Mandala

The Artists Muse is a new group set up to discuss and work on Betsy Dillard Stroud's book The Artist's Muse.

The first challenge is to create a personal mandala.

I started one on watercolour paper and one on calico. The one shown is the paper version as the quilted one isn't finished yet - need to add some hand stitching and charms.
I painted them both using watercolours and Twinkling H2O's. The lines are drawn with Adirondack pens.

My theme is Inspiration.
Colour is very important to me. I used orange/yellow to signify energy and joy. Pink to be playful. Purple is a sacred colour and appears in many of my favourite flowers. It is also a romantic colour. Turquoise represents femininity and water - the sea for me, I love its changeable nature.
I have used strong colours to represent strength of course.

The triple spiral is a symbol of rebirth (a thing I am going through) but also here represents the biggest influences on my creativity.
The beach and sea.
Nature and in particular flowers.
Music - I never do anything with out music playing. All sorts of music, I have very eclectic tastes. Oh, and as my friends and neighbours will tell you, I sing a lot - very loud ;0)

The figure in the centre is my take on "the man in the maze" which represents a persons journey through life. My figure is drawn in turquoise for femininity and therefore represents me.


This was a wonderful exercise that I have thoroughly enjoyed doing.
It has given me quite a lot to think about.
More than that, the group that has come together to do this is so very talented and friendly it is going to be great fun to work with them. The other mandala's are fantastic too, have a look here!