Quotations and art - Circles

For many years my focus in art was mandalas, and - consequently - circles. I love that they are a symbol for so many things I hold important: unity, eternity, safety, wholeness, oneness. At that time I collected a lot of quotations about the circle and its symbolism.

I still create mandalas, and sometimes they show up unannounced. 

"Until we extend the circle of our compassion

to all living things, we will not, ourselves, find peace."

Albert Schweitzer

"Les Quartiers de la Ville"
Commission for individual
2007, 24" square, acrylic; ©2017 Margaret Bremner

"Everything the Power of the World does, is done in a circle. 

The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests where the Great Spirit meant for us 

to hatch our children."

Black Elk, medicine man and visionary of the Oglala Sioux

"Expecting Triplets"
7"x8" mixed media, ©2017, Margaret Bremner, available

"Let your vision be world-embracing,

rather than confined to your own self."

Baha'u'llah

"Playful Planet"
10.5"x10.5" mixed media, ©2016, Margaret Bremner, sold

"A wheel was shown to me, wonderful to behold...Divinity...is like a wheel, a circle, a whole, that can neither be understood, nor divided, nor begun nor ended...no one has the power to divide this circle, to surpass it, or to limit it.” 

Hildegard of Bingen

"Wheelies"
3.5" square, mixed media, ©2016, Margaret Bremner, sold

Want more? See A few favorite quotations... (and art) here.
And Quotations and art - Ways of seeing here.

Leaky pen borders

Stop! Don't throw out that leaky pen!

You can use it to make interesting borders...

Below is the first tile I ever did with a leaky pen border.

And here's one with twisted Striping and Knightsbridge.

It's a simple matter of rolling the leaky end around over the edge of the tile. You need to be a little cautious so you don't get ink all over your fingers! Here is my first video (!!!) to show you how I go about it. (I couldn't see the camera, and the sound was on, so you can hear my husband giving me instructions!)

Below are a couple of photos showing the border in process, and what it looked like when finished. This is on eco-dyed paper.

Here is the result of the tile in the video.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Doodah, Knase,
Knightsbridge, Snail 

"Window on the Woods"
(c)2015 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Pearlz, Seljuk, Wud

I really like using Seljuk as a border with the leaky pen.
It nicely accommodates some of the blotches and irregularity. 

"The Door's Always Open"
(c)2017 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Crezn't, Floo, Paradox, Pearlz,
Sanibelle, Seljuk, Tagh

Mongolian roofs

My husband and I spent a year living on the southern edge of the Gobi desert in Inner Mongolia in China. I enjoyed the chance to get to know Mongolian culture and fell in love with the roofs!

Traditional Mongolian nomadic houses are called gers (yurt is a Russian word). They are round, made of thick felt, with domed roofs, no windows, and a large wooden door and frame. The roofs (also felt) are often decorated in blue and white, reminiscent of the clouds and huge sky of the Mongolian grasslands.

A small ger.

While we lived there I came up with some designs closely based on what I was seeing around me. Here are some colored pencil drawings I did when we were in China.

As a memory of that part of my life I did a Mongolian roof in my Book. It's a real challenge for me to leave everything so very simple! I always want to do more embellishing. I used gold ink in the central circle and one of the perimeter rings, and attempted to simulate grass by using a scribble technique in green.

Notan - houses

At the end of this post last week, I promised to show some notan-style pieces depicting houses and buildings, favorite subject matter of mine. Here they are.

I did two on classic black and white paper.

Then I tried one with white and tan paper. I think this is my least favorite. Perhaps not enough darks.

I was very happy with this black and tan one and hope to do more with these colors.

Finally, I tried a larger one, 6"x 9".

More zen-ful houses

I quite enjoyed CZT Eni Oken's lesson on zen-ful houses and have done a few more, this time stretching the boundaries somewhat!

A castle...

A night scene...

With a border of Seljuk...

Sort of Greek...

 An elaborate turret...

Books and scrolls. Where did that come from?

View the initial post here.

Zen-ful houses

As you probably know I'm quite partial to houses and other buildings as subject matter. When I saw Eni Oken's "Zenful houses" I was charmed and wanted to know more. I received her video lesson and accompanying notes and just had to try.

Here's one I tried before I had Eni's instructions, just looking at some of her examples. There are things I like, but I felt it wasn't quite 'right'.

Eni uses 4" tiles and I had some Bristol vellum paper that size so I used those. These are my next two efforts, having watched her video class. I'm happier with these.

Parts of this technique are rather graphic-design-y. Not that I mind; I tend to lean in that direction but have never had any training in that area. I learned a few things!

I also did a page in my Tangle-a-Day calendar.

If you're interested in investigating this yourself, Eni's lesson is available here.

Rainy Day house

It's a gentle rain, coming straight down, and with sparkly water droplets!

This is the second in my Global Village series of house kits, a joint project with CZT Jenny Perruzzi. It's just been launched and it comes with most of the supplies you need, including tiles, special pens and even a custom cut mat with a house-shaped window. You'll need to have basic supplies like a pencil, tortillon, and black pens.

If you're interested in creating one of your own, you can purchase a kit at Jenny's Etsy store here. And if you missed the first one, a medieval half-timbered house, you can find the kit in the same Etsy store. You could end up with a village!

A medieval half-timbered house

Back in November, when I was fortunate enough to attend the zenAgain event for CZTs, I sat beside Jenny Peruzzi. Jenny runs Acadia Laser Creations and has produced a number of zentangle project kits (Tints on Tan, Zenquility, etc.). She floated the idea of a series of zentangle-inspired houses using a standard zentangle tile and a new 3Z (triangular) tile. I liked it - houses is something I do, right? We decided to call it 'Global Village' as there will be a variety of buildings in the series.

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew."  

Marshall McLuhan, who coined the term 'global village'

This first offering uses Renaissance (tan) tiles. I went through a few versions of this half-timbered house before coming up with one we both liked.

The kit includes all the supplies you need to complete it, except for a few things you already have, like a pencil. You'll get two of each of the tan tiles, pens, pencils, five pages of illustrated instructions, and a custom cut house-shaped mat. Wheee!

If you're interested in this project kit it's available on Jenny's Etsy site here.

Surprise, surprise!

I often begin work with a random colored or gray wash, let it dry, and then look at it various ways trying to see what's in there. Sometimes I do a wash that could develop into a house or a tree, other times I leave it more open. That's when the surprises come!

Here are some recent "Oh, that's what it is!" pieces.

"Koi Pond"
(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner
3.5" square zentangle tile
Acrylic wash, colored ink, colored pencils
Tangles: Floo, Seljuk, Tipple

"Distant Dragon"
(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner
3.5" square zentangle tile
Acrylic wash, colored ink, colored pencils
Tangles: Chebucto, Croon, Dex, Flukes, Narwal,
'Nzeppel, Romanancy, Tagh

"Among the Ruins"

(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner
3.5" square zentangle tile

Acrylic wash, colored ink, colored pencils
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Emingle, Featherfall, Narwal,'Nzeppel

"Baobab"

(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner
3.5" square zentangle tile

Acrylic wash, black and colored ink, colored pencils
Tangles: Diva Dance, Knightsbridge, Pearlz, Seljuk

These will be mounted on canvas, painted around, and able to hang on a wall.

Vacation tiles

My husband and I were fortunate to spend a week in Bermuda visiting his sister and her husband.

Yes, of course I took art supplies! I didn't do as much as I thought I might, however. There's just too much else interesting to do. We went snorkelling a couple of times, took boat rides, swam, visited historic sites and shops, ate well, walked a lot, really enjoyed the scenery, and generally relaxed. Just what we needed. But I did do a few tiles, and here they are.

I'm trying to do more tan tiles, partly because I usually like the results but also because I don't really like brown (unless it's something that normally might be brown like wood, leather, clay, hair. etc.).

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Cubine, Paradox, Seljuk, Yew-Dee
and a nod to Tripoli

It just seemed very appropriate to do Aquafleur while in Bermuda. Aquafleur is a tangle designed by Maria Thomas when they visited the island a while back. I had a black/gray wash to begin with - not ideal for the edges of Aquafleur - and I needed to disguise some of the black lines under the colored ink.
(You can find Maria's step-outs for drawing Aquafleur here.)

Tangles: Aquafleur, Beadlines, Tipple

Bermuda has rather unique buildings. They are generally pastel-colored with white, stepped roofs. What a delight to drive along roads with buildings that are pink, mint green, pale orange, yellow, and sky blue! That, plus the lush vegetation and the incredible turquoise water is a real feast for the eyes. The roof style was originally for collecting and purifying rain water.

Tangles: Dex, Featherfall, Floo, Sanibelle, Snaylz, Tipple, Vega

I had another tile with a gray wash. Once, when it caught my eye, it looked like a lone pine tree.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Diva Dance (with dots), Featherfall,
Floo, Flux, Paradox, Sindoo, Tipple, Wud (with ribbons)

Tangled up in blu-u-ue

(Anyone else live with a Bob Dylan fan? That song title just popped into my mind for this post!)

Each of these pieces began with blue washes, and a little gray. One is on a piece of mat board and the other on art paper.

"Overcast"

approximately 6"x8"

(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner

Pens used:

Sakura micron blue 01

Sakura micron dark blue 05

Zig dual-tip gray

Zig dual-tip light blue

Sakura Gelly Roll white

Colored pencils used:

Prismacolor - various blues and a pale yellow (Cream)

Verithin - black

*********

"Sleep Tight"

approximately 6"x8"

(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner

Pens used:

Sakura micron black 01

Sakura micron blue 01

Sakura micron dark blue 05

Sakura micron green 01

Sakura micron apple green 05

Zig dual-tip gray

Zig dual-tip light blue

Sakura Gelly Roll white

Colored pencils used:

Prismacolor - various blues and greens

How "Palazzo" came to be

I was shopping for a frame for a piece I'd just completed (Ribbony), and the one I liked best came with glass, which I didn't need (but it can be saved). Because there was glass, there was a sheet of paper with a photo and frame information. The photo struck me for various reasons.

I like the large, Corinthian column capitals. The columns remind me of the tangle Romanancy. I like the sense of being drawn into the distance. I like the strong light, and that it's a black and white photo. I like the row of lamps and the pattern on the balcony railing.

I thought it would be an interesting picture to turn into a piece of zentangle-inspired art (ZIA), partly because so much of it is very plain surfaces. What would it look like crammed full of patterns?

I managed to trace the image reasonably well onto some art paper. It's 15"x13". I started with some masking fluid for the very white areas, and did some ink washes. The masking fluid was not one of my better ideas and I'll save it for canvas or another type of paper!

Here it is, partly done, pattern-cramming in full swing:

Next step, almost all the tangling done, but no shading yet. At this point I thought it looked like quite a jumble.

Oh the wonders of shading! I had to darken some areas and lighten others, then re-lighten and re-darken, trying for the right tone. Lots of darkening in the upper left; maybe more is needed? Here is the (almost?) finished "Palazzo".

Night on the Canal

I'd seen pictures of these step-roofed buildings and wanted to try them on my houses.

I began with a random gray wash in a few places, and water-soluble color pencil in others (all light-fast materials). It's a little odd that I left a few places simply black-and-white, but I think it works. I also used colored ink on the houses, and color pencils for some shading.

The moon was a bit of an issue. It's quite large! Originally I used silver leaf but it just wasn't working. I scraped it off. The art sat around for a while as I wondered what it wanted. (I think part of inspiration is patience.)

Then it struck me: I've saved a few bits of holographic papers! I knew they would offer varying colors depending on the angle of view. I cut out the moon shape and glued it on. I liked it! But... it was a bit stark and too obvious. I thought of drawing a little on it, but the paper is very slick. Thank you Sakura microperm pens! I added wiggly lines and now I'm quite happy with it.

Night on the Canal
(c) 2015 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Bunzo, Diva Dance variation, Flux, Nipa, Pearlz, Sanibelle, Seljuk,