Landscape Challenge Pt.2

Hi guys….so lets finish off the landscape we started and I hope you were trying it. We left off where I did a simple wash of the different colours one on top of the other. Then I used my bottle that has black paint, a fairly thick mixture with a little water or you can mix black acrylic paint with a little water and have a bottle with black paint and one with white). I used my bottle of black paint to draw an outline of some hills on one of the higher washes. Do the same thing with the white paint going on the inside of the mountains.

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Also draw wavy lines moving away from the base of your mountains as if it were a river you were drawing. Let it look like waves of water if necessary. I decided to do an outline of some of the lines with a glittery paint. Only to realise that it wasn’t glitter paint but glitter glue. : 0 Ah Well !!! Think of it as mixed medium. Lol This is how the final landscape looked.

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See how the mountains are a combination of the black and white paint intertwined but not totally mixed to make grey. you can distinguish the white lines within the black. You may need to let the black paint dry first before applying the white, if you use acrylic paint you don’t need to let the black dry first before adding the white.

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Silvery Water Landscape

The shiny areas are the glitter glue. use the tip of the glitter paint bottle like a pen and draw along some of the lines within the mountain or the side of the river. I hope you understood my directions, if not, I do apologise. But share with me what you created, I’m excited to see them. Remember there are no mistakes, everything is art, even using glue when you thought it was glitter paint.

These are some additional landscapes I completed. I do one a day.

Green Valley

7th Landscape Challenge Piece.

Blue Field

8th Landscape Challenge Piece

If you enjoyed trying this let me know and I’ll explain how I did some of the others. Choose the one you like then email me at gfrancistt@gmail.com and I’ll do the blog post.

Rocky Cliffs

9th Landscape Challenge

If you enjoyed this you might like…

>Research, Research, Research

>My Art Story

>How Do I Create A Piece

The Landscape challenge

Hi guys…I was reading Tara Leaver….AGAIN!… when she talked about making more consistent art. She challenged us to an exercise to help us deal with the inconsistency problem, in a manageable way that also sets you on the path to developing a series, to prove that you can do one. This was the challenge:

“Seven days to create art with a single focus. Got something you’ve been wanting to explore a bit more deeply? This is the perfect opportunity.

The challenge is open to all visual artists – you can paint, draw, knit, sculpt, sew, make jewellery, or whatever you like. I recommend keeping the concept and process fairly small so you don’t overwhelm yourself or make it impossible to keep going.”

The project I took was to paint small landscapes for 93 days. It was fairly simple and I decided to let it be very loose and almost abstract. I painted however I was feeling at that point. So these were my steps.

STEP #1 - PREPARE YOUR PAPER

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STEP #1

So I started by finding a small watercolour painting book. Mine is 9x12 but you can get something smaller like 10x10. Tape all the edges with maskin tape to allow the piece to have a border as this gives it a better look when you’ve finished, plus it allows for framing.

STEP #2 - PULL OUT YOUR TOOLS

Once you’ve taped the edges, then pull out the watercolours or watercolour pencils, your brushes (choose only 2), have your water close by, you can also have a bottle with white or black paint and finally decide on the colours you’re going to use. I picked viridian green, lavender and light green.

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Have all your tools ready and prepared.

Above is my watercolour palette, brushes and watercolour pencils.

STEP #3 - START PAINTING

Don’t think about what you’re going to do just MOVE! Take up a brush, let your senses guide you, dip into the first colour and paint however you feel, then take the second colour and do the same. I felt like doing a simple wash of each colour one above the other.

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I felt for a simple wash with one colour on top of the other.And I let it run.

This is what it looks like so far. I’ll continue tomorrow and post the next steps, but see below some of the other miniature landscapes I did days before, one per day.

Green Field

Blue Mountains

Watercolour Palms

I’ll show some of the others when I post my next steps for the landscape done above.

The Truth About Blogging

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Hi…I’m on a rant again because you learn so much when you do all your research and from all the reading I’ve done I’ve learnt much where blogging is concerned. Firstly, I have to go back to the beginning as to why I started blogging. I went into blogging for different reasons.

1. I wanted to share and sell my Art…….gafra.org

2. I wanted to be able to share my thoughts about different topics……triniartstudio.org

3. I wanted to share my Natural Hair journey through my experiences…….gafraihairu.com

4. Blogging was a great way to make another income stream

5. I wanted a voice and to journal my thoughts and share them.

But no one tells you how much work is involved and that you need to be able to write well…your posts must at least be able to keep the attention of your audience. All the different research I did via Pinterest, Google, etc all say that its your blog and just be you and speak as if you’re talking to a friend. That was fine but it’s not easy to write content that is well written so that you keep people’s attention.

Luckily I love English and I like writing, plus I didn’t care too sh….t if people felt my writing was good or not. I just want to have a voice to say and share what I wanted to. That is not the case if you want your blog to be a means to earn a living though. I remember speaking with my brother-in-law, that was at the start when I was now beginning my first and only blog ( now I have 3).

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I had started a blog…www.triniartstudio.net…but it was started to share my Artwork and to try to sell it online, but as I went along and time passed, I went through a transition and that name and the look of the site no longer reflected me, so I rebranded to GaFra…..www.gafra.org….because I had changed and as usual I did a lot of research because now I wanted to sell my art online, after having tried all variety of marketplaces (Fineartamerica, Big Cartel, Artpal, Etsy, ArtFinder and many more) but none of them worked. I sold nothing.

So getting back to the point of this post, when you start a blog, there are few things you need to consider:

1. Can you write well enough to hold a person’s attention

2. Is what you have to share interesting or not?

3. Do you really need to build a list of at least 100 topics so you never run out of things to talk about?

4. When you share your information is it properly written?

5. Do you know how to create proper cover pages for your blog post? And do you know where you can go to do that?

6. Do you even know how to build a blog? (Check squarespace.com or Wordpress)

Oh and there is even more....I also wanted to write a book. So aside from knowing if you have the writing skills to write the posts I wanted to go further. I wanted to write a book. Right now I’m putting together my husband’s poems to develop an ebook and publish it for him. That will be my test run.

I’ve always had a book on my bucket list and after reading all the different blogs about how you can do this, I am still tentative, because I always find out how much is involved in doing any of these things after the fact of trying to do it myself, in spite of all the research I do.

But what is great, is that through the research, like I mentioned above, you encounter all these sites that can help you and I also read from other book publishers, that you can publish it yourself via Amazon Kindle Publishing, but there are also courses that help you go through the process easily. I discovered one of these programs, of course I found it after the fact. It’s always after you struggle you discover all these helpful sites. I recently came upon this program:

Its called The Low Content Mastery training package. It's a course that teaches you how you can make money publishing journals, planners and other profitable low content books on Amazon KDP Print. The program includes:

Module #1: Step-by-Step Training Guides (10, plus free updates)

Module #2: Done-for-you book templates (all sizes) 

Module #3: Premade Book Covers with Source Files

Module #4: Niche Profit Reports

Module #5: Over-my-shoulder video tutorials.

So don’t be like me and struggle, invest in learning the correct way to publish so that you don’t get lost or go off track like I did.

 So what I didn’t do correct was

1.     Write out the 100 topics so I had a flow for my blogs

2.     Learn to develop covers for every blog posts (check Canva.com)

3.     Understand the correct format for the posts and how to pull readers.

So I know I don’t want the same errors to occur when I start my book, which I want to start very soon. People do your homework and make sure you understand the best process to follow to get your book online and to even write good content whether its for your blog or your book. You want it to be purchased, do the right thing, be properly prepared so that it’s purchased. 

Check out Low Content Mastery.

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A Day To Be Thankful.

Hi everyone, it's a beautiful day in Trinidad and Tobago. Today I saw my admin assistant for the first time after a week. She was one of the casualties of the major flooding in Arima.

The story was bad. Water coming through your windows, cars submerged, water up to your neck, kindergardens having to carry the babies to the roof. It was a mess, but after the rescues by the Coast guard people came out in droves to help.

Those who couldn't leave their homes for whatever reason were provided with food and drink and help came later.

It was a good story to hear that after the water finally went down people came again in droves to help remove useless water ridden appliances. They came to help clean the homes. They came with cooked food, clothes, baby items to assist those who had lost everything.

Charity and goodness is still alive. Yes she mentioned there was the odd story of appliances being stolen but those were few. Things were well organised and everything came to them because some people couldn't leave anyway.

I was amazed at her stories of the generosity and goodwill that occurred. Even the insurance companies were very professional in their approach. Just as peole were visited house by house by HDC to repair electricity and check outlets and restore these key amenities the insurance agents also went house to house to get estimates to deal with claims quickly.

You didnt have to go to the offices, the office came to you  and so it should be because their minds were already in a turmoil from being rescued in their own living room from 6 feet of water. That is traumatic and scary. Juming into that water so that the Coast Guard can rescue you was also danderous as some peopl banged their legs or side on the unknown items under the water.

Its so surreal. These are things you see on TV but never think they will happen to people close to you. You feel helpless but things always work out. The interesting part is, while some are going through all that chaos others are going on with their lives unaware of the devastation others are dealing with. Life is just so odd sometimes.

Well things have settled and she is back home. She has no furniture but again the government swiftly sort to give grants for them to replace their appliances and many stores offered very low discounts to assist with the replacement.

So with everything back to normal I am glad that we aren't as third world as some other countries like to list us. Things were well organised and dealt with. We still have things to work out so they run even better but everything takes time and we have reached very far.

So check you next week for more artsy sharing versus disaster sharing. 

Landslide in Maracas

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What Is The True Value of Art? Should You Compromise?

I did an Upmarket in South a few months ago and in chatting with another vendor who did work similar to mine, we both agreed that Art in Trinidad is valued by the minority. I mean the minority accepts its value and are willing to pay for it. The majority like Art but don't see it as an investment.

When an Artist has paid his dues and becomes famous only then is his Artwork seen as valuable. When he dies then it's even more valuable, e.g. Boscoe Holders work. But as a new Artist it takes a lot to stay positive about your work and to continue painting.

I have evolved over time, but in a direction I didn't plan. I now do a lot more small acrylics for the markets and less watercolours. This was not my intention but I've been pulled by the public demand versus my inert internal yearning. 

Why? Why has this happened?

1. It happens because every Artists wants their work to be appreciated, purchased and even demanded.

2. Compromising gives us a level of vindication, because the art sells but should we need that? Should we compromise? I feel not, but we do.

An Artist should paint because they are compelled to and create what they feel inside. Not paint what sells. I have fallen into that trap. Its hard to avoid. You don't want your work to pile up, unseen, unappreciated, unsold.

Sharing the beauties in my Garden

Triple orchids

Another view of my triplets.

Beauties.

So what do I do?

I to an extent, have no choice. Maybe I can do both. I paint what inspires me but in a size that is "sellable" for the Markets and I paint what I feel inside on a bigger scale for my exhibitions. I learned from my last Exhibition/Pop Up Shop that to be able to sell my large pieces, Upmarkets are not the way.

I am going the route of the Formal Exhibition. I am planning one next year and it will feature my large pieces only. I will invite guests formally to my opening and make a production of the entire event. Lets see how that goes.... : ) 

I've also stumbled on an abstract artist Nancy Hillis and she has an onlineworksop:

https://nancyhillis.com/artists-journey-3-secrets-of-the-masters 

and here I started releasing my creativity even more.

I completed one piece based on her direction and it was far different from my normal simple, geometric, flat design. I will continue following her worshop to see where it leads me.

So guys thats all for now. Check you next week. Love you all and continue to follow me and send in your comments via my website: www.gafra.org.

I also have a new blog called www..wordpress.com/Gafra_TAS. All bout my natural hair journey. Check it out. So until next time. 

Giving Of Yourself

Hi everyone...sorry about the late posting but yesterday I had a very hectic day as I worked in two stalls for my Church Harvest and today is my mom's birthday...so I kinda forgot all about posting.

The title today is what I felt as I worked in the Harvest. Sometimes you have to give to your community...find a way. If not through your church then maybe through a club for the youths or the communuty centre. 

That day it was a lot of work, very hot, very tiring and I had volunteered my kids to run one of the stalls without asking them. They weren't too happy about that and I basically had to organise everything myself and they simply came the day to run the stall. They did a good job but my son who is a grumbler....grumbled as usual........Kids!!!

A wide view during mass before the start of the Harvest.

Me and my friend in the stall. 

That is all for now. Check you next week. Love you all.

             Www.gafra.org

I was a little upset with him and his attitude, so after the harvest when we were all at home I sent a message on the family whatsapp chat telling them thanks for their help and that they had done a good job and they had done their part for the church and I won't volunteer them again. ...yes...I dislike grumblers.

I had fun but my feet were killing me because after working in one stall, when it closed off I moved to my kids' stall to help there. Last year when I did the stall I felt worst but this year I had no aches or pains. That must mean that my workouts at the gym were paying off.

Back to giving of yourself...... I hope each and everyone of us can do something for others or to help our community as the community takes care of its people...its young and old. So lets do our part.

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!

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Shating a pic that was shared online. Some things were displaced in this store

Hello everyone. I don't normally do a second post in one week but I just had to share this. Trinidad &Tobago had one of its strongest quakes ever on Tuesday. It was a 6.9 and lasted about 3 minutes. It was scary as heck although I have to confess when it started I was at home with my family. I was upstairs with my husband when it started. We normally just sit still until it passes but this time it was rough so we crouched near the bed,  but my main thought was to try to protect the TV from falling.....yes....lol...when we thought is was finished it started up again but worst, so we moved to the doorway.

People when it finally stopped I immediately rushed downstairs to find out how my girls were (my 3 daughters were downstairs). Only to find them at the front door with one in her towel ( she was taking a shower when it happened). Everyone was fine but the electricity was gone and you cpuldn't make any calls. I tried to call my mom who lives alone. You realise from an experience like this how inconsequential and helpless we humans are if nature wants to take revenge. I say revenge because humans have been disrespecting the environment and nature, so its paying us back for that. We really need to treat the earth better. Stop the poisoning of the seas, polluting the atmosphere and the land.

So blessedly there were no fatalities and only small damages to buildings and cars but there was an aftershock yesterday and they say we can expect an even bigger tremor sometime. We are powerless against something like that but we can try to be prepared. But Trinis have short memories. They will be partying as usual in 2 weeks and would have forgotten all about this scare. Not sure if our happy go lucky attitude is a good thing or not but it is our reality.

So thats the story. A shake up in Trinidad but we are resilient and nothing takes our joy. Chat next week. If anything else happens I will let you know. Later!! What we need to do.

My Story

Hi everyone. Just wanted to tell you a little bit about me. So who is GaFra? Better known as Gail Francis. Well I am the first of 2 children. My baby brother is my sweety. We are 6 years apart but we get along like a house on fire. We laugh at the most ridiculous things. My father died or was killed a few years ago. That's a whole story in itself. My mom is alive and she is a sweetheart.

Being the oldest I am quite responsible. I did my chores. Didn't stay out too late etc. Being married with four children I must say my mom had it easy...but my kids are a dream and so is my wonderful husband. I don't know how he puts up with me. I am stubborn and bossy sometimes but he is my greatest fan. Life in Trinidad is great despite all the things you hear internationally. I own my own business that I run with my husband but my Art is my second business.

I'm hoping to make it a serious business so when I retire it is fully up and running. So coming back to me......below see what i looked like as a child.

cute huh?😁 I have always enjoyed life. I look different from a few years ago and as I get older I decided to go natural and I am enjoying it immensely. But painting is what lets me relax and I am happiest doing.

But I also enjoyed horseback riding but haven't been able to do much of that anymore

This is me when I decided to go natural. I cut it all off. I'm in the Botanical Gardens having snow cone.

Love that place. Ok I've got lots more to share but i'll do that next week. I rebranded as you know and I want my new look to really reach out there internationally. So let your friends, here and abroad know about my site.   www.gafra.org......As a part of my new look I will also be painting series. Right now I'm working on a 3 part series of my watercolour painting " The Old Lattice House"  I plan to paint 3 different perspectives of the house. Here is "The Old Lattice House" the first/original.

This is part 2 of the Old House Series.

OK guys talk next week. And check me next week to see how the series is going. Later!!! Love you all.

Hi I’m GaFra

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