this mess

a tiny life No. 2 - collage, ink & gouache

The teak topped desk is a disaster zone this early morning ... I was able to scrape a small section clear with room enough for my elbows and my big fat Starbucks mug of coffee. Bubbles & scent are a pourin' and directly after Winnie D & I arrive home from our walk around this little village in darkness & moonlight the very first thing on la Saturday list is to tidy up this messy desk.

The thing is this mess is really a very good thing, it's a mess of rampant unbridled CE* building. All day yesterday I kept saying to myself - Stop ! clean up a bit before you carry on with round two of Li'l Art - but no, I was not able to stop myself - the ideas were flying out of me so fast & furious that I could not stop my much loved red mechanical pencil from drawing, drawing, drawing. Madly working out the next batch of miniature collage paintings ... just as I finished up one drawing another idea would land dans my busy little head and then another and another. Phew !

Each little idea most often hatches first as a tiny thumbnail, a very rough sketch in my day planner. Then I'll do an actual size pencil drawing and when I'm happy with that I go over the pencil with a black drawing pen (also much loved and couldn't live without). I work until I have 6 designs drawn in pen on tracing paper and then I tape the tracing paper to my lightbox and tape a heavy sheet of watercolour paper on top of that - then ... the magic begins. The cutting, the pasting, the painting and more bits of drawing until each tiny piece of art is ready to be scanned, photographed, signed & matted, then attached to the bright white greeting card with special double sided framing goo, sealed lovingly in cellophane sleeve avec it's lovely matching white envelope ... and poof ! ready to be displayed in my etsy shop.

Shop update Sunday or Monday with loads & loads of new stuff ... all originals !

CE* Creative Empire and the building there of