SOULFUL ABSTRACTS
Are you ready to take a deep and delightful dive into YOUR art? Come explore your unique creative language: your colors, textures, symbols, compositions and the stories your soul longs to tell, all through the freeing and forgiving process of of mixed media abstract painting!
What if playing with mixed media abstracts gave you the freedom to explore your true personal voice as an artist? What if you could create beautifully layered mixed media paintings that tell your stories and resonate deeply: abstract art from the heart?
Soulful Abstracts is a deep dive into your own unique artistic language: your colors, mark-making, textures, symbols, stories and more. Join me as we play with the rules and create beautiful, meaningful art that radiates with Soul!
“There are no words, only paint brushes, canvas and creating to express my gratitude for Soulful Abstracts. Laly is not only a gifted artist, but an intuitive teacher... she not only teaches her process — but moreso, a way to look and be in the world. Simply beautiful.”
what’s included:
Over 18 hours of video lessons. You will feel like you are right here with me in the studio as I create and explain every little detail of what I do!
Structured lessons that build upon each other to grow your skills & confidence.
Creative tips & activities to unlock inspiration and paint from your inner soul.
Curated inspiration for each lesson, with hundreds of images organized by theme on Pinterest.
All about my favorite mixed media art supplies + tips on how to use them creatively!
Lots of warm-up activities & projects to explore your art language: color, mark-making, texture, composition, symbols and more.
Eight painting projects. You will end up with a whole body of work as we paint:
4 series of small artworks
4 larger paintings on canvas / panel
A beautiful classroom with private community forum to enjoy the lessons, ask me questions, post your photos & connect with fellow participants, all in one place (no need to be on Facebook)
An optional student group on Facebook to make friends and keep the conversation going!
The class is in English and closed captions are available on all videos.
There are so many ways to invite inspiration! This first part of the class is all about getting inspired and more confident before we dive into the heart of the course and get creating!
Together we will:
· Connect to our inner artist with a beautiful guided meditation
· Set up our space in a way that will nurture our muse
· Take a look within to start uncovering our stories
· Dedicate a journal to our artsy experiments
· Gather inspiration with an inspiration board to hang in our space, an inspiration journal and some Pinterest boards too!
· Experiment with art supplies to warm up our creative muscles…
“Laly, I cannot emphasize enough how much I love and enjoy your course. It really is very special, because you not only teach us lots of new techniques, but also give us many ideas to embellish our creative surroundings, our lives. Why have an ugly plastic jar on the table to wash your brushes if you can use a nice porcelain mug? Why only think of an intention in your mind, if you can have a beautiful ritual writing them on cards made of left-overs from the former lessons? All these little things make me so happy.”
This second part of the class is all about discovering your own unique art language. We will explore color, mark-making, texture and composition with plenty of experimental warm-ups in our sketchbook, as well as a series of mini artworks for each of theme!
I believe that working in a series is one of the best ways to learn and improve your skills, plus you will end up with a whole body of work to be proud of. I will guide you to create a whole series for each of the four themes below:
Color is just pure, beautiful energy and it resonates with us so deeply. It is all about emotion, mood and atmosphere. There are colors, and color combinations that you will immediately love, and others you just won’t be able to stand! This “gut feeling” is your best bet when it comes to uncover your personal palette, the one that instantly feels like home to your soul. So this is what we are going to start with!
your soul palette…
Playful experiments: Using your inspiration board as a starting point, it’s time to explore your personal colors! I will also share also share my best tips about color mixing and plenty of ideas to find inspiration and color combinations that you love.
Mini series: Let’s gently expand our comfort zone by “borrowing” a color palette! This is a great opportunity to be a little more daring, make friends with colors we don’t often use and see if we can invite them into our art.
“I can not stop now. I have to try out all sorts of color combinations that will do me good and please my soul. ”
Mark-making is such an important element of art, and abstract art in particular because our marks convey so much of our energy and our personality. They are as unique as our fingerprints! That’s why they are key to building your unique artistic voice, your language and your style. Get ready to get messy because this lesson is choke-full of fun activities for you to explore and uncover YOUR marks.
make your mark
Playful experiments: Let’s get messy! We will work both in our journal and on large sheets of paper to have plenty of room. You’re going to end up with plenty of material to use in your paintings! Explore lots of different mark-making techniques with tools and materials found in nature or around the house, widen your horizon by using your own handwriting, collage, printed text, symbols and personal imagery!
Mini series: Let’s combine all the elements we have explored into a series of evocative mini abstracts! We will bring together the spontaneous marks from the previous experiments, symbolic shapes, text and even a piece of photography!
“Love this course. It has opened my curiosity and creative exploration in unexpected ways. This such a rich offering. Loaded with high quality content. A true labor or generosity and love. So good! So good! So good!”
Touch is all about connection. When we work with texture to create a dimensional surface, we can connect with our viewers at a much deeper level. Plus playing with textured materials and getting messy is just so much fun! We’re going to experiment with plenty of dimensional effects like stencils, collage and fiber, then we will use color to reveal the texture of the surface: pure magic!
texture play
Playful experiments: Let’s explore plenty of fun techniques to build up highly textured backgrounds. So yummy! Then we will let color run over the page, magically revealing all the beautiful layers…
Mini series: Let’s create a delicious little series where color takes a step back so that texture can reveal all its subtle beauty! Working with a neutral palette will give our series a “touchable”, organic feel.
“I appreciate the first exercises to get ideas flowing - always a problem for me in the past, but not anymore!”
If you think of color, marks and texture as the "words" of your abstract language, then you can think of composition as the story-telling part of the process. And it doesn’t have to be complicated! As long as you follow your soul, there are no “rules”: only tips and tools that are here to help you tell your story. We will start by playing with layers on a large sheet of paper, then look for accidental abstracts in the surface to create a series all about serendipity!
play with the “rules”
Playful experiments: Explore different types of composition that you could use in your paintings, see which ones you’re naturally drawn to and learn my best composition tips to play with the “rules” of art!
Mini series: Happy accidents can be the starting point of so much more: invite serendipity and trust the process! Let’s start by creating a large, layered background, then look for accidental abstracts within the surface, and cut them out. Then we will build up dreamy layers on top! I will also share what happens when I get stuck, and how to move forward by using the “rules” as helpful tools.
“Laly I love this process that you are sharing with us. I now love my little pieces and I feel so SATISFIED!!! I have learned to be inspired by what I am attracted to and how to make it my own. Such a great learning. If I am ever “stuck” I have a very powerful tool.”
In this final part of the class, I am taking you on 4 magical Art & Soul journeys, with three in-depth painting lessons + a bonus project! We will take everything we’ve discovered and create poetic paintings that tell our stories, carry our intentions and radiate with soul. We will find meaning and joy in the process itself, and infuse this beautiful energy into the art we create.
Landscapes of Intention
We will start by choosing a personal intention and let it guide us as we create an imaginary, abstract landscape with layer upon layer of collage, paint and ink.
We will bring it all together with a waxy, translucent veil of acrylic: this “acrylic wax” technique (also called faux encaustic) gives such magical, ethereal results.
Layers of Time
In this project we will start by looking for interesting aged surfaces in our surroundings. Then we will play with a whole variety of fun techniques to create the shabby, weathered look of an ancient wall: we will play with vintage prints, peeled paper, crackle paste and gesso among other delicious things…
an Abstract Story
In this final project, we will look at different ways to invite our stories to unfold and play with title ideas even before we paint! We will then create two paintings that incorporate a personal photograph, found objects and tiny cut-out words: layers of meaning that invite the viewer to come a little closer… As a finishing touch, we will create simple and beautifully weathered wooden frames to float-mount the paintings and give them even more dimension.
+ Bonus: Once upon a canvas
This painting project is all about story-telling and creating a dreamy feel, while relying on the structure of a grid. As I create a painting to honor my artist soul and my beginner self, I invite you to do the same and fully embrace the artist you are.
“I’ve discovered so much about me and who I want to be on my canvas. Laly, I committed this year to being my “student” year and being a student to art to really find myself. I’ve done several online classes but you, my dearest soul, have taken me on a journey to uncover my soul, my colour, my signature. I wanted to let you know how much you have unravelled my mess and led me to a new path of possibility. Thank you!
”
kind words
From the students
“Thank you, thank you, Laly. What a BEAUTIFUL COURSE!!! Every moment filled my heart and I know I will watch it over and over. I don’t know if I’ll ever be good at abstract but I learned so much about textures and mediums, my paintings will only be better for the experience.”
“Soulful Abstracts is going really deep for me, slowly getting through the lessons is like my sweetest moments of life… ”
“As I have followed each of all your courses online I can tell I feel so confident and happy, for I know this is not only an art class but a real journey in an arty land that will again take me to the best of myself in a joyful and peaceful way.”
“Soulful Abstracts was such a wonderful course: not only learning new techniques, but also discovering more about my own inner soul. It felt like a journey in an unknown fascinating land. Not traveling alone, but in your inspiring company, Laly. Soulful Abstracts was my first course with you, and now that it is finished, I am already longing for the next journey!”
“I took this class a on its first outing and still keep learning from it. Laly’s way of thinking encourages you to find what works for you while giving you a starting place. You will really enjoy the class and the other students!”
“This class continues to inspire me and uplift my spirits. Every time I hear that intro music, I perk right up! I’m just starting my Abstract Story series, and I’m STILL excited!! You are such a fantastic teacher! Thanks for everything you do!”
“I’ve have loved every class of Laly’s that I’ve taken but Soulful Abstracts was outstanding. Loved every minute of it. By the last project, I was dreading the end, but also looking forward to whatever it led me to. Thank you, Laly, for the amount of detail you put into this class. I can’t measure the impact I got out of it. You are the best.”
“So happy I took this class. Not only am I now really connected to my OWN art symbols... this class has also helped me organize all “my art stuff”... from the inside out! I have more of a handle on all my collections with great insight on how to incorporate and finally use them in my art.”
“I am so excited to dive into another one of Laly’s classes. I’ve learned so much most of all listening to my own inner guidance and intuition, excited to try some new techniques and build a body of my work, express myself and connect to my soul.”
“I thought you should know, that of all the teachers I have learned from, both online and in person, you are at the top. Totally love your teaching style and the depth of your courses. The last one on abstracts was shear brilliance. So thorough and professional - loved every exercise and learned so much. ”
“I love this workshop. The original video Laly posted caught my attention and I was lucky enough to get a seat in round two. This was the best investment for myself to get back into my art that I could have made.”
your guide for this creative journey
I'm so glad you’re here! I’m a mixed media artist from France, and I’m here to help you grow your artist wings! What if you listened to your creative longings? What if you dared to follow this little spark? I believe with my whole heart that YOUR ART MATTERS. It is your gift to the world, and now is your time to let it shine!
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“This is such an amazing course in terms of content. Laly teaches us so many ways to create abstract art- something that has been a great fear for me for many years. Now, I am loving what I’m creating and while some are better than others, nothing beats the satisfaction of making something beautiful from nothing more than what’s inside us; our thoughts, feelings, intentions. It’s truly a revelation.”
