In my courtyard – journal challenge.

This was Saturday’s effort for the journalling challenge. I was uninspired, but for the first time it was warm enough to sit outside. My courtyard is going to be completely redone, so it’s a mess at the moment, except for the geraniums. A little bit of collage on this page, from the magazine that comes with the Saturday paper. Gesso, Artline pen, Peerless watercolours, water soluble oil pastels.

I had a browse through one of my other journalling books -1,000 Artist Journal Pages: Personal Pages and Inspirations (1000 Series) not many with drawing, but some people are amazingly inventive.  I came across the work of Amanda Kavanagh who is also in Danny Gregory’s book  An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers too. I must say I like EVERYTHING she does. A quite different one I like because it’s really different and inventive is Judy Watt’s work.

Journalling Challenge

I am confused about journalling. What is it? Journalling is not a word we use in Australia, however I have a number of books about ‘journalling’ or ‘art journals’ that I got for inspiration & techniques for my artists books. Some of these books are really excellent, particularly this one  of Lynne Perella,  Artists’ Journals and Sketchbooks: Exploring and Creating Personal Pages which is worth buying for the page on image transfers alone. Her other one is pretty jolly good too  – Alphabetica: An A-Z Creativity Guide for Collage and Book Artists (Quarry Book) – it’s more a catalogue of lovely artists books/art journals by various artists, but with a showcase of unusual and interesting techniques.

What sparked this, is that I recently bought a book by another author, True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling which has similar techniques. Not that I mean they overlap, more that I mean they are collage, layering, other art techniques. These are just two of the authors that I have, but they ALL use these collage/layering techniques and I just don’t get how they’re a JOURNAL. Perhaps in some cases they may be a journal in the sense that the artist is sharing their innermost thoughts with the book.  Where I don’t see them as a journal is that the layers are very time consuming, so the ‘daily’ aspect of a journal must be missing except for the fact that, yes, you could work on them daily, but not finish a spread daily. And there is very little drawing.

Through an on-line art mailing list, I came across another artist in the USA who also remains ambivalent about journalling. We have a challenge to ‘journal’ every 2nd day in September. This is my first spread. I’m re-using a book about dreams, which is why I started with a dream I had.

My aim is to DRAW in every journal spread, but to use some of the techniques from my myriad of books to create an integrated page spread.

Cubist painting with Matisse Dry Mediums

I started this painting some time ago. We decided to make a project sheet for doing a cubist painting with Matisse Dry Mediums. I’d painted this cubist painting at the Easter Show, so I had to do another one so that we could photograph it step by step. Here’s how this painting started out. I got sidetracked by all the watercolour pencil drawings I was doing for Kate Johnston’s Watercolour Pencil Class. Finally it got done now, and the project worksheet won’t be long.

New Dry Medium painting at the Easter Show

On Sunday I was demonstrating on the Matisse Derivan stand at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. I painted this new Cubist painting with the new Dry Mediums. I got this idea from a Cubist painting of a coffee pot in a great book I have called 200 Projects to Strengthen Your Art Skills: For Aspiring Art Students (Aspire) It is a great book with so many unusual ideas in it, and I particularly love the colours.  So, though you can’t see in this small image, I collaged the canvas with torn strips of the Sydney Morning Herald, then painted over them with Matisse Matt Gel Medium MM30 and a little Yellow Oxide to strengthen the newsprint.  Then I did the drawing (from some thumbnails I’d done in my sketchbook.  After that I put on the dry mediums. The pot and coffee cup are mostly the different grades of sand, the pumice and the mica flakes. In the background I made thin cube -like shapes, some  from Microspheres and  some from Wollastonite. These are relatively transparent and allowed the text on the newsprint to show through. Then I painted it at the show.

More handmade boxes

Last year I was lucky enough to have the chance to learn to make a box with Glen Skien. You can see that box here. Recently I made this one with handmade papers in green. The papers are of various techniques using Matisse inks, paints and mediums.

I showed it to a work colleague whose eyes lit up, so now I have made this blue-green one for her.

Both these boxes have itajime papers and credit card papers. The top one has some papers that used Gloss Medium as a resist, whereas the bottom one has some paste papers.

The third box is made from some papers using a friend’s technique made in a huge batch on a very hot New Year’s Day. They’re all from a monoprinting technique. The paper I used here is cartridge paper that had previous been life drawings in charcoal – those two minute ones that are usually a total disaster. They make an interesting layer for decorated papers.

Send a postcard to Tasmania.

You’ve got until March 2009 to enter this postcard exhibition in Tasmania. Where’s that? It’s the island down the bottom of Australia. What are the criteria? Just incorporate things made of paper. Gail Stiffe, a well-known Australian paper artist is organising this exhibition, and details are on her website here. Don’t be afraid – have a go!  I did. I needed a break from poring over the computer last weekend, and I quickly collaged some paper bits to these three.

I’ve used old parts of old lithographs, collographs and drypoint etchings, linocuts (that’s the tigerskin!), plus paste paper, credit card paper and other decorative paper.

Some of the postcards have started to arrive, and you can see them here, and read more about the exhibition. Even more can be seen here.   I am issuing a challenge to YOU to enter this exhibition. You can do that!  Think of all those paper bits you’ve got round the house.

One warning though – we have very strict quarantine laws - see what happened to one person’s postcards by clicking the link.