Last Saturday, 13 May, the sketching location was around Xiao Nan Men (小南门), which is not too far from my home. We have sketched here in the past but not this year so far. As per Tōnis’ (@vanishing.shanghai) observation, this part of the Old Town stands out as the most “green” with plenty of plants, foliage, trees, and vines hanging down electricity lines. It was great that I decided to venture out early that morning for sketching was a delightful experience, as it allowed me to take in the vibrant energy of the locality. From delivery men in electric bikes deftly maneuvering their way around the narrow lanes to vans…
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A lot has happened in the last few weeks since the previous post (more on that later…). One of the significant pieces of news I’ve wanted to share is the upcoming Virtual Art Summit 2023!!! Let’s Play! Are you ready to have fun and let your creativity flow? The Summit is open to everyone, regardless of skill level or artistic ability. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist, this year’s Summit is so worth attending. You’ll receive valuable tips, inspiration, and techniques from the lineup of guest artists that will help you relax and spark your creative spirit. I am thrilled to announce that I have been invited to participate…
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What can I say? December turned out so completely different from what I had envisioned to be and what I had hoped it to be. Things that were part of our everyday almost since 2020 like scanning QR codes, PCR testing at least every 72 hrs, checking of green codes in public places and other restrictions, were suddenly lifted. Suddenly, the COVID virus spread like wildfire and once again, Shanghai buckled down from COVID infections, everything (at least almost everything) went upside down fast. I was feeling like another lockdown (like what happened in March/April of 2022) was happening as the city suddenly went silent by mid-December. Schools had already…
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Belated Happy New Year! So, typically, I hardly record my painting process because it always is on the spur of the moment when I paint. This one, I was more intentional, as I was inspired to seeing my process and understand how long it actually took me to “finish”. This below is before I added the birds. So I am sharing the process video of how I painted an abstract landscape for Week 2 lesson of Wanderlust 2023 using chalk pastels (I only have a few) with clear and regular gesso. On top of that, I also used a bit of NeoColors water-soluble pastels and translucent texture paste. This abstract…
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The final leg of our Europe 2019 adventure was Holland or the Netherlands. Yes, it is indeed 2019 because for so many reasons, this journal took longer to finish. Unlike the other 2 journals of this trip, I actually didn’t get any pages done while on the trip. I had ran out of paste/glue by the time we were almost halfway through our Finland trip. And we did try to find stationery stores but either ran out of time or just couldn’t find any. Lesson learned: Bring more the next time we actually can travel out of China again (yes, it’s been 3 years… and counting… since pandemic hit). For…
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The team of Teachers for Wanderlust 2023 has been announced, and I am thrilled to tell you that I am one of the guest teachers!!! Having been a Wanderlust student myself, the year-long courses are truly nourishing for the soul and help me get unstuck with my creative practice. The teacher line up for 2023 is as amazing as the past years. They each bring a unique technique, idea, approach and process to art journaling. These are just some of my art journal pages from 2021 and 2022 Wanderlust classes. It’s literally an adventure! If you have not done Wanderlust before, Wanderlust 2023 is 55 mixed-media lessons, all downloadable and…
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Early this year, Shilpa (@nagaonkarshilpa on IG) asked me if I would like to do a collab with her and of course, I say “YES!” Coming up with the challenge was the easy part. The tricky part was the timing especially with lockdown in Shanghai that last 2 months and moving apartment. Finally we came up with our date. Just excited to be on this journey with her as I’ve always been a fan of Shilpa’s style and colours. What is this challenge about, you wonder? It’s all about finding a new use for things we have around the house. Shilpa and I believe in reusing, repurposing, and giving items…
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May came and went. In between being in lockdown, trying to stay positive amidst everything and trying to find recipes to match what I had available, cleaning the apartment and work… well it was all happening all at once. This challenge from Get Messy was probably one that made the days a bit better, it was something I looked forward to playing in my art journals. And I even got to take some process videos! So what I used is this small (I think around A6) size old journal/diary. It is dated 2017 but have not thrown it out because I thought maybe I can do something with it since…
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Literally I have to find a new space for the 2022 of December Daily because I have ran out! The only year I did not do any December Daily was 2019 because I decided to take a break and do art journaling instead. This album is actually handmade using leftover binder D-ring and chipboards I had in my stash. I bought these Tim Holtz fabric from the Yuletide collection from a local seller (which I cannot find on the FreeSpirit website anymore. When I flipped through the 2020 album, I noticed that a lot of the stories were mine and not as much of my kids. I think that time…
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With only a couple months left before Christmas, I thought I’d it would be good to look back at the junk journal pages/spreads I did on-&-off via the hashtag #junkjournalingthru2021. This is almost like a 100-day project but runs all through the year. Reflecting on what I’ve learned: My “style” seems to be evolving and it’s to do with the type of journal I am working on. I enjoyed playing on blank pages when I used TN notebook inserts I “struggled” when I transitioned to using journals that I have stitched and bound together using various papers. I don’t know whether it is because of the existing content already on…
