elizabeth milligan

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I’m elizabeth ~ aromatherapist & blogger. Welcome ♥
What I write about
  • Aromatherapy
  • Contemplation
  • France
  • Photography
  • Recipes
  • Slow living
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Day 18 & 19 in #21daysinmyartworld - Celebrate & From the archives:

This is a little bouquet to celebrate five years of happily making art :) This is from the archives of my first few paintings and I think it's the first painting I ever did in acrylics.  I like it because it's nice and loose and lively.  I wasn't overthinking things too much in those days :) 

#fromthearchives #celebrate #celebrateart #acrylicpainting #happyartistmovement
Day 17 of #21daysinmyartworld - Largest Painting

I think this is probably my largest painting so far.  It's about one metre square and is on a piece of board I found in the garage.  I think it also started as a way of using up paint in my palette and then it just got added to. 

I like the energy and movement of working on big pieces and I'd love an art wall to hang up some huge canvases and really let go with them :)

#largestpainting #acryliconwood #paintbig #happyartistmovement #inspiredbynature
Day 16 of #21daysinmyartworld - Smallest Painting

This is A5 size and is a little painting I did to use up the paint in my palette. I hate wasting any paint!  I like it because it is colourful and was quick and easy to do.  I think it's probably gouache but I'm not sure.  I'd like to do more of these little paintings.

#tinypainting #colourfulhouses #quickandeasy #zerowaste #fiveminuteartist
Day 15 of #21daysinmyartworld - How I name my paintings - Quite literally I think (this one for example is called Singing Moon) but I'd like to think of some more imaginative ways of naming them.  I know that @nicolanewman_  sometimes uses lines from her journal to name her paintings which is nice.  I'm going to have a look at today's feed for more ideas and also the blog post from @taraleaver

#howinamemypaintings #mixedmediaart #happyartistmovement #whatsinaname
Day 13 & 14 in #21daysinmyartworld - Process Insight & Sold

Process Insight - I don't have a process that I follow for each painting but I do create an environment for myself that helps me to relax into things:  it usually involves burning incense or essential oils, making a cup of tea, and putting on a podcast or maybe music. 

I often find I get into the flow better when listening to a podcast as my brain is focused on what I'm listening to as opposed to what my hands are doing.  It helps me to be more intuitive and not overthink the art.  My paintings are generally mixed media.  I often start with a collage base and sometimes (but not often) work with a sketchbook.  I generally don't have a preconceived idea of what it is I'm trying to create.  Maybe that in itself is the process of watching how things unfold and evolve.

Sold - Nothing yet.  I have never offered a painting for sale but if I feel brave I may come back with another post and a painting for sale :)

#processinsight #doitfortheprocess #artrituals #mixedmediamagic #incense #herbaltea #creativeambience #essentialoils #sketchbook
Day 12 in #21daysinmyartworld - Current Motifs - I'm not sure if this painting shows it too well but I often find myself drawing the same shape which is in some ways like a wave.  It starts by going up into a sharp mountainous point (blue in the picture) and then comes down into a kind of spiral (red in the picture) - I find this very same shape doodled in notebooks going back years and now am starting to see it coming out in my paintings.  I don't know where it comes from or why I draw it.  Some hidden meaning I haven't yet figured out :)

#drawingshapes #motifs #happyartistmovement #ilovepainting
Day 11 of #21daysinmyartworld - Turning Point - Probably the day I actually picked up this little travel pack of watercolours and started using it!

I don't know exactly how long I'd had it but I'm guessing years and years.  I think my mum bought it for me and although I really loved it and always seemed to have it lying about somewhere in my stuff, I had never actually used it!

But one day I opened it, along with my (also sadly unused) sketchbook, grabbed a jar of water and started painting - just tiny little paintings and if I'm not mistaken the inspiration came after watching a short video from @taraleaver (how to paint an imaginary landscape) and I suppose it's slowly grown from there :)

#turningpoint #watercolours #travelpaintbox #happyartist #whereitallbegan
Day 10 of #21daysinmyartworld - Artist Selfie - not keen on (or very good at) taking pictures of myself and I always forget to take my glasses off.  But here we are - Hello there!

#artistselfie #happyartistmovement
Day 9 of #21daysinmyartworld - Where the art happens - In one half of a spare room in the little cottage where we live.  The opposite corner has a desk which I tend to use for writing but sometimes also doubles up as an art table.  Feel very lucky to have a space where I can leave stuff out and it won't get disturbed...

#wherethearthappens #aroomofonesown #artspace #happyartist

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France

Solstice sun and festive fun

The sun is streaming through the windows here in southwestern France, Nina Simone is playing in the background, I’m making my own watercolour Christmas cards, and it really doesn’t feel like the shortest day of the year.  But winter solstice Read more…

By Bee, 5 years1 year ago
France

Autumn at the Chateau

All is still and quiet apart from the chattering of birds in the treetops and the creaking that inevitably comes with old buildings.  I’m sitting by the open window looking out over the rolling hills of the Quercy area in Read more…

By Bee, 5 years4 years ago
France Photography

In the Garden

It’s amazing what a difference a few days can make to a garden.  We were away last week for a wedding.  When we left France it still felt like winter but when we returned six days later it was to Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
My favourite herbal infusion of fresh lavender, chamomile, peppermint and lemonbalm (melissa)
Recipes

Fancy a cuppa?

It’s a hot summer’s evening and the ground is baking.  I’ve just cooled off with a cold outdoor shower and the heat of the earth is warming me from the feet up.  I sit on the swing under the ancient Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Recipes

Turnips and Thyme – I’m making Soup

The sun is shining and the bright blue sky is punctuated by puffy bloated clouds that intermittently unleash showers of noisy hail, battering heavily down to the ground before the sun pops out again.  I guess it must be springtime Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation

Creating a sacred space for your art

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you will know that I am someone on the move.  Two years ago I was living in a small city apartment in Lyon.  Then there was a year Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Aromatherapy

Can aromatherapy help your writing practice?

I have been writing for as long as I can remember.  Stories, essays, travel journals, rants, self-pitying monologues.  I’ve lost count of the number of “books” I’ve started and then discarded purely because I’ve forgotten I’d started them in the Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Aromatherapy

Ouch! Got a pain in the back?

It’s a warm day in early March.  We’re coming up to a full moon.  The toads are busy mating in the pond and it’s the time of year when you feel like opening the windows, going through the cupboards and Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Aromatherapy

Take me away – sensory escapism

Are you a daydreamer?  Do your friends sometimes wonder where you’ve gone when you’re sitting right in front of them?  I can be off on an adventure of the mind at the drop of a hat, but never more so Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation Photography

The Little Things

Sometimes, when I’m stuck on the big things, I try extra hard to focus on the little things…. The first signs of spring appearing in the garden A coffee outside with the sun on my face (even if I’m still Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation France Photography

Life through the lens – the changing face of “le Bassin”

I thought it was about time I gave a glimpse into life on the shore of a tidal bay.  The following photos show the changing face of the Bassin d’Arcachon over a day.  (Click on any image for a gallery) Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Aromatherapy

Winter warmers – ginger and black pepper

The cold spell we’re having in the Northern Hemisphere has put me in hibernation mode.  The woodburner has been constantly on the go and it actually reached minus four here in the Arcachon Basin.  I’m sure that must be almost Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Recipes

A time for baking

It’s early.  I’m up before the sun and the air in the cottage is cold after a night below zero.  There is a frost on the ground and through the kitchen window all looks still, bar the occasional blackbird flitting Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation

Focus – lessons from a vintage camera

At one point all my photos were taken with a vintage Pentax from the 1970’s.  It was on loan to me from a family member and when I bought a Nikon film SLR back in 2001, I handed the Pentax Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation

Wild thing I think I love you

Last year, rather than making new year resolutions I would doubtless break, I chose a word to live by.  That word was WILD.  I wanted to see more of my wild self, my wild soul, my true essence.  It was Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation France

The Bay

It’s early morning as I slip out of the cottage door and head down the short lane alongside the garden.  There’s a faint pink glow in the sky as the sun starts to rise behind the clouds.  The tide is Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation France

Calm amid the chaos

So here we are on 21st December, the winter solstice and shortest day of 2014.  We’re drinking coffee and eating dark chocolate pretzels and I am sitting here on the sofa (that also doubles as the bed in our tiny Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation France

From Paris with Love

All week I have been sitting in the offices at La Défense, the business district of Paris, looking out over the grey skies of these late autumn days.  Watching flocks of pigeons scatter, dark shadows against the gold and burnt Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation France Photography

Indian summer

“a warm, calm spell of weather occurring in autumn, especially in October and November”  [the Met office meteorological glossary] “We could be in for an Indian summer” is something I remember hearing when I was a kid.  The air still Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago
Contemplation France Photography

A visit to Saint Émilion – a photo essay

Yesterday’s weather gave the perfect opportunity to take a leisurely drive to the wine-producing commune of Saint Émilion. We were out of Bordeaux in a matter of minutes and into the lush green countryside of vineyards and châteaux. Once in Read more…

By Bee, 6 years4 years ago

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