Christmas gift - free video tutorial. :)

AnnieHamman-DragonflyMirror-Detail.jpg

Dear beautiful artists,

I hope you like my Christmas gift, I have filmed and edited a 25 minute video tutorial on how I painted this painting (see full painting picture below). I wish you a wonderful holiday and family time, or alone creative time (which is also awesome), however you choose to make your December exciting - I wish you all the best in that. If you have time to paint with me, please do, this project requires about 2 hours of your time. :) Please tag me on Facebook is you would like me to see what you have created.

Password: loveistheanswer

IMG_2739-resized.jpg

Supplies:

300 lb paper, rough or smooth
black India ink, or black acrylic ink
tray for ink
white & red acrylics, heavy body, Golden is great
small palette, I use a lid from tupperware
black & red Stabilo All, or watersoluble pencil or crayon (Lyra aquacolor, Neocolors II)
black Lyra crayon woody, or Stabilo All woody, or any thick black crayon that is watersoluble
square flat brushes, or filberts if you prefer
porcupine stick or any sharp tool to scratch into wet paint
water container, rug

DragonflyMirror-byAnnieHamman.jpg

"Dragonfly Mirror" 13"x17" mixed media on paper. This original is available. Please inquire. 

current workshop on painting faces: 

"CLOSE-UP"

Create Your Life Book - launch, by Tamara Laporte

LifeBook-Book-tea.jpg

UPDATE:

the winner of the book is Jeanne Elliott! Congratulations, Jeanne! :)

Hello everyone!


I have some wonderful & exciting news! Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts has written a book! It's called 'Create Your Life Book: Mixed-Media Art Projects for Expanding Creativity and Encouraging Personal Growth' and I get to give away a copy!

Let me tell you a bit more about Tam's new book in case you haven't heard about it yet! “Celebrate and honour your creative potential with Create Your Life Book!”


Based on much-loved mixed-media artist Tamara Laporte’s popular, multi-year series of online classes, Create Your Life Book offers mixed-media drawing and painting projects that can raise your awareness of and help you work through personal challenges and other obstacles to creating art and achieving self-fulfilment.


Each themed chapter presents 4 or 5 two-part projects: The first part of each project explores a common issue that hampers creativity and/or positive self-worth, and includes a worksheet or list of questions to be answered; the second part is a step-by-step mixed-media art project that provides a way for artists at all skill levels to contemplate and work through that issue. Also included are projects contributed by some of Tamara’s Life Book guest teachers--Roxanne Coble, Andrea Gomoll, Alena Hennessy, Mystele Kirkeeng, Ivy Newport, and Effy Wild--who are noted mixed-media artists in their own right.

Along the way, Tamara shares inspirational photos and uplifting and encouraging affirmations. The final chapter presents a simple binding method for creating a keepsake book of your Life Book projects.


You can now pre-order Tam's awesome book here:
http://amzn.to/2gyhVg9 (USA)
http://amzn.to/2i0mHTQ (UK)
http://amzn.to/2gGwRfC (Canada)
http://bit.ly/2i1IQkx (Australia)
http://bit.ly/2yGqeRw (The Book Depositary)


It's officially published in January 2018, although many sites are now showing the publishing date as earlier in December 2017! You can pre-order it NOW! :)


Now then, onto the give-away and blog hop! :) I can give away 1 copy of Tam's book to 1 lucky winner, yay! :) And if you follow the blog hop (see below for links and dates) you can up your chances of winning by entering all the other give-aways also! :)


How to enter the give-away:


1. Share this give-away on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+
2. Sign up to my newsletter


I will announce the winner on 20th December here in this post!

tamholdingbook.jpg


Here is the list of the other people on Tam's Book Launch Blog Hop – they too will be giving away a copy of Tam's book so go check them out and enter their give-aways! :)

1st December 2017 Tamara Laporte https://www.willowing.org/blog/
2nd December 2017 Effy Wild http://effywild.com/
3rd December 2017 Ivy Newport http://www.graceandivy.wordpress.com/
4th December 2017 Roxanne Coble http://www.bybun.com/
5th December 2017 Andrea Gomoll http://www.andrea-gomoll.de/blog/
6th December 2017 Mystele Kirkeeng https://www.mystele.com/blog/
7th December 2017 Tracy Verdugo http://artoftracyverdugo.blogspot.com/
8th December 2017 Wyanne Thompson https://www.facebook.com/WyanneArt
9th December 2017 Shiloh Sophia McCloud www.shilohsophia.com
10th December 2017 Alena Hennessy http://alenahennessy.com/blog
11th December 2017 Lindsay Weirich https://thefrugalcrafter.wordpress.com/
12th December 2017 Jane Davenport https://janedavenport.com/blog/
13th December 2017 Carla Sonheim https://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/
14th December 2017 Mati Rose McDonough http://www.matirose.com/blog-news/
15th December 2017 Annie Hamman https://www.anniehamman.com/blog


Have a great time following the blog hop! :)

Love and hugs,

Annie.

The Sketchbook Project

373134667_1280x720.jpg

The Brooklyn Art Library consists not of books, but sketchbooks from artists around the world. Anyone can participate, fill the sketchbook with art and post it to the library. So I got a sketchbook from them, and slowly filling it page by page. I find it fascinating to imagine that complete strangers to me would walk into the library and page through my art journal.

sketchbook-project-shelves.png

How I wish one day to visit that library myself! I would easily spend several days there just sitting and enjoying original art of other creative souls. It’s not the same as working into museum to see masters and not allowing to touch anything. Tactile experience of the Brooklyn Art Library must be truly incredible.

Sketchbooks.jpg

For this little book I decided to use my collection of postal stamps as base for collages and then paint faces on top. Below just a few pages that I am still working on or have completed so far. Few of them already have collage down, waiting for the face to emerge.

Once the sketchbook is done, I will make a small video paging through it and post it here. :)

AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject04.jpg

The cover is made with gesso, vintage doilies and laces, postal stamps, insides of envelope and stencils.

AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject03.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject08.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject09.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject10.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject07.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject06.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject05.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject01.jpg
AnnieHammanTheSketchbookProject02.jpg

Curiouser and curiouser...

AgainstTheTime.jpg

I have received an unexpected message from one of FB friends today: “How lucky you are to be so talented and adored by so many.”

I thought about it for a long time . Lucky, talented and adored – none of the 3 words fit in or seemed right with the way I view myself, or even close people view me.

I don’t think I have ever been lucky, I have never won anything or got anywhere super easy. I got lucky with getting incredible husband, he could have picked any girl, totally lucky he picked me, and also lucky having Tallulah, since I couldn’t get pregnant for years. Other than that – definitely not lucky.

Talented – I don’t believe in talent, since where I started in art was really really bad art, I had no clue, and no special instrument wired into my head to paint just perfectly. It took a good few years for me to paint the way I paint now. I think 98% of professional artists are not talented, they just painted every day for years, so now they are full time artists.

Below yellow one is where I started:

Then&Now-ByAnnieHamman.jpg

And I am definitely not adored, except once again, by my husband and my daughter. I am quite awkward, shy and intravertive when being not in online world. In person, I don’t have that many friends, and people often find me a bit weird, eccentric, and too straightforward - in a Russian way (we speak what we feel and think). As a result some friendships that I start – fall apart fast. I am also overbearing, as I am constantly consumed by one or the other creative project, and I spill the details of it all over any visitor, and try to get them involved. Often, people just run away. I was not popular in kindergarten, at school or in collage. Luckily not bullied, but definitely not liked.

Online world is a strange surreal world, where things that are on a surface are often just the top layer of you, with some glimpses of who you really are. I think that we are so easily connected through art, because during art making we all get in touch with the essence of ourselves, which is love and forgiveness. Bits of these powerful true essences get spilled into our art and then shown on social media, where it’s so easy to get an impression of that presumably wonderful person, who painted it.

I can assure you I am very human, often annoying, irritable (due to fibro and luck of sleep), meticulous, and I don’t even want to know what my 15 year old step-daughter Luca thinks of me… (“Did you pack your lunch box?!! It’s too late – go to sleep now!!!) lol.

I hope you all have had a wonderful start of the week, and thank you for reading this.

Very lucky, talented and adored (in surreal Alice in wonderland world),

Annie Hamman.

YesterdayToday&Tomorrow-byAnnieHamman.jpg

Online Art Auction "Survival & Triumph" - art preview

Annie Hamman - Auction Artworks Grouped.jpg

Dear friends, I would like to share my recent art today and let you know that all these works - shown below (18 originals and 6 reproductions) will be up for sale tomorrow in online art auction "Survival & Triumph".

First, what is Online Art Auction? Basically auctioneer (Stephanie Gagos) creates an event on Facebook, gathers artists (this time its 14 of us) and displays their work for the whole week, 2 artists at a time. People place bids in comments and artwork is sold to the highest bidder.

I am placed on the last day of the auction, so all my art is coming up this Saturday (tomorrow) at 1 PM EST (you can google what time this is in your area).

Second, why "Survival & Triumph"? Stephanie is and artist, a life coach and a survivor of childhood physical and sexual abuse. She gathers 14 talented artists, based not only on their exceptional art, but also on the fact that each one of them have survived something tragic in life. Possibly that factor adds an extra soulful feel and emotional charge to their work. Lots of art presented there is expressive, some quite realistic, few pieces have surreal or fantasy elements in it. There is something for everyone!

I must say all that art looks amazing put together into one event and I feel privileged and excited to be included! :)

Here is the link to the auction: "Survival & Triumph". Please click on Going, than click on Discussion. Thank you for your support on my journey, dear friends! :)

Below are the pieces that will feature in this auction:

Originals:

Reproductions: