks about how she created the Heliotrope Foundation. After the 2010 earthquake she was compelled to find a way to help the people of Haiti. But how? in her words, ‘I’m just an artist’. If you watch the talk you’ll see how she brings hope and light and practical support in a way that only the ingenuity of an artist could have thought up. And she continues to spread this magic around the world.

 

“I’m just an artist”

 

Me too. I’m just an artist too… and one who really wants to bring the light into other folks lives in the way that creativity has done for me. But how?

 

13466445_10208296799036047_7297045495634302838_n.jpg

 

How can I shine light in these turbulent times?

I think about what has helped me in the past, where I’ve turned when I felt like I might just crumple, and that’s what I can share.

My sanctuary has always been in my art. Not just the act of creating – I don’t always have the time, the motivation, the space or the will. But I can always see it. I can see the patterns and the colors and the wonder. It’s a skill I’ve honed over the years and as each year passes I get more from it – it works better – it’s more reliably everywhere I look.

This is what I want to share, and this is my intention with the program I’m starting in the new year. I want to show the way I see, to share the sanctuary I carved out n my imagination and is with me everywhere I go.

I’m gathering a tribe who will all be contributing, in art, in ideas, in insights, and between us we’re going to make magic happen.

Want to join us?

It doesn’t matter if you think yourself ‘arty’ or not – in fact the more diverse the tribe is, the more we all benefit, everyone brings their own magic to add to the mix.

Don’t feel like you have magic to bring? Let me prove you wrong!

If you want to find out more, read more here. Any questions – comment below or send a message on my site. I’d love to have you join us.

Let’s light up the world together in 2017.

reflecting ‘so much more’ 27/52

Every week I create something.

Some weeks I create more.

In fact – most days I create loads – but in terms of the tangible, the painty reality, every week of this year I am creating at least one something: One page of One book of One year

I’m over half way in now, and I’m detecting more and more patterns all the time, every one a metaphor for the unfolding times in which they’re made:

Some weeks start on the first day and incrementally develop a little at a time.
Some weeks are a flurry of fervour, forced into focus in a short few days: blurting out in totality at the start, or squished up against the finishing hours.

They all reflect some underlying aspects, some current cares and the modality of the moment:
Words and feelings ooze in and out.. You might not hear them, but we both know they are there.

IMG_5087b

Weaving in the elements: internal and external.
IMG_5087a

There’s what rests on the surface, and there’s so much more.

IMG_5021

The surface reflects to you what you project out.
For everyone it’s something personal and new.

Each page, each week, each is contained within a season of interest with the cast of supporting characters who meander about and around my days. These recent weeks have been populated by some images that I printed more than I needed for a project I’ve since finished. Smiling, familiar faces from within the framework that structures these times. Left over faces smile out of these times.

IMG_5087d

Here from the perspective of a photo I see all that I’d like to do to ‘finish’ the image. But that week has passed so it’s another that I’ll leave as it is, almost ready, a little soft in the middle and a bit raw in places. It’s all ok.
Time pushes on, I’m over the other side of this one now.

5 Stages of Creative Obsession

I’m working on a new project.

It’s SO Much Fun!

It really crept up on me, without realizing I’d run the full gamut of the

5 stages of taking on a new and seemingly unlikely creative obsession

  1. What the…? Why would someone do that? That makes no sense to me…
  2. I’m not one to judge, but I can’t see any good coming from that. It’s maybe a way of using up time and craft supplies…maybe creating another stage in the life-cycle of a thing in between  ‘no longer fit for original purpose‘ and ‘recycling/landfill fodder’, but…
  3. IDK, I can’t help wanting to know more. If I watch enough of the limitless number of YouTube tutorials, blogposts, etc etc I’ll figure out why folks do it. Yeh. That’s what I’ll do: solve that mystery and just move on.
  4. Y’know what tho, that does look like fun. Fun is the primary reason I do a lot of what I do….
  5. I have to do that now!! Let me play!!

(I’ll show you a bit later.)

the other side of the ugly (18/52)

IMG_4387  IMG_4391

Yesterday I was sharing about the ugly side of creativity. When it’s in that worse before it gets better zone.

The only way outa here is forward: Charge on forward through this zone.

If you can’t carry on right now, let it rest.Let it settle.

When you come back it’s going to look different:
—If it looks better – let this spur you on in hope.
—If it looks worse – take the nothing left to lose impetus to make changes:

Whatever you’re creating, from a painting to a song, a novel or a dance, a dress or a manifesto, try any variations of these things:

  • Paint over it.
  • Mix up the harmonies.
  • Cut it up and reconfigure the bits together in a new shape.
  • Record over sections of it.
  • Photograph it from obtuse angles: review it through the viewfinder, on screen, through squinting eyes, or print its negative.
  • Speed it up, slow it down, add trumpets.
  • Change two of the colours.
  • Stitch, glue, staple, splice. Rinse and repeat.
  • Play it backwards / turn it upside down / inside out.
  • Take out every other word, or every other adjective, or swap about all the words beginning with vowels.
  • Pick it up by the ears and shake it hard.

Do some radical dismantling, recreate with hope and a conscious understanding it’s only wrong at the moment; it’s maybe uncomfortable but it isn’t doomed.

 IMG_4397

Know that you’re through the worst because if you’re moving you’re making progress: It was the ugliest thing in existence, so by logical deduction it must be getting better, right?

Right. Then keep on going. If the bigger picture is freaking you out,

IMG_4399 

Just look at the detail…

IMG_4449

Find some solace there, some shhhhh…some calm

IMG_4447

Befriend the details. Examine them closely for inexplicable creatures.

IMG_4446

The only thing not to do is sit and dwell on how a different course of action somewhere in the past would have made it different. That then is gone. Focus on the now of it.

IMG_4445

Then see where you find yourself, recombobulate, know the process works, and carry on.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started