''Silent dreams'' - 07.2014

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination." - Henry David Thoreau

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Today I will not go on a rant about some random thing... I'll not go on a rant at all.

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The following painting is currently on display at Christ Church, Oxford.

It was a birthday present for my dear friend Henry. 

Not Henry Thoreau, 

Henry Rodriguez-Broadbent or the ''guy who does maths at Oxford''.

He's also the guy who's ruined my life and convinced me that doing a maths degree was a great decision. yh right. 

I mean, who would want to do calculus for 4 years? 

Well, to be honest, I'm exaggerating, I'm actually looking forward to it :')

Come on September, hurry up.

As always Artists' oil paints from Winsor and Newton on a strange size canvas (about 6" x 12")

"Silent Dreams"

Lots of Love,

Marlena 

Drumlane Abbey, Cavan - 24.11.2014

Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you? Why have you gone away...?

[listen]

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Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Amazing time of the year. Usually. This year I feel like someone stole Christmas from me... Every year I start my Christmas preparations a month in advance and just spend the month searching for presents and writing cards.. This year however I had to rush everything, didn't write any cards and my presents weren't as thoughtful as usually.
Why? well... the answer is simple. I got a job. 

During the Christmas period we spend so much time worrying about money and our jobs. In all that hassle of everyday worries and problems we fail to truly experience Christmas. 
Christmas Day has become the most stressful day of the year for because everything has to ready and perfect even though we're spending it with our families. 
Christmas has been so commercialised that it is more about the presents and showing off than it is about having quality family time. Christmas itself has become purely a day focused on money.

I doubt that I'll get a Christmas job next year because this year it has simply robbed me instead of giving me something (except for money of course). On Christmas Day I was too exhausted to enjoy it. I literally fell asleep.

Christmas huh .. 

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Here's one of my latest paintings. It was created for the man with whom I have spent my Christmas this year.
It was a gift for his 19th birthday and it took me exactly 19 hours (which was of course a coincidence) :)

It's a painting of Drumlane Abbey, Cavan - a place where his Grandparents are buried. I wasn't just being creepy - he asked me for a painting of that place ages ago :)


Here is it:

Painted using artists' oil paints from Winston and Newton on a 18"x14" canvas, also from Winston and Newton.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas :) !!!



Lots of Love,
Marlena x 

The Annoying Tree - 28.06.2014

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep" - Scott Adams

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I've got this strange tendency to over-think things. I'm sure most of us do it. It's not usually a bad thing - to think things through, but with me, it's like an addiction or an illness. If I ever make a decision it's always in the heat of the moment, because if I have enough time to think it through, I'll never come to a conclusion,  I'll just keep on constantly changing my mind and messing stuff up. If you've ever seen me make an important decision I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. I need to talk through all of my options, this is where my friends step in. And then even if I do make a decision, I'll just change my mind on the following day. It's horrible.

I haven't been very active here recently (again) because I recently started being a ''Teacher'', well more of a learning support teacher. I just do some extra maths with one boy, some reading with others and help a couple of boys in English/Latin. It's a very fun job, every day is different but it does mean that I barely get any free time to paint (I get home from work and then tutor in the evenings).
I feel like I'm talking to an old friend right now, so if any of you reading this wanted to catch up with me, here you go, no need to get in touch with me anymore - you know everything now :)

I'm talking nonsense today, but what I write here is not the main subject of my blog. All of this is just extra stuff. The main thing is the painting. So here it is.


It's called ''The annoying tree'' because the tree you see in the foreground nearly made me destroy the painting. I had to repaint it way too many times. I was just never happy with it... I did get there in the end and I'm quite satisfied with the outcome :)

''The Annoying Tree'' using artists' oil paints from Winsor and Newton on a 18" x 14" canvas.



Lots of Love,
Marlena

''Destiny'' - 06.07.2014

"The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting" 

- Vincent van Gogh

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Why do people paint?

Some paint to get rid of the excess of creative energy, others paint because they want to recreate a famous painting or want to paint like some famous artist; some people paint because they have always done it, since they can remember, they've always been painting; some are forced by their parents and others just want to make some money. There are also people who just like to be creative, they like to make something new, something unique, something that represents their emotions and state of mind.


Unless you're ready to make mistakes and learn how to work with, not against them, don't try to make art. In art, mistakes are a crucial part of the process, just like in life, we learn from mistakes and try to use them to our advantage.
I believe that everybody starts their life as an artist. Not necessarily a painter, but as an artist of some sort.
Some people try writing songs, creating melodies, singing in a jazzy way others try painting, sketching, sculpting and drawing, but most of them give up on it because they believe their passion is just a silly phase, just a childish dream which will never have a permanent place in their life. 

Many people give up on their dreams simply because the society tells them to do so as it's become more acceptable to live a life with no dreams, passion and happiness, but with money, than it us to live a fulfilling one while being poor.
Slowly people are turning into robot-like creatures that live in order to make money they believe they need in order to live. They fall into a never ending cycle. It's sad that money is such an important aspect of our lives.
It's so important that people choose to abandon  their dreams in order to make more and more and even more money. I don't want to live like that. I'd rather be poor and happy, than rich and stuck in a job I hate.
What's the point of life? Isn't it to be happy...? 

Henry Miller in his book [''To love is to paint again''] said that ''poverty is one of the misfortunes people seem to dread even more than sickness''. How strange is that? Surprising? Not necessarily. The main criterion for a ''happy'' life is money. People will not classify your life as complete if you don't reach a certain salary level. How awful is that? People are more scared of being poor than they are of being sick...
The weird thing is that you can't even get water... or food... without money. Money became more crucial to our survival.... than water.

Dreams don't matter anymore... being an artist doesn't matter anymore... then what does matter? money? yes... for some people... 
Money is a crazy invention... It's supposed to give people freedom, but instead it enslaves them.

I don't want to turn my hobby into a job. I don't want others to control my passion. If I did turn this into a job, I would have to start taking commissions, which would mean that I wouldn't be able to paint what I want. 

I paint to keep myself calm, relaxed and happy. I love seeing progress in my paintings... My style changed so much this year.. the first proper oil painting I ever created was in February 2014. And it looks completely different when compared with my other ones. And that's what keeps me going; trying new techniques makes it exciting for me... My dream is to exhibit my work in a gallery, but I doubt I'll ever get there, because if I did, then I'd always be trying to take the paintings off the walls and change something in them :')

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Here's something I created today :)

It's called ''Destiny''. A bit unrelated to the essay above, but that's the name I find the most fitting for a painting of the sea.

As always oil paints from Winsor and Newton (Artist's range) on a 18"x14" canvas.

Lots of Love,

Marlena 

"Sweet Dreams" 25.06.2014

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."
- Vincent van Gogh

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Why are people so obsessed with knowing things for certain?
Nobody wants to make a decision unless they're 100% sure that this is the right one. But it's impossible to know. You can't predict the future all you can do is assume that what you're going to do will have some predictable effect on your life, but there is no way for you to actually know, for you to be certain of the outcome of your actions. Of course, making predictions is useful, you shouldn't decide to do something risky without analysing all possible outcomes and then only if it's worth the risk you should proceed. Quite often all we think of is the immediate future which gets directly affected by our decision, rarely we consider the long term effects of our actions. All we can do is analyse and predict, but we will never be 100% certain that what we're doing is right. We'll only know when we finally see the long term effect of our decision. 

People are impatient. Who wants to wait for years in order to see that their investment will pay off? Who wants to wait for  years to see if what they love doing will become the only thing they ever have to do?

All we have is here and now. And that's all we have for certain.

Okay, people like to feel in control of their own lives, and indeed, there are some aspects of our lives that we are able to control, but many things are out of our control. We can't control other people, we can't make them react how we want them to react in order for the scenario from our heads to become real. Some people try to manipulate others... Recently I realised how easy it was for people to manipulate me. I would always do the opposite of what they're telling me to do. Let's say they were giving me advice, no matter which side they stood on, I'd be on the opposite side arguing against them and if they were persistent with their argument I'd end up doing the opposite to what they were suggesting. I realised how easily that could be used against me. Now I know and I can control it and stop people from doing so, but not by controlling them, but by controlling the way I react to them.

Oops.. I've gone a bit off topic... :)

So as I was saying earlier, nothing in life is certain and all we can do is try our best to keep up and to stay on top of our lives so we actually feel like we're in control :)

It is IMPOSSIBLE to predict the future. 

All we have is sweet dreams. Sweet dreams about the future, sweet dreams about things that may never happen.

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My latest painting is called "Sweet Dream" and it was inspired by Ed Sheeran's song ''I See Fire''.. 

As I was listening to his song an image formed in my head and it just had to turn into a painting :)

Here it is: 

Oil on a 18"x14" canvs.

As always Oil paints by Winsor and Newton. This time from the Artists' range :)

Lots of Love,

Marlena

Elevation 12.05.2014

''People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.'' - Johann von Goethe

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While browsing art tutorials on youtube I found something amazing, something I've never seen before... 

''To Paint is to Love Again'' by Henry Miller

[Spotify] or [Youtube]

I wish I had discovered this much earlier in my life... 

Mr Miller is such an inspiring man.

I'm not really a fan of his artwork but I do love listening to him.

Straight after listening to his book I felt like I could achieve anything. He made me realise how different it felt to be an artist.. Recently I started looking at things from a completely different perspective.. I started analysing trees, the way the leaves reflect sunlight, the way the bark is shaped.. the way the clouds move through the sky.. I keep on walking with my head up, focused on the shape of clouds.. I never used to that before.. only recently, when I actually started to paint properly I keep on finding myself doing all those weird things.. I've looked at those trees so many times before, but I never actually saw what I was looking at, like I was looking without seeing, listening without hearing... and Mr Miller made me realise that it is completely normal... so I'm weird in a normal way...

His book (well, audiobook) is simply amazing.

I shared it with my friend and even they started to think about beginning their painting journey.

Amazing right? Maybe teachers should start playing it in schools?

We would have SO many artists around.

Picasso once said ''All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.''

and I agree with him... I bet most of my friends loved creating art at some point in their lives and then they just left it... It's really sad, but it's true.

Why is the number of artists so insignificant when compared to the number of people in business? Money. Money is the answer. But why? There is money in art too. Money AND pleasure. If you love what you're doing, no matter what it is, then eventually you'll be great at it and then if you want to get money out of it, then all you have to do is show it to people and you'll find someone who loves it. There will always be somebody who loves your style and who will gladly buy something from you.

You may ask ''how would you know? you haven't sold anything yet'', well that's true, but not because I didn't have an opportunity to - people have asked about buying my work, but I just get too attached to my paintings. I mean, when you spend 7 hours painting and refining something over and over again, then there is no way not to get emotionally attached to it, well at least not for me.

So here is the new thing I'm attached to:

''Elevation'' 

(I'll change the photo later - I kinda edited the painting since taking this one hahaha)

Oil painting on a 30" by 20" canvas :)

obviously paints from Winsor and Newton :)

Lots of Love,

Marlena

Imagine 3.05.2014

On Tuesday I was watching a lot of mountain tutorials because I really wanted to learn how to paint them properly... they're surprisingly hard.. especially the snow... so I spent a lot of time researching the techniques.. my favourite video was this one [Click], probably because I love Jason Bowen's paintings.. he's one of the artists that I look up to...  His work is amazing and I admire his style. All of the videos are really informative and helpful so I'd suggest watching all of the mountain tutorials on youtube if you want to learn how to paint them :)

I only used 3 colours in this painting - Phthalo Blue, Titanium white and Ivory black all from the Artists' range by Winsor and Newton.. It was my first painting using them and I love those paints so much! They're much better than the Winton series - the consistency is a bit different and they're easier to work with :) I also used sansodor to thin out the paint for the lake reflection.The mountains were done using a painting knife and soft brushes :) The snow on the trees was applied using a small, round hog brush from Winsor and Newton (yup, I'm addicted to them)

This painting was one of my random ones... after watching so many videos and looking at so many photos of mountains in various locations, an image formed in my head and I decided that it was going to be my next painting... so I took out my paints, my brushes and a canvas and started painting... it took me 3 hours to get to the first stage of the painting :D I obviously had a single song on repeat (as always - to make sure I stay in the same mood throughout the painting), this time it was Purple by Harry Harris (can be found on Spotify) :)

Then I left the painting to dry for the next 4 days and today I finally finished it :D 

The last stage took me about an hour, so in total I've spent 4 hours on it *whew!*. 

My mum even said that it's her favourite painting by me! and trust me, she's very critical... she loves realistic paintings and that's kinda what I was aiming for so I guess I achieved my goal :)

Here is the final painting: 

and here's the first stage: 

Lots of Love,

Marlena

Zakopane 21.02.2014

Hi :)
I was supposed to post every Saturday but I was really busy yesterday... 

This painting is dedicated to the lovely Mucha family. Those amazing people showed us (people from my choir) what heaven looks like.. Dziękuję. 

It's a painting based on a photo I took in Zakopane while I was there with my choir earlier this year.

Zakopane is a town in south Poland. It lies in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. zakopane is a center of Górale culture and is known informally as "the winter capital of Poland". It's a popular destination for mountaineering, skiing and tourism. Definitely worth visiting! They also have awesome "oscypki" there!

And the views! The views are amazing! I've only seen the place in winter but this year I'll see it in summer - the Mucha family is getting bigger and I'm invited to the wedding :)

 

It's an oil painting, painted with Winton Oil Paints by Winsor and Newton :)

Lots of Love,

Marlena