My life as an art teacher

*Published originally on my 'Being Here' blog

My NEW life, that is, because certainly I could never have called myself this in the past. But to all intents and purposes, that is what I spend a large part of my working life as these days. An art teacher. Wonders never cease.

And I am enjoying it thoroughly! And my goodness me, what talent there is to be tapped into and set free. I have a few adult classes, including my lovely group of Friday evening ladies, who are as hooked on tangling as I am and in some cases, I would say even more so! And I have a great class of people who come on Thursday evening and never fail to be amazed at what they can do in an hour and half - indeed, many can't believe that they have made such a beautiful little work of art and at the same time been very relaxed and focused whilst doing it. I also have a fantastic class one morning a week with English people - nay, a family of English people. I've really missed them these last couple of weeks as they're in the UK at the moment but I do believe they'll be back at the earliest possibility.

And I have two classes of ZENKids a week, with growing numbers at each. And they are truly incredible. We've had a range of different themes for the classes, including making blowpen pictures, drawing cartoons, practising tangles and making some Japanese Notan images. All are tackled with enthusiasm and excellent results. Which I will share with you here. I have also been doing a far bit of drawing myself and enjoying that too! If you haven't yet seen the images I've shared on Facebook, Instagram and the Meraki Studio website (where have you been?) then please have a little look at the offerings here. The first few are mine - including my daughter's bedroom, which I also painted - and then the rest are from my classes.

Thanks for looking.
Axxx

Latest tangling craze - thanks to Eni Oken and her amazing tutorials - this month: Dragons.

A fractal tangle based on Fricle on a large Renaissance tile.

Narwal on a large Renaissance tile

Another of Eni's tutorial - tiny details. I loved doing this one!

Just a fun tile to do.

And newly repainted bedroom....

 And now a gallery of pictures from my adult classes.

A guided class, using a limited set of Zentangle patterns to practice shading and composition.

Using a little colour for the first time.

Great shading

Great detail

Excellent work, Clifford family!

An advanced class, practising a range of techniques

And, a small selection of the work from my ZENKids classes: There are more photos on the Facebook page for Meraki Studio Alcala or on our Meraki Studio Alcala blog.

Thank you for looking. Hope you like what you've seen. Today, we're doing home made stamps....there will be photos before long.

One more thing. I suspect I needed my studio as an excuse to do the official Zentangle course, which is only offered in the States. I've booked my place for the next one, which is in June 2018. I am unbelievably excited. It's my commitment to Zentangle and my intention to make it a part of my life and a part of the lives of as many other people as I get chance to share it with.

Diva Challenge 314... UMT Scallamps by Sarah Uram CZT

Well, I have spent a very happy few weeks during April tangling on distressed tiles and, I have to say, in my humble opinion, produced some pretty amazing results. Huge and valuable learning curve - with many thanks to Eni Oken.

However, today, it was back to basics and the Diva's Challenge. It is Use my Tangle week and this week, Sarah Uram gave us 'Scallamps'. Looks familiar and interesting and I enjoyed this one, which I drew in a book. I am currently drowning in tiles...advice on what to do with them all would be gratefully received!

Also, as Laura mentioned, we're creating tiles with the lovely Lily Moon and her family in mind. I have always loved Lily's work and seen her grow in skill from her first tiles - she's now one of the very best, in my opinion. However, right now, she's having a very rough time and we are sending her lots of love (and tiles) and hoping that the power of Zentangle will help her through this dark period. A moonful of love from me...with Lily's tangles, Lealad and Andante..plus homage to Amphora...

Thanks for popping by!


And if you've scroll this far, I will share a couple of my distressed tiles...can't resist!

This is over a tile that I distressed with my Inktense crayons and some spray acrylics bought from Lidl (!)

This weird and wonderful creation is on a tile I distressed with just about every single paint, pen, stamp and colour I possess...trying to get the right colour for some drawings I'm doing for my sister....lol!!

And this may form a part of said drawing for my sister... colours are OK on this one. 

And these more gentle colours came from my Distressed Ranger pens...Feels very calm after the others...

Thanks for looking. Axxx

Colour, colour everywhere! Distressed tiles....but a happy me!

Over on Facebook, there's a burst of colour, partly due to Eni Oken's amazing technique of tangling over distressed tiles...well, the tiles are not distressed but the colours used include Distressed Inks. This is a range of inks, pens and sprays produced by Tim Holtz and whilst I'm not endorsing any products here, the results that can be seen on Eni's blog are incredible.

Personally, I only have a limited set of Distress Ink marker pens that I purchased on my last visit to the UK. However, at my local Lidl last week, I was able to pick up a box of four acrylic spray paints which have proved quite adequate for my purposes.

I have been making my own distress backgrounds and have spent almost the whole week working obsessively on them,,,, and now, I am beginning to really enjoy myself, At first, I found my colours seemed muddy and my tiles without much light but now, whilst I would never say I am an expert, I am much happier with my results.

For posterity more than anything else, I am going to post a selection of my efforts here...

A work in progress - and quite gentle colour tones

I liked an idea that Eni gave me - put a frame around one section to see how it looks

Another section with frame...

I really love the colours of this one. I am preparing something for my sister and sent her this to check out the colour scheme. Her husband thought it looked like E.T. fetching a stick....I can't see anything else now....

I have improved the highlights on Narwal and Marasu since I took the photo...they don't look too good here...

I wasn't too happy with the original tile as it seemed like just a bit blog of red....but I am happy with my tangles on it. 

Some distresed tiles awaiting tangling...

Pure fantasy! 

My favourite so far...a friend said she could see dragons in this one...

Not so very long ago, I was nervous about using colour. It seemed too difficult. Now I am so in love with the inspiration it creates in me...it may be some time before I go back to black and white! (But I know I will one day...because I love Zentangle!)

Zentangle Poems

Inspired by Maria Tovar-Perez, a CZT teacher here in Spain, our Friday tangling group have decided to use poetry as a base to create some art this week. You can see her work and that of her students on her Facebook page. I had given this technique a try a while back but wasn't happy with the results. I know now that I didn't go 'far enough' and was trying to avoid obscuring the words. The key is to select just a few words that you like or that make a different type of poem. The other words are lost to the tangles.

I had a go at a couple of poems before I took the class so that people could see some of the options to include on their own poems and in the class we practised on some of my old English class notes!


We don't like waste. I love what Belen did with hers...definitely an improvement on the untangled version but apologies that it's a bit out of focus.

I will post the final versions after out next class. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this and I am sure there will be some extremely interesting zenpoems produced.

These are some of mine. The first one is on a poem by Pablo Neruda called 'Un Amor' - A Love. I cannot explain the lemon slices....

Next is over a poem by Lorca, called 'Arbole, arbole' - Tree, tree,

And a poem by one of my favourite poets, W B Yeats, called 'The Song of Wandering Aengus.'

And this is not me touting for business, honest, BUT, if you have a poem that you would like me to turn into a Zentangle poem, please let me know. You could choose the particular words that you wanted highlighting and select a colour scheme for any gemstones, etc. or leave it to me.

Mainly it's just an excuse for me to keep doing them! Send me a message if you're interested.

Axxx

Diva Challenge 305 - Duotangle with Molygon and Marasu

How on earth did we suddenly get to challenge 305? I am slipping badly...the last one I posted was 293...although I have done several attempts at the intervening challenges, I haven't managed to write a post and make the link. I do, however, always read The Diva's posts and continue appreciate the glimpses into her busy life. What a woman! Good on you, Laura!

So today, I will! It's Andalucia Day so we have had a little holiday which has given me a little extra time to tangle and to post. I enjoyed this very much - actually, I am really enjoying my tangling these days as I have discovered a new passion. Colour. Colour using Derwent Inktense crayons. I have dabbled a bit in colour over the years since discovering Zentangle, but one of the things I liked best about it was the black on white with pencil shading. However, thanks to the very talented Jo Flaherty and Eni Oken, I have pushed my boundaries and started shading in colour.

So - here is my challenge piece and a couple of others that I have been working on in the past few weeks. Most of them have made it to Facebook and the shared group pages there but I will put them here too. I have neglected my blog for long enough.

Thanks for popping by!!

And some more colour...

Diva Challenge 257 - Ooh Shiny! With guest blogger Amy Broady CZT

I haven't been having the best of years so far. Tangling is always helpful and my situation isn't very bad but I'm definitely not feeling at my best.
Here's to a fun-filled, lively and exciting March. Barring that - a safe, quiet and happy March...

I did love doing this sparkly tangle for the Diva Challenge though and feel as though I am turning a corner just for the satisfaction it gave me. I tried a new to me tangle, C-Stem, and loved it! Thank you Agneta Landegren!

Also includes Shattuck, Tropicana, Bandola and Printemps plus a few 'fillers'.

Thanks for popping by.
Axxx

Diva Challenge 236 - 'Tangle unexpected'......Pear pressure

I loved the idea that Laura had - inspired - this week. Tangle on something you don't usually tangle on...Her lovely tangle was on a map, which really is a great idea. The string is there for you, you can take any direction you want and always find your way back again!

I didn't want to copy. But I was tempted by the idea, I admit.

I didn't peak at what others were doing - not to start with - but then Laura posted on Facebook that people were having a great time and coming up with all sorts of incredible ideas - including tangling on cows, pottery, wood and goodness knows what else. I couldn't resist having a look and was blown away by the range of things people had done their tangles on!

But it left me stuck. I shouldn't have looked - I had been thinking about tangling on a piece of sheet music. I even started but it was definitely uninspired and I saw that it had been done already.
I was feeling the pressure.

I've already tangled on a T shirt; I've tangled on eggs, I've tangled on wood - love that - and my recent mandala obsession has been mostly on pebbles. I teach two little girls and I even tangle on them most weeks - 'tattoo' style...I don't have a cow, the dog wouldn't let me....so what on earth could I do that was different?

Last night, after doing all the usual evening chores, I went outside to my little pear tree, which this year has produced some wonderful eating pears - big, nice and firm, not mushy - absolutely delicious. I sat down with pen and paper to try and find inspiration.

It only took one bite....(and possibly the recollection of Jean Chaney's realistic photo tangle!)...

Trying out Akua's lovely new tangle 'Hamail' - and loving it! Also, Shattuck which you can see to the left. There's a bit of Tipple underneath but you can't actually see that!

Here you can see the inspiring bite - and where my pen didn't actually work quite as well - with another new tangle, only just visible on the top part - Kisses - by Adele Bruno. Underneath, believe me, are a couple of rows of Birds on a Wire.



Not the best picture, I agree. And I got some very funny looks - but tellingly, no comments - from the rest of the family.










As always, a big thanks to the Diva for such a fun challenge. I have now to see what else people have come up with. Thanks for looking.

Axxx

Diva Challenge 205 - Year of the Goat!

Laura shared some great photos this week on her Challenge. It's good to see Artoo doing so well after his recent operations. It was with some dismay that I read her challenge though, number 203, as she chose the Chinese Year of the Goat, it being B-rad's birthday this month.

How on earth could I do this? One line at a time, of course.

I can't say I'm happy with my attempt or that it demonstrates any artistic ability or imagination....but as a comical and slightly unusual drawing, then I admit I'm rather fond of my 'Jittery', Diva-dancing friend. (I did the Printemps background first and was tempted to leave my goat silhouette white but my pen got the better of me!)

In my opinion, goats are either comical and amusing or devilish and a bit scary. Mine is in the former category, without doubt.  It will be a very interesting selection of entries this week, I think! Don't forget to check them out on the Diva's blog.

Say 'Hi' to Brogue...(random goat name.)