I started writing this blog entry on Monday the 9 November and conclude my account with an update today the 11 November having just completed the 3 day challenge.

Firstly to reveal the identity of the creator of this three day online course intended to help ignite ones creative practice if one is stuck in a creativity rut or to spark creative expression for the novice (hmm – lots of words beginning with create 🙂)!.

Natalie Parker – @natalieparkerartist is a Melbourne based artist who specializes in abstract floral art and uses mixed media.

On the first day Natalie invited us to simply ‘play‘ – just like children do. Natalie suggested we prepare about three backgrounds with whatever media we have which will be used later. I managed just one. The background was a riot of blobs of color prepared using only acrylic paint.  I wasn’t sure what this would eventually lead too but was optimistic.  Natalie assured participants that something beautiful would come of this and to not put too much pressure on ourselves.  Prior to enrolling in this challenge, I had last used paint, paper and brush probably about twenty or more years ago.  I wanted to see if this initial paper with colorful clouds could go through a metamorphosis to become a piece worthy of being kept.

On day two, Natalie went though the use of color from the monochromatic scheme to the multichromatic/complimentary color scheme – as you can see I chose the multichromatic.  However I will definitely be using multiple shades of the same color on my next attempt.

On day three, Natalie’s message was about ‘repurposing‘.  The suggestion was to incorporate previously prepared art in future art or items like gift wrapping paper etc in a creative way.

One of the reasons I enrolled in this course apart from returning to an activity I simply enjoyed through my school years was to see if it could enable unwinding and relaxing as many others attest to, and I have to say it has almost been meditative. I found it to be enjoyable, the colors have been a visual feast and at times I found this activity to be addictive to the point that I sometimes struggled to but the paint brush and paint marker down.

If you are thinking about a creative outlet, give this a go. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and the challenge.  Thank you to this very talented artist Ms Natalie Parker who put a lot of time and effort into a free three day workshop that led me to pick up paint brush, textas, ink and the like to create on paper what my brain magically conjured.  Ms Parker’s work is worth checking out.

Below is the result at the end of day 1 of the challenge followed by the result at the end of day three which I know is an assault on the eyes.  I may go with ‘less is more’ next time, but for this first serious attempt after a very long break, I as an excited novice, threw everything and the kitchen sink at my artistic attempt.