artist life

Weekly news: June 30, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

That’s it friends, I have started stencilling the tote bags! It is so exciting to get to this step and to discover indigo. The first thing I want to say is that indigo is such an incredible plant, and it has been so interesting to learn about how so many cultures all around the world have been using this plant for dyeing. One thing none of the books I’ve read mentioned however is that indigo does not have a pretty smell. As I am working on the bags, I have the feeling I am in the middle of a farm or barn. Still, the end result is actually a lot better than what I was expecting, so I am very happy. It takes me around 20-25 minutes to stencil each bag, so it is a process. I am almost done with the bags I prepared and will spend another lovely afternoon stencilling away!

It has been so interesting also to make my own stencils. I love designing them and thinking about the negative spaces and how to make sure the shapes I want to paint on actually show. It is quite different from “regular” painting, and it is nice to explore a new skill.

I am so excited to share the final results of all this work with you: once the stencilling will be done, I will still have to fix the indigo to the fabric to make it permanent. In the meantime, here is a sneak peak of the bags!

This week I’ve also been able to order and receive a second printer. I realized at the beginning of the year that my shop was quite dependent on the printer I had. Having a second one will allow me to reduce my production times, and to have a backup if anything were to happen. Yay!

Finally, outside the atelier, I’ve been… in the atelier! The glass work atelier that is. I’ve recently completed this lotus frame. It is the first piece I make since taking the stained glass class, and it was a very nervous process. Working on my own on this new skill made me very insecure, and I doubted myself every step of the way. However, I am glad that I persevered despite all the doubt and fear because I really like the final product: there is a lesson there somewhere 🙂

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

I am obsessed with these little watercolour cards and couldn’t resist adding this set of Canadian wild flowers.

Inspiration

I found some really nice books last weekend, but as I am working through the bags and the creativity course, I don’t want to rush through writing quick reviews.

Instead, I invite you to visit this artist’s, Hanna Lee Joshi, portfolio: I love the blues she uses and how graceful her ladies are. The hands are particularly stunning and expressive. Her colour palette is also so soothing and rich. I am always in wonder when I look at other artists’ portfolio and see all the wonderful things they create. I have been thinking a lot about time management: there seems to be too many projects and so little time to do everything!

It is incredible to discover her work, and I hope you will like it too!

A small treat…

I mentioned Julia a few months ago while I was taking her class on sketching. She is such an incredible illustrator and teacher, and here she takes us with her as she goes on a sketching hike. Incredibly, she comes across so many different wild orchids growing in this German park. How wonderful!

Weekly news: June 23, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

The tote bags are coming along nicely! I have been dyeing everyday and ran out of bags. After waiting for a few days for the new ones to arrive, I’ll be able to finish the “main colour” dyeing next week 🤞🤞🤞 I really like the colours and cannot wait to try phase two of this project! It is all very exciting to be creating tote bags with natural products and pigments.

I am also working on the creativity class, filming exercises. It is nice to have such varied tasks. Here is a sneak peak of one of the exercises:

Finally, aside from tote bags and the course, I have also started to paint some products the end of the year. It is so nice to be painting again.

Outside of work, I’ve been trying to give myself some time each day to sketch and make “ugly work”. This is a taste from my own medicine as it is a theme I explore a lot in the creativity course. It has been very therapeutic, fun and inspiring. Many ideas have downloaded during these free hand sessions.

In the garden, we have a promise of fruits for the fall, and it makes me so happy! We had a lot of rain and these baby apples really fattened up! 🍎🍎🍎

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

I am obsessed with these little watercolour cards and couldn’t resist adding this set of Canadian wild flowers.

Inspiration

I hit my usual June reading slump and was very unlucky with my library books… until this one arrived! This is such a beautiful book filled with incredible work.

Over here for the full review!

A small treat…

I love visiting these artists’ website because their work is incredible. Beautiful, funny and slightly eerie: it always inspires me and cheers me up. It is such incredible photographs! I hope you will go have a look!

Cottontails and Columbine Flowers in the Portfolio!

New in the Portfolio

My latest painting has made its way to the portfolio! It was so much fun painting these delicate and unexpected flowers, but even nicer to work on the rabbits! Over here for more details!

If you like this painting and would like to support my work as an independent artist, it is available as a print and card in my shop.

Create: My creativity class is up!

weekly news

Get it here!

Explore your creativity with this booklet filed with ideas, inspiration and demos! I worked on this booklet with artists of every skill level in mind: everyone is welcomed!

Through this document, I share my favourite creative exercises and strategies. I hope you will have fun experimenting and creating!

You will receive 1 PDF files after your purchase is complete. Please make sure your device can handle such files before you buy. The PDF contains links to the internet and videos.

I recommend downloading the file to your device instead of opening it in your internet browser for the best reading experience.

45 pages
8 1/2 in x 11 in
21,5cm x 28cm
PDF format

Weekly news: June 16, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

This week, I’ve spent all mornings working on the Christmas products in the kitchen! I am experimenting with natural dyes, and it has been a lot of fun to discover new techniques. So far, my favourite colour is this rich red-orange (but at the moment, a sunny yellow is brewing, so I might need to change my opinion soon!). I cannot wait to share more of this project with you: cross your fingers it works out! So far the process has been very interesting. Each step is a bit long, but I love that everything is natural and kitchen grade, meaning I don’t have to deal with using and disposing of harsh chemicals. It is also fascinating to be working with plants that have been used for hundreds of years to dye fabrics and yarns!

I am also still working on the creativity course. I have filmed about half of the demos I have written down. It has been really fun to work on these and to revisit old favourites.

Outside of the atelier, we have started harvesting some herbs and salad greens in the garden! It is so fun to be able to go outside at lunch and pick a little of this and that to eat right away. We also had a few strawberries from the plants we planted last year. We weren’t expecting them to come back, but they are strong! Mind you, we would need about a 100 more to have a decent harvest, but still, it is nice to have these sweet treats as we walk in the garden.

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

I am obsessed with these little watercolour cards and couldn’t resist adding this set of Canadian wild flowers.

Inspiration

I got this book when I first started working with watercolours. I love how dreamy and beautiful each flower is!

Over here for the full review!

A small treat…

Such incredible skills, and steely nerves to be working on amazing pieces like these!

Weekly news: June 9, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

This week, I am continuing work on my creativity course. It is coming along nicely: I finished the illustrations and have started working on the layout. I also started working on the videos that will be demos of the different creative exercises I am sharing in the course. This part has not been easy. Low battery, full memory cards, out of focus, out of frame, hair in the frame: name it, it happened while filming. As I am working on my own, I usually can’t tell if something went wrong before I am editing the footage. It has been incredibly frustrating to refilm some of the exercises over and over again, but I think I have my set up worked out now. Let’s cross all our fingers for smooth sailing from now on!

Outside the atelier, I spent yesterday evening spying on a turtle laying her eggs! It was incredible to see this huge turtle walk around and make her hole. After further inspection this morning, it seems that this was a trial run: no eggs and an open hole.Still, it was all very intriguing… Country life, very exciting isn’t it?

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

I am obsessed with these little watercolour cards and couldn’t resist adding this set of Canadian wild flowers.

Inspiration

A special book from my childhood. This one is so incredibly well done!

Over here for the full review!

A small treat…

I’ve been listening to a lot of Floor Cry while I work this week. I love her synth pop songs. They have such a summery, light comfort feel. I hope you’ll like them too!

Weekly news: June 2, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

This week, as I am slowly gathering material for my fabric project, I am also working on my creativity class. I finished writing and editing the text (🥳). As I was going through it all, I thought that adding a few illustrations could make it more fun.

*hummm*

As you may suspect, a few quickly morphed into a lot, and I’ve been working on them. I chose to use a “comic” style of drawing to match with the creativity theme and to make things engaging. As my course is all about exploration and fun, I thought it worked well.

I am also introducing my CloudHead character for the first time to the world. This character came to life in 2019 when I was deep in my concussion recovery. I often felt like my head was full of clouds or cotton, and I started drawing myself like this. I’ve been looking for a way to use this character because I like it so much! CloudHead is perfect as a creativity guide, so I am please that you all get to meet finally!

Outside the atelier, I received some plants that I couldn’t find in the nurseries around here this morning. I am so excited to add them to our garden. It’s always the best boxes to receive! The plants are now enjoying a well-deserved soak, while Stella is doing her mandatory inspection.

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

I just added some thank you cards, ready for any occasion! I love these little cards because they are printed on watercolour paper.

Youtube

Here’s my vlog for the month of May! I spent a lot of time painting, but I was also able to garden and make some yummy refreshing dessert 🙂

A small treat…

I am completely obsessed with migrating birds: it is always such a big event when we ear them come back. This is definitively going on my bucket-list!

Weekly news: May 26, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

This week, I’m taking advantaged of having finished a painting to do some research, learn and plan a few upcoming (and very *exciting*) projects. I’m already starting to think about Christmas in the shop, and like last year, I’d like to release a few special products. Last year I added the pouches and pressed flower pendants. This year, I want to experiment with fabrics again, but I want to have more control over the designs and printing. I won’t tell you more as I want to keep the surprise a little bit longer. All I can say is that, if things work out, I’ll need to add some special plants to the garden next year! I’ve also hired a very furry assistant to watch over my process. Here are some behind the scenes photos:



Outside the atelier, I’ve been gardening and enjoying the tulips’ last few days of blooms. We’ll be ready to pull them out soon to let the bulbs rest before putting them back next Fall. It is the first time that we are trying this, and I hope we’ll get beautiful blooms next Spring again.

A few weeks ago, we stumbled upon oak trees and cracked acorns in a park. Winter and frost usually break them open, and when we saw that some of them had started to sprout, I collected a few (read: a lot) to try and grow. I thought only a fraction of the acorns we brought home would sprout and grow, but most of them actually did! I just transferred them to individual pots last weekend and have started taking them out to harden. I am very excited to see if we can help them grown into tree-babies and eventually trees. Of course, there are way too many for our garden, so I hope to be able to give some to friends and neighbours. In case you want to try and grow your own oak trees, this guide was very helpful. It makes me so happy to have all these baby trees around!

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

Inspiration

Another great graphic novel by such a talented artist! A modern fairy tale to discover 🙂

Over here for a full review!

A small treat…

In case you need a little boost of magic! This is such an incredible phenomenon. It cheered me up immensely!

Weekly news: May 19, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

I worked hard this week to finish the painting I was telling you about last week. I am so excited to share this one with you because I have been wanting to paint some Vietnamese fruits for the longest time. They are so varied, so rich in colours and shapes, and so delicious! I grew up eating many of them (my favourites being ramboutans and durian) and hearing about the incredible markets that populated my mom’s childhood. I combined everything here and even added a magical fruit merchant to celebrate the year of the Tiger a bit more.

It was so much fun and also a bit challenging to draw all these fruits and their textures. I love how colourful they are! If you want to see some process pictures and more details, feel free to visit my portfolio.



Outside the atelier, we spent some time this weekend finally taking out our seedlings and moving them to their permanent home in the vegetable patch. It was hot and humid, and we collected many bug bites, but everyone is settling nicely now. The garden is thriving at the moment and giving us a bounty of spring blooms… and a visiting cat friend! I am particularly in awe of the apple and pear blossoms that are so beautiful! The tulips are simply stunning, and I cannot help but stop to admire them each time I step outside.

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

Inspiration

A charming and touching graphic novel!

Over here for a full review!

A small treat…

On the importance of teamwork…

Weekly news: May 12, 2022

weekly news

(This is a newsletter I sent out. If you’d like to receive fresh news every week, sign up here! The full newsletter contains surprises and is delivered once a week to your mailbox. Et elle est également en français!)

I hope you are all doing well!

I heard through the grapevine that May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada and in other parts of the world. So, as I have been fiddling with the idea of making another tiger painting for a while, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to work on it. I’m enjoying the process a lot, and researching reference pictures was particularly fun. For this painting, I’m celebrating my Vietnamese heritage and am working on a market scene. I had planned to finish the painting in time for today so that I could share it with you, but well, next week probably! No peaking, it’s a surprise!



Outside of the atelier, we are having our first heat wave of the year. It is the earliest heat wave we have had in my memory, and it is quite astonishing to see all the leaves come out of the trees all at once, almost quickly enough for us to see them grow with our naked eyes. Stella has also transitioned from happy kitty to sluggish potato… but she does have a lot of fur! I’ve been feeling weird about this and the world lately and this comic (by the incredible Sarah Andersen) perfectly illustrates my inner monologue.

So, to take my mind off of things, I’ve been researching website options. It’s been interesting to look at the different platforms and to test out different themes and styles. I’m looking into a new website because since I’m making a creativity class, I want to have access to a learning/teaching platform for it. There are so many options! Let me know if you have a favourite or a recommendation. Your input is always very much appreciated.

That’s it!
Until next week,

Take care 🧡🧡🧡

L’Atelier

Inspiration

A very cute and enchanting middle grade book illustrated by Charles Vess!

Over here for a full review!

A small treat…

I discovered this channel this week, and it is so inspiring! Johanna has such a tiny garden, but it is filled to the brim with beautiful flowers all year round. She gives a ton of tips on container and succession gardening and it is truly inspiring. Here’s a short video of her garden in Spring: lots of flowers, soft music and cats! What’s not to love?