Mood Landscapes

>Go Dutch…. Being present in an empty endless landscape with a far away green horizon almost instantly sparks a sense of freedom and abundance. Imagine a quiet morning in a heather field. Or a curvy road in the Provence and the surrounding fields. Do you have memories from a roadtrip through vivid green hills with some mountain tops in the far distance? Or a dreamy sunset with a pink glow as sand sticks between your toes? A landscape can be a perfect canvas to express a mood or energy. Visualizing a landscape that makes you feel good is also a powerful exercise to get out of your head and into a more imaginative, open hearted mood. What kind of scenery would spark joy for you in this moment?

Get some inspiration from the gallery wall. What resonates with you? Which one tickles your curiousity or imagination? That might be the inspiration for your art menu today…

Art à la Carte

If you would associate a color palette with your current mood. What would it be? Take a moment to reflect. Some ideas to dabble with...
.... bold and out there
.... soft and dreamy
... a bit demure or sad even
... excited and joyful
Now imagine how that could translate to the ambiance of your landscape or the scenery. What colors would you choose to reflect your mood?
Your materials
- Paper & pencil
- A set of a 4 color paint palette (+ black & white)
Patterns often represent a sense of energy or movement, a certain rhythm if you like. Even in there 'chaos' or seemingly unintentional way they draw your eyes across the page.
Focusing on the movement and rhythm of your brush on the paper creates an almost natural mindful flow of creation.
If you're curious to try this, start with a short exercise of brush marks on a piece of practice paper. After a few minutes, take a close look at your paper. What do you see?
..... the length of your strokes
... proximity of the marks
... is there a sense of direction
What do you make of this? Is it a reflection of the energy that is going round in you, today or this week?
Your materials
- Paper & pencil
- A set of a 4 color paint palette (+ black & white)
At the minimum, lines create structure in a painting. At most, they create a strong sense of direction.
Adding pen or pencil lines to your painting creates a deliberate sense of guidance. Of taking the viewer along - or around.
The creation process to add a line structure in your painting is often pulling you into focus, as you intentionally and repetitively place line after line. A very calming practice!
Your materials:
- Paper & pencil
- I have both black and white fineliners... both to a very different effect!
- You could choose to work in monochrome, or add lines to a backdrop of a colorful landscape (3 color paint palette)

Step 1. Choose from the menu

Come to the materials table to chat about your menu choice and the colors that inspire you today!

How to begin?

This is your set-up to help you create more freely! To get started, you might want to choose one of the paintings from the gallery and study the foundation of lines.
Imagine a completely stripped down version of it. Or look through your eyelashes, what are the lines you can see?
If you feel unsure, practice a little bit with the line structure, there is enough paper in the room!
Bold colors can be intimidating. Especially on a perfectly clean white piece of paper.
Use the extra paper to experiment if the color is what you would expect it to be. Or, maybe just to get familiar with how thick or thin the paint attaches to the paper.
If you feel unsure, just throw a few brush strokes on a piece of experiment paper. Random strokes, or circles, which every comes natural to you. take your time with it. Until you feel more at ease and playful!
Let this be a space for playfulness. A place for the senses, not the analytical. Enjoy the flow, the creative flow is the win. The paper is just a piece of paper. The art is in you.

Step 2. Play