Painting, it's Friday and a new book

Last night I dusted off my half finished canvases (literally) and carried on with some painting. After a long day at work and commuting to and from London I was a bit tired, so didn't get as much done as I had hoped......but boy did I enjoy myself.

I have a box full of things to make marks with instead of a brush. Old credit cards, string, feathers, hair slides and empty toilet rolls to name a few.

And this morning I treated myself to a new book and sat in Starbucks to have a read before the madness of the day begins.

Happy Friday to you all :o)

Paint Party Friday

I am in the process of painting two more pictures with the Forest Garden theme and this is one of them. It's not finished yet but I've let it sit for a bit until I decided what else I would like to do to it. I will share the other one with you in another post, but you can see it here on my workdesk.

I'm off to check out the other Paint Party Friday paintings and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Helen xx

Watch out there's a Gruffalo about!

Ages ago I created a Charlie and Lola party invite for my best friends daughters 5th Birthday party. And I loved every minute of it. I learned lots in photoshop thanks to my lovely Jim and I was quite pleased with the invite. You can see it here. It's now approaching her 2 year olds birthday party and I have been given the task of producing a Gruffalo themed invite, so last night I got stuck in!

As I was waiting for the wash to dry I looked around and my other paintings winked at me.....so I got out my yellow acrylic ink and did some drizzling. Then sprayed water over it and tilted the canvas until I liked how it looked.

I also decided where I wanted the flowers to be and used the children's numbered tubs to draw round for perfect circles. And to think I nearly chucked these away - these are perfect as you have all different size circles!

And once done, I laid the canvas flat to dry.

I will do some more to the invites tonight as my 'client' is very demanding :o)

Unfinished Symphony

I currently have four unfinished paintings. One here which was started ages and ages ago. This one which drove me to distraction so I opted to leave it for a while and these two, which have just sat on my easel patiently waiting.

How am I ever going to exhibit if I don't finish them.

I also find it strange that on Tuesday I posted about not being sure how often I will be able to blog at the moment, and here I am three days running, blogging. Maybe giving myself the freedom and permission not to have to blog every day makes me want to. Or maybe I am contrary.

Anyway, I will leave you with a picture of my cat who is no longer with us. Mainly because I think she was beautiful and I wanted a cat picture to brighten up my post. Wow, I really really do miss my cat. She was a real character as most animals are.

Have a good day

Two more on the go

An observation
When I don’t paint or create I feel like something major is missing from my life. I feel restless, frustrated and sometimes miserable.

Solution
Paint more (simple!)

Problem
Time (Life sometimes gets in the way)

What needs to go?
Internet time

Wise words from countless successful artists.....paint every day or as often as you can. It doesn’t always matter what but the fact that you are taking action generates activities which can in turn generate success.

So it seems I need to paint more, stop wasting time on the internet and do a little every day.

My new mantra I reckon.....

The start of two new paintings......

Have a good weekend!

And the painting continues

Did a bit more to the painting last night, Need to add more yellow leaves but enjoying the playing about with it.

Saw some random acts of kindness last night on the commute home from London. Restores my faith that people will still help each other out.

Have a good day xx

Flower power

I've added some more flowers and things to the painting, but still have more to do. It's funny how in a painting there are some things you love and they are usually a result of a happy accident.

Feeling quite emotionally drained as the last few days have taken it out of me, so the comfort of painting is doing me good.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Helen xx

A painting in progress

Here is a glimpse of the painting I started yesterday. Really not sure where this is heading, but I am just enjoying the process to see where it takes me. I played about with different techniques and I enjoyed it. I must remember to let go of worrying about the final result and embrace the creation of the final painting.

A glimpse of a painting in progress from Helen Mills on Vimeo.

Here's to a better week this week than the one I have just had.

Happy Monday to you all xx

Healing with my paints

I've had a tough few days and yesterday my beautiful cat Pipa sadly had to be put to sleep - it was probably one of the most heart breaking things I have had to do. At almost 17 she had a good innings and was a real character and this picture below that Jim took really sums her up. I will miss her so very much.

So today I am taking some time out for me and starting on a new painting I want to hang in my bedroom. I need some artwork to compliment the white walls and as there is green in the room I need to do a green coloured picture.

I have no idea where it will lead or how it will turn out. I hadn't intended on using brown but sometimes a painting tells you what it wants and I am going with that. I also wanted a folk art style picture, but I will just go with the flow.

I am grateful for the friends and family I have right now who are being so supportive to me. Anyone who is an animal lover will understand how I am feeling.

Wishing you all a good weekend..

Take care

Helen xox

From calm to stormy

So this is the picture that I decided to change a bit last night. It has gone through so many transformations and I am just not happy with some of it. The sky is too blah (for want of a better word) and I have already started to blot out the fence posts.


This is the first time I have been able to paint since my hand operation and I really couldn't wait to get started.

I started to lay a base down for some dramatic clouds although this isn't very easy to photograph in artificial light. I needed to walk away from it as if I don't do that I am not always able to see what needs to be changed. Sometimes I hold the picture up to a mirror and look at the reflection as I find seeing it from another angle helps.

Ideally I need to work on other paintings at the same time to use up the paint and to keep me going when I am in the painting groove.

Below are some close ups of the canvas.

I love the texture in the beach.I went back to it before I went to bed and it's looking different again. I had lots of fun and look forward to carrying on with it later.

Happy Wednesday to you all ! x