🌀 Spirals are my favourite — shape, line… both, I think! When you're Pattern Playing, I often suggest starting with circles — and those can be anything from wobbly blobs to sun shapes, ovals, or concentric rings. From there, it’s just a simple twist to turn them into spirals — starting from the centre out, or the outside in.

The painting above is part of our newest piece: "Ethereal Forest", using the Forest colour scheme. I'm working on it during the school holidays with my daughter, adding stage-by-stage photos for the expanded version of my Beginner’s Guide to Collaborative Art. 
 

We’ve been adding layers during visits with her friend - who’ll keep the finished artwork when it’s done, as the canvas was a gift when I was in hospital for three LONG weeks earlier this year. (Turns out a major surgery plus a 'Paralytic Ileus' = two+ weeks with no digestive function. Wouldn’t recommend!)

So of course, I wanted to create something with them, for them.
 

The photo shows an early Messy Playing stage where my daughter added wanted to added a layer of shapes and patterns in white. And I’m loving the effect! I’ll definitely use it again — it brightens everything and makes a great base to contrast against in later layers.
 

🌀 So — grab your brush and add some spirals today.
A big spiral just off-centre, a tiny cluster, a swirl from the edge - perhaps white ones - rounded or flattened… see where they take you.
 

Happy Painting,

Charndra

P.S. If you haven’t painted in a while, this is your gentle nudge — spirals are a fun way to start. You only need a brush and some paint! 🌀

This week's blog post is titled Creative Collaborative Art Ideas for Every Group, a round up post.