She was born in the USA when I was teaching in Santa Ana and she was my subject. She then traveled with me unfinished to San Francisco, Oregon and back home via Washington and a one stop over in Africa in my hand luggage. She survived the trip unscathed and she’s been waiting patiently ever since for me to finish her story. She was a rather big girl and last year I decided to change some of her. I cut her right down the middle of her body and I removed her legs. Immediately her stance was much more appealing to me and she was less overwhelming. I knew I had the courage to finish her story. But again she had to be patient. I was hoping to finish her for my auction last year because she went rather beautifully with a painting I did with buildings, but I couldn’t get it finished in time and I am so over the moon to finish her today. The timing feels right and I adore her still and even more. Thank you for keeping me company today sweet Girl, I needed that and thank you for being so patient with me to finally finish you.
FebruaryFaces in Clay
As you know some of us have been doing #FebruaryFacesinClay and it’s been such a delightful journey so far. It was right in time for KJ Allison’s new clay face class and right in time to start a 30day project. I know other 30Day and 100Day projects were all starting at the same time. I do love daily projects and I do love the repetition of daily work and seeing how things seem to deepen and improve with it. It also allows for playful exploration and walking together in a small group. The collective creative energy carries one to see these projects through, totally benefitting all concerned.
All in all it’s been a wonderful way to play together in community.
Now…. what do do with all these faces!!!
Painting again...
I ended last year with lots of clay and with me filming my two tutorial workshops, it didn’t leave me too much time for painting on canvases since my auction. And boy, I have been missing it. I thought I would steal some time on holiday but that was a miss so I’ve been slowly warming up again and loving it.
Pink Daisies #1 - Available
Pink Daisies #2 - Sold
Pink Daisies #3 - Available
Pink Daisies #4 - Sold
I had these mini 4”x4” canvases lying on my desk since last year and I thought this would be a sweet way to get my brushes moving again and it was. The two paintings below are pieces I had drawn up last year and finally getting to work on now. This past week I did take stock of my all my unfinished works and I was a bit surprised to find 7 unfinished paintings, 9 unfinished clay works and 3 sets of earrings. That’s a bit much, even for me. I did have a good chuckle to myself… I have some work to do.
I know I can be a little undisciplined this way at times. I need to circle back and make it it my mission to finish pieces before I move forward onto any new ones. Well I say this but who knows… I do always tend to finish my works all said and done even if some take longer than others. I think part of that it is learning to accept the way I tend to work in these round about ways.
Strange Birds - Sold
My daughter, my friend - WIP
Regardless of all that, I’m just loving painting again and being #inmystudio - it makes me happy.
A new year, a new season...
It’s kind of become a habitual thing, that in January I do a lot of purging of clutter and also paint some part of the house and do some DIY. Before we left on holiday in December, I moved Corks back into her room and me back into my studio. The space served her well last year with her having to do most of her practical year for her Fine Arts Degree from her bedroom. Quite frankly, after the year she had, she was sick of the space and I couldn’t leave her there. So while she was on a cycling training camp, I swapped out.
I have a renewed love for my Studio space all over again and we spent some time in January painting the walls in a very calm and zen color and I got some new floor coverings to help soften where our feet land and brighten up the very dark floors. I will be using the space for my studio and also my yoga zone. My yoga space will now be a permanent space and not a space I have to create every time I need to practice. I am so happy about that. The combined space feels magical and I’m so grateful I have the luxury of this space just for me to work in and flow in, in both practices. I never take it for granted.
Getting this space ready and beautiful has helped me feel ready to start my year and I feel I can now say “Happy New Year”.
I took Janaury...
We got home on the 3rd January and it wouldn’t be an understatement to say I was definitely not ready to start the new year. In fact, the idea almost had me running for the hills. And as usual, I got home to find some of my trees had burnt to a crisp from the severe heat and black south easter wind that hits us every December. It’s a beast. That didn’t help my heart that was already feeling on the tender side of fragile.
As soon as I could I headed to my nursery and bought replacement trees, some new lavender to run the length of my pathway and some more jasmine to help create a beautiful wall covering that will hopefully eventually create a fragranced barrier dividing our home from the next.
I literally spent most of January in my garden, reworking areas, replanting, new planting and cleaning. It soothes and ministers to my heart, without question. I’ve been heading out for an early morning walk, with a friend almost every morning and when I get home, I tend to my little sanctuary and then have my cuppa on my newly arranged tiny “stoep” {veranda}.
It’s been a gentle way for me to restart this year.
Closing out and shutting down 2020.
Once again we headed out of town for Christmas and New Year. In these parts our main holidays happens over this time. With the weird year we had, it was the first time we were taking leave and it was required, we were tired. We knew we had limited time because we had to get Corks back to the city to start her first new job. She finished her Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree and has officially joined the workforce.
Finding Love and Sunsets
Corks swimming in the sunset
No words no filter needed
I was glad to be heading out of the city because things were hotting up here with Covid and our new variant. It was super stressful and I wanted to hide away a bit and find calm away from the mayhem of living in a hotspot. What we didn’t know was that at that stage, we already had Covid and arrived on holiday feeling poorly. Although it was a tough few weeks, I also know we had it mildly. We kept it pretty private on social media. I needed a moment and I’m grateful that I took it. Thank you for understanding and giving us the time to nurse ourselves back to health and thank you to those who reached out and held our hands ‘virtually’ through it. I am so grateful that we could recover at home and that we came through and that we got to do that together, quietly and privately.
As for our holiday… well, we slept through most of it and we quarantined ourselves. We did manage a walk and a swim on one of the days. We were blessed with a clear and open beach and the most beautiful sunset we could have asked for and that will have to do for now.
My heart and love goes out to all those who have been touched by Covid and deeply hurt by it. Please be safe, stay safe and look after each other and it’s my hope that things will start to improve with the promise and hope of this new year.
Launch day coming up…
I am so excited that my next little class is being released on Friday. I have been working around the clock to get the class finished this week. I was a bit behind schedule because I was man down in bed last week but I’m so happy to say that I’ve bounced back and have been catching up - thank you for your patience with me.
Can you tell how much fun I had? WOW I loved this so much and adore the little characters that came out - they are a perfect pair. I can’t wait to wear them and show you how adorable they are.
This will be my last little installment for the year and I’m closing out my creative year with this little sharing. I have loved sharing this way with you this year. It works for me and it’s felt intimate and so special.
Thank you for work with me this year. I am so utterly grateful.
Much love, Jeanne-Marie
Painting at last…
I’ve been desperate to paint for some time and to paint a little bigger than I have been this year. It has been months since I have painted on canvas and I have to say this felt so good. I’ve been missing it so very much and this really ministered to my soul.
I’m not sure how we will move forward together yet but I’m letting these two sit a little while. I am so looking forward to the holidays to start working together for fun, just for me.
Thank you for the beautiful response to this painting already and for the love and support while I’ve been missing from my easel - that was most encouraging.
I have been finishing my clay tutorial so far and am longing to get back to my paints and beautiful big white substrates… they have been calling me.
Driftwood and Paperclay...
This special piece captivated me for the last while and I loved every moment of finding their story. I loved the piece of wood that I used, I found it in my forest and the way it works so beautifully with these three.
I have been loving the way these pieces intuitively come to life.
This piece is available in my little shop. Follow the button below.
Come Hang with Me...
I hope you will join me for another sweet tutorial. I’ve loved sharing my last tutorial so I knew i wanted to create and share some more with you and hoping before the end of the year.
A Bird's Eye View...
If only we had had a “Birds Eye View” on 2020, right? I wonder how differently we would would have gone into 2020 if we had known what lay ahead for us. Looking back over this strange time, I can see that I worked completely differently this year. I was moving much slower than usual. I found the first half of this year so disjointed and at times I struggled to find flow because I wasn’t sure which way to move… I didn’t know if I was walking forward or if I was side stepping or going backwards but I was all over the place. At a point I just had to make a choice to keep moving regardless of the direction or what was going on around me.
It sure changes everything when you don’t have plans. Usually my year is planned a year ahead of time and this year, from March all my plans had been cancelled which left me feeling lost and bewildered and I was seriously lacking direction. I know many of us found ourselves in this place for 2020. I found it so interesting to re-adjust my focus without having a purpose. I had to get up and do life without an end goal… I know it sounds strange but we don’t often find ourselves in this place.
SOLD A Birds Eye View - 16"x20"x 1.5"
I had to wake myself up everyday with a forced purpose and a schedule even when I didn’t really have one. I know we know these things and say we do this… but do we really? I had to create for creation sake regardless of the end result. I had to keep my brushes moving and my heart fully engaged. Part of that was using my recycled canvases and finishing works I had started last year and the other was playing with clay. The playing with clay this year really saved me and my heart many times. I did it more from a place of comfort and play than anything else. I did also side step and got deliciously distracted with Yoga during lockdown which still holds me captive. Also I eventually got to move forward when I committed to being part of the Quirk auction. However even before I committed to that I did started to find my flow #inmystudio and I can honestly say I’ve been having the most precious year in a year that has been so utterly vulnerable on so many levels.
All I can say is that I’m so grateful I had art, yoga and mediation to hold me during this year and that we found creative ways to hold each other online and be there for one another. You have no idea how that helped me this year. So I wanted to say thank you for the connection, the love and support and the beautiful friendships, creative friendships that have always been so important to me, even more so in this unfathomable year.
“A bird’s-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans, and maps. It can be an aerial photograph, but also a drawing.”
Class is in session...
I have had so much fun the past while making these sweet beings into driftwood and forest woods and I loved filming my process and making this little class. It came together beautifully and I managed to share everything I was hoping to share.
Thank you for the incredible response and sign ups to this tiny installment this week and for you special folk who shared the love and spread the news. I know we can’t do this without each other. I appreciate you all so much. I look forward to sharing more ideas with you soon over the next while too.
I am so loving playing with clay again and it’s feeling like such a wonderful way to close out this year playfully. I don’t think I realized just how much I needed it.
I'm all Ears...
“My hands are elegant and my ears… well they were a surprise even for me but I’ve been learning to love myself even with my little oddities. I’m always leaning in, to listen carefully to life’s subtle nuances.”
She was such a pleasant surprise even for me. She’s tiny and she was built around an old fashioned clothes peg. She was a rebuild and rescued piece, like most of my pieces tend to end up being but she originally had these ears on her back as wings which I removed, as I’m not really a fairy kind of gal. So I was playing around with where to put them and I tried on her head and that felt kind of perfect for the Quirk auction. Unfortunately I didn’t get her finished in time for the auction but her ears ended up being such a delight to me and to others but most of all I loved her elegant hands.
I have fallen in love with hands again - it was a common theme that ran through most of pieces that were in my auction.
I know this last while has felt like a bit of a clay season for me but I’m just enjoying it and moving with it, that being said, I’m missing my paints and canvases terribly too. In the meantime, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the love and support around my clay works - it’s been so greatly affirming.
Operation send off...
Operation send off was epic.
It’s as important to me as making the art itself. I convert my dining room and studio into a packaging space. It takes me days of organising, putting together, wrapping up and closing out.
I’ll share a video soon, once I’ve put it together. I wanted to share my wrapping up of my SoulBearers and my process around that. I am not saying I have all the answers but some of the behind the scenes work. Protecting my work is always my highest concern and the far journey means anything can happen. I have learnt so many lessons through the years of some of the things that can go wrong, what works best for the different items and I guess that’s something that I’ll alway be tweaking.
When I package up my little souls, they are so adorable in their foam wrappings and I fall in love all over again.
It’s a tiny bit of joy in the long tunnel of packaging and shipping.
#sogratefulforsomuch
Sanctuary for the Lost Souls
She was born in Italy in our beautiful upper room of the monastery, in Orvieto. She travelled over the seas home with me and waited patiently all year for me to finally finish her. Sometimes the sheer size of these souls overwhelm me but only until I start painting them. Once I started painting her, she flowed, from beginning to end. I totally love the form she took, I don’t often have a say over the form they take... They tend to go where they need to and I am better not to fight it.
They bring their own delight to me.
I stuck with a limited palette and it seemed to work well.
She embarks on her final voyage to her forever home and I’m so grateful that she’s on her way. I trust my sweet Bearer will travel with grace and mercy and arrive in one piece.
#sendingwithsomuchlove
Prints, prints prints....
Just a little shout out for my tiny shop.
It’s a new storefront platform I've finally figured out and it’s working. For all those who have been asking about my prints and blockmounts, my tiny shop is stocked. Thank you for your patience and allowing me to finish my auction, shipping and admin. Please take a browse. I have kept my prices the same as last year and a little bonus, I’m running a one week opening 10% special…
Please use the code WELCOME
Thank you - always Thank you !!!
It’s truly so hard for me to find the words. How do you say thank you when it just doesn’t seem like an appropriate word to express the weight of my gratitude.
I took a few days to be quiet after the auction. It’s a massive energy pull and full on connection for 3 days give or take. Of course there is the month long build up before the auction and the time after to package up, with all my love and appreciation. It’s a biggie, one I completely adore. I admire Stephanie’s massive capacity to run these online auctions. Phenomenal really and the collective creative energy to be part of a group auction this year, was felt and beautifully appreciated. The whole experience mind-blowing.
So thank you to all who came, who loved on and who of course, bid and purchased. I am always so blown away by the love and it always feels a little unexpected. It’s more than encouraging - it’s life changing. To be honest it’s given me some emotional confirmation that I was deeply needing after the year of uncertainty we have had. So I quietly and humbly say a massive THANK YOU!
I am so grateful I was able to finish her in time for the auction and I’m so grateful that she’s going to a new home.
It’s given me the courage to make some new decisions about what’s coming next and I hope to share more soon. But I'm encouraged and excited and completely ignited.
I’ve been packaging and adding some tiny extras to each parcel, as you know packaging up is as important to me as the piece itself. It fills my love tank.
I send out all my pieces with the travel angels and may they arrive promptly and swiftly.
With so much Love, Jeanne-Marie
Final bags...
It’s almost the end of an era with my special SlingBags.
These are the final two bags left that are up for grabs. I sold a lot and I also gave away a lot as gifts. It was important to me to be able to do both. This venture was such a blessing in my life and I’m so grateful that I did it and that I got to work with such a brilliant initiative and team in Cape Town. I am also so grateful at how well received they were as art bags, yoga and mediation bags and everyday bags.
What I love even more is that, like my actual TeaBagGirl pieces, they went all around the world.
I don’t have any plans for new SlingBags but maybe a different kind of bag perhaps. Let me know your thoughts, I would love to hear. In the meantime and once again, I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU for all who supported me in this special venture of mine. I loved sharing them with you. It definitely feels like the end of something beautiful and my heart is so overwhelmed with gratitude.
Much Love, Jeanne-Marie
AUCTION DAY... one more sleep.
One more sleep and my auction day is here.
It’s kind of snuck up on me but being part of the Quirk group has felt like a soft landing in an otherwise challenging year. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this sweet and delightful group. It’s felt a little like family. The work has been sweetness all the way, a little to a lot of quirk and rather refreshing. To top it all off, it’s been such a beautiful supportive group.
Tomorrow is my solo day to close out the Quirk show. I would like to say these days get easier with all the years I’ve been doing them with Stephanie but for me it feels like it intensifies each year. I know it’s challenging for my nature but I also know it’s good for me, no matter where the chips may fall. Maybe it has to do with the vulnerability and being fully seen. Right…. It’s always easier for me to be more in the background tinkering away and you might accidentally stumble across me and we might transact this way. I know being fully vulnerable is growth, always. So I do the work.
I am, of course laughing to myself about my own quirkiness and of course thank you, thank you for the love and tag requests already received and the support felt for the work I’ve done this year.
Hopefully see you tomorrow on the Auction Floor.
Please remember to click on “GOING”
#365TinyCaptures
We have dipped below 100days left of this year already, down to the double digits.
How crazy is that?
The days are slipping by so fast and I’m trying to hold onto tiny moments that help me stay present in every day and every moment.... like Riley’s precious love, magical sunsets, walking slowly into my yoga class, yoga… lots of yoga, the wild flowers on the side of the road, healthy food, my garden and art... always my art and lots and lots of it! I have once again adored this project but almost 3 years into the practice I can see my images are improving and I’m loving the daily seeking which has become an art in itself.
One which I love.
