Weekly Challenge #308 - Mac N Cheese

This week the challenge is to use your favorite go-to, no-stress, just plain love 'em tangle patterns. Thank you Diva for this wonderful idea! My favorite pattern so far is Meringue. I love drawing those sinuous curves. I hoped a Meringue flower would make a great tangle moviestar in the middle. The way Drawings or Squid can do.

Dillo, in the upper right, is so named because it looks like an armadillo! You can't beat that for just plain wonderful silliness. Joki and 'Dillo go together in my head, not sure if it's just because I learned them on the same day, but I think they have curves in common. And a certain exuberant happiness. Lots of curves today! And happiness I hope.

Zander is essential Mac N Cheese, dating back to the day I first opened my new Zentangle Kit and put in the CD and drew my first tangle. You can't beat that, it's like your old teddy bear or your blankie! Finally Shattuck. Whadda background tangle! I like how all the curvy patterns mix it up together in this. Zander is the curtain in the window. Or the beach on which all the other tangles are crashing. 

Weekly Challenge #307

This week's challenge was Zingo, which seems like an inherently fun tangle pattern! I used FOLDS in the corners, and filled the FOLDS with PRINTEMPS.  Then I had fun putting PANTHE behind everything. The Pantheon seemed a very serious and historical background to use for all this frivolity and fun!

Weekly Challenge 306

Weekly Challenge #306

Amphora

I thought Drupe was a little bug-like and certainly Marasu is snakey. Then the long stringy interpretation of Amphora seemed a little reptilian to me too. Diva Dance Waltz seems completely psychedelic to me somethings. So it was waltzing with bugs and snakes night with this Zentangle!

New Paintings

These are the new paintings I am enjoying doing. I haven't felt this good about any paintings I have done for years! I am using alcohol inks on yupo (synthetic) paper. Very vivid and infinitely re-workable. I have been wanting to do plaid paintings for a long time, so finally they are here.
Your comments welcome!

Weekly Challenge #305

Duotangle: Marasu vs Molygon

I had never used either of these tangle patterns before and honestly I was not looking forward to having to do snake handling with Marasu! But lo and behold, I actually started to like it as I was drawing. I think I de-snakified it to a degree by not using a coil, and that helped. Zentangles are a never ending series of surprises.

Weekly Challenge #304

 Zentangle Waybop

This is my first entry into the Weekly Challenge and I am very excited. I put Ginilli in the center because I love its flowering nature so much. I used Beadlines to anchor the center to the rest. Then I put a different tangle in each section, an ode to my current favorites, including (clockwise from the top) Sand Swirl, Diva Dance, Jetties, 'Dillo, Vortex, 'Nzeppel, Meringue and Echoism. I finished it off with a border of Golven. (Thank you Cheryl Wilson, CZT, for showing me Beadlines, Golven and so many more!)

Welcome!

Welcome to my Zentangle and Meditative Arts Blog. I have been doing art work since the seventies and have been practicing Vipassana meditation since the early nineties. I love being in the areas where meditation and art intersect, being totally in the present, focused, alert, alive, awake. Lots of the time, for me, it is a really fun space to be in. Sometimes it's a struggle, but it is always intimately connected to what is really happening, to how things really are, right now.

I live with my husband in Auburn, CA, where I own a small Web Design Business, teach meditation, paint and make Zentangles. I also write, and my first book is on Amazon in paperback and for Kindle, and it is called Loss of Deliverance. It's a coming of age story about a woman who gets caught up in the seventies drug trade and how she finds her way out. My second book is coming soon, hopefully this summer.

I discovered Zentangles in September, 2016, just six months ago , and have been captivated since. It all started when I saw a Zentangle class in the adult ed catalogue of our local community college. I had no idea what the word Zentangle even meant, but it sounded like art and it had the word "Zen." How could I go wrong?

I got online and bought the Zentangle Kit, and I have never looked back!  I did attend that local class, taught by Cheryl Wilson, CZT, and have been working with Cheryl ever since. She has been a wonderful teacher and mentor. See her beautiful work here.

I have had so much fun with Zentangles, discovering more and more about them, and it just keeps getting better. This discovery has sparked a renaissance in my painting that was completely unexpected. But very welcome!

I am signed up for the June 18, 2017 CZT Training Seminar and just cannot wait! I hope to meet some of you in person there.