Three Mandalas

As a follow up to yesterday's arty post, here's some of my own art. In November and December I was on a bit of a painting kick, but although I meant to, I never shared what I made here.

This one started me off on the painting spree—I got together with a good friend one afternoon to paint, and began this. It ended up very different from how it started, but I enjoyed the process of making it. (I only have this bad quality iPhone picture because I gave it to Othman for his birthday, and it has been at his office since!)

This one appeared next, and came about after a particularly stressful and unpleasant day at work. The background was started and finished that day, and I designed the mandala a few days later. I really enjoyed making this one and being a little less restricted than usual in the techniques I used.

My last project was this one, and it by far took the longest. The very straight lines and solid-color geometric shapes take a long time to paint! I was listening to Anna Karenina on Audible during the time I was painting this, and can't look at it without thinking of the book now. Maybe she's why I chose so much blue? Who knows.

I often just make things up as I go along when I paint (which I did in the first two paintings), but with this one I designed the mandala on another paper (very precisely with rulers and a compass), coloring it in with colored pencils as I went along, to help me decide on what to do next. I often find the "what next?" question to be the most challenging part of painting, and in my next project I think I'll plan the whole thing out beforehand, and see how I like the process in that order. Othman gifted me quite a few painting things for Christmas, and now that I'm getting settled into my new routine I hope to start a few more projects soon!

I love painting mandalas because not only is it soothing and therapeutic, but it's also structured enough for me to feel like I'm capable of doing it, seeing as I don't have quite the artistic flair of my sisters (see previous post). What's also amazing is how unique each mandala is—I've never made two that look anything alike!