Category Archives: Art journal

Travel journal

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I’ve become interested in travel journaling in the last few weeks and have been looking at LOTS of travel journals, scrapbooks, smashbooks etc on the net. Next year we will be traveling back to Europe (both my offspring are over there) and of course I want to be journaling while I am there. I’m not sure what sort of journal I will be doing, but I thought I would have a go at making a travel journal retrospectively of our trip to Europe last year. So far I’ve only done the first part of it, which was about the 10 days we spent in Holland before we headed off to Switzerland and France. I used a plain 2 ring binder (A4 size). Here is the cover which I covered with a scrapbook paper and an antique map of Europe.

Here is the inside cover, on which I put one of my favourite photos taken in the Avignon palace, and surrounded it with a border of a scrapbook paper that I thought looked a bit medieval. The opening page with the airplane I made on photoshop.

First inside page shows some photos taken in Utrecht (where my son is living) I made a “filmstrip” of a few photos on photoshop.

 

I printed out quite a lot of photos so I had to find ways to fit them in. The small yellow page in the middle has a photo on each side.

On this next page I scanned a map of Utrecht that we had collected, made it lighter to create the background, then stuck strips of the original map around the edge as a border. I got my husband to write something in Dutch for me also.

The next 2 pages are a bit more “art journal” and less “scrapbook” like because I used a stencil and some spray ink to create a border (supposedly resembling some Delft blue pottery). First I collaged down some black and white pics of some delft buildings and gessoed over them. When I posted the photo of us in a giant clog on facebook the next day there was a funny little conversation about it, so I took a screen shot of this and included it on an extra flap in the centre. This is also a pocket in which I have put a pamphlet from the cathedral. Delft is where my husband went to University many years ago, so it was wonderful for me to see it with him.

We spent a couple of days in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, which everyone seems to just call DenBosch. There is an amazing huge cathedral here, very gothic, and we were lucky enough to hear a beautiful choir singing there on the Sunday morning. I also met  Gerrit’s sister and brother (pictured at left). The background of this page is a photo I took in the cathedral which I made pale on photoshop.

There was also a museum dedicated to Hieronymous Bosch who hailed from this town in the 15th century. The flap/pocket in the middle is made from a postcard from this museum.

Here are some more photos from Utrecht, which was our base when we were in Holland. I had a belated Mother’s day lunch there with my two darlings. The page on the right is 3 photos of Utrecht cut in the French scrapbooking style known as Azza, which I discovered on the net. It is supposed to be a kind of tulip shape. The edges of this page are painted with watercolours. I expect I’ll be taking watercolour paints with me next year, but I don’t know whether I’ll be easily able to print out photos while we’re traveling.

This is the last page that I have done, with a couple of photos in Amsterdam.

I made a stamp myself (carved it with ezy carve) of some old Dutch houses (like you see in Amsterdam) and printed it here with a golden coloured ink. I’m rather proud of it. The page on the left is just a scrapbook paper with a photo stuck on it. I had fun one day visiting a scrapbook crafty shop in Lismore to buy some travel themed papers for this journal. I guess this travel journal is kind of a cross between a scrapbook and an art journal. It’s been a lot of work so far, and I’m only about one seventh into our trip (which was over 8 weeks long), I’m still learning as I go along, trying out different ways to present the photos, and to write some memories. It has been nice to relive some of those memories while making this journal. I hope that I continue with it. My other art journal is calling to me though, because it is nearly finished, only a few pages left…..and now Zom is back and art journaling classes have resumed, yahoo!

Blessings to all of you out there in blogland.

Altered board book

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I’ve finished my journal about my teaching career! I made it from a children’s board book which opens out concertina wise, and I posted about the first half of it here. One side is all in tones of muted reddy brown and cream, and the other side in blues and purples.

Here is the whole blue side:

I did not have very many photos that I had taken at school, considering the large number of concerts and plays I had produced over the years.

I love the blues and purples in the background on this side….I did quite a lot of bubble wrap printing also. I embellished it with some more illustrations from “Where the Wild things are”, and with a few borders cut from some scrapbook papers.

I painted over all the photos with a very transparent wash of a bluey purple colour to tie them into the background more, and I liked the effect.

 

I don’t miss my teaching career hardly at all really. Sometimes I remember some sweet moments,some creative things I did, or some proud moments, when my concerts really came together and the children loved performing. I also remember a lot of stressful moments!

I taught many adorable children over the years, and occasionally I will run into some, now grown up, and its usually wonderful to see them. I know many children I taught went on to study music or drama and some have told me that I had inspired them to make these choices, so that feels good!

 

This is how the journal looks folded out from the other side (which is about my earlier teaching years and also my university days.)

 

 

 

The Holy Tree

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“Beloved gaze in thine own heart, the Holy Tree is growing there…”

This is from “The Two Trees”, one of my favourite poems by W.B.Yeats. The poet encourages us to look into our own hearts with love and see the beauty and holiness growing there, and not to look through the “Bitter glass” where we see ourselves as an ugly bleak landscape distorted by self hatred. I will include the whole poem at the end of this post. Loreena McKennit has recorded a beautiful version of this poem (she wrote the music) which I have arranged to sing in my women’s choir Mystica, (and they do a beautiful job of it!).

How I made this page: I had collected this picture of a tree goddess from somewhere ages ago, and stuck her on a turquoise background. The page then sat untouched for months until I saw a mandala tree similar to this that someone posted on facebook. I considered downloading some mandalas form the net but I really wanted them to feel like mine, so I drew 3 mandalas on yellow paper using some coloured markers. The 3 largest ones are the originals. Then I scanned them and made them several different smaller sizes, printed them, cut them out and stuck them on the tree. I love the way they looked when they were reduced in size. I wrote most of the words of the first verse but had to leave out a couple of lines that wouldn’t fit.

You can find the Loreena McKennit version on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chU3ZZ67-VI

I’ll leave you with the original poem, and remember you all have a beautiful holy tree growing in your own hearts. Love and light to all.

BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart, The holy tree is growing there;

From joy the holy branches start, And all the trembling flowers they bear.

The changing colours of its fruit Have dowered the stars with merry light;

The surety of its hidden root Has planted quiet in the night;

The shaking of its leafy head Has given the waves their melody,

And made my lips and music wed, Murmuring a wizard song for thee.

There the Loves a circle go, The flaming circle of our days,

Gyring, spiring to and fro In those great ignorant leafy ways;

Remembering all that shaken hair And how the wingèd sandals dart,

Thine eyes grow full of tender care: Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass The demons, with their subtle guile,

Lift up before us when they pass, Or only gaze a little while;

For there a fatal image grows That the stormy night receives,

Roots half hidden under snows, Broken boughs and blackened leaves.

For all things turn to barrenness In the dim glass the demons hold,

The glass of outer weariness, Made when God slept in times of old.

There, through the broken branches, go The ravens of unresting thought;

Flying, crying, to and fro, Cruel claw and hungry throat,

Or else they stand and sniff the wind, And shake their ragged wings; alas!

Thy tender eyes grow all unkind: Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

Living on the Inside

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There is a song by Michael Franks that I have loved for many years called “Living on the Inside” and I was listening to it driving along the other day and thinking that it applies to me now as I am feeling very happy and content in my relationship. It occurred to me that it would be nice to make an art journal page based on it. This is the song:

Here is the page I made, a pic of my husband and I living on the inside of our happiness bubble. The golden “raindrops” have bits of our wedding ceremony inside them (very small). Sorry, I’m a hopeless romantic. They are golden because the goddess Aphrodite supposedly sends a golden rain or mist down over lovers. I painted the background to match some of the colours that were in the bubble and I put our photo into the bubble using photoshop. I only know how to do about 6 things on photoshop, but they have come in very handy for my art journal, as I LOVE including photos in my journal.

I decided just to write some, not all of the song lyrics, so I’ve written the first half of verse one and the second half of verse two.

 

I move onto canvas!

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A couple of weeks ago I took a leap out of my comfort zone and went along to the Mixed Media class (with Turiya Bruce) where they (gulp) make art on canvas. I took along my art journal because I thought some of the pages I have done in there might translate reasonably well onto canvas. Turiya encouraged me to try an image transfer onto canvas, which I botched up, and I’m still wondering whether to continue with that one or just collage over it. But anyway, just seeing the kinds of things that people were doing inspired me and so I made this canvas during the week, using this photo of my mother in the 1930’s sometime. I just collaged down some papers for the background, including the Hymn “Abide with Me” which she loved, and also a remnant of her handwriting of her name and address before she was married. I painted over them all with a cream tinted gesso, and a bit of burnt umber around the edges. I sprayed some brown through an old plastic lace tablecloth (thanks for that Fran!). I sprayed the lace paper doilies with the same brown spray and stuck them down around the edges. I love this photo of my mother as it shows her vivacity and dramatic inclinations!

I have started a couple of other canvases also based on pages from my journal. It doesn’t seem like I will forsake my journal in favour of canvases though, I’m still loving my journal and dreaming up new ideas for it. Besides, if I start making lots of canvases, what am I going to do with them all? There’s limited wall space, and I can’t imagine anyone would actually buy one.

Blessings to all out there in blogland and cyberspace!

A Song in my Heart

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I came into this world with a song of praise in my heart, and I can’t stop singing it, though I no longer know to whom I am singing.

This is the sentence that came to me in response  to the background of this page, and it felt like such a true statement for me that when I read it out to my creative writing group last week I began to cry. Who knows why, maybe a deep truth affects me like that.  It is true that my life has been largely devoted to music, to singing, to arranging songs for choirs and in recent years to writing songs for our weekly spiritual group Sanctuary. These are kind of like hymns or chants I suppose, originally inspired by the songs of Taize (a Christian spiritual community in France) but not so Christian; more reflecting the universal spiritual ideas and values that many of us here in Byron have….like being in the present moment, mindfulness, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude etc This page began with an undercollage of some sheet music and an old hymn, “How Great Thou Art”. Growing up in the church (almost literally) of course I know all the words to this and countless other hymns, many of which come back to me and sing themselves in my heart, especially when I’m walking on the beach. This background got me thinking about  how I still love singing those old hymns and also gospel songs , as well as all the songs and chants we sing each week at Sanctuary. Songs of praise have been a major thing in my life, and I still love them….although, as I said I’m no longer sure to whom I am singing.

How I made this page (for those interested): First I stuck down the music. Then I used some spray inks (Dylusions) with stencils: My Cathedral window stencil AND a paper doily. Sprayed through them both a few times, then stuck the doily (which was quite red by then from the spray ink) in 2 halves on either side. Then I google-image-searched (that’s a verb these days) for musical angels and printed some out. I didn’t know what to do next, the angels were overwhelmed by the background and the whole thing was not……cohesive somehow. The background  was a bit busy and needed a focal point so I was delighted when I had the idea to use the silhouette of the little girl. She seems to hold the whole page together and she fits in perfectly with the theme of the words.

This is now one of my favourite pages, probably because the words are so significant to me.  I will finish with this quote from Sam Keen, “My Life has been one long song, a hymn to an unknown God” (from “Hymns to an Unknown God, awakening the spirit in everyday life” a book I have had for many years and highly recommend). Blessings to all.

 

 

She likes to be admired

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I am totally in love with this aqua-blue colour at the moment and I’m telling you now, you have not seen the last of it in my art journal. Started this page in our art journal class a couple of weeks ago. Zom our teacher has gone overseas now and there won’t be another class until mid October, Godverdomme (that’s Goddammit, one of the only words I know in Dutch). How dare she have a life away from us! Anyway, this page started with the curtains…it was actually an ad for sanitary napkins! It inspired me to think about the part of me that likes to be admired, so I wrote down some of the things that I have been praised for over the years, from childhood through to the present day.

Have you ever done an enneagram test? I’ve done several different ones over the years, and I’ve mostly turned out to be a number 2 (people Pleaser/ Helper) but a few times I’ve come close to being a number 3, the Achiever (who loves to be admired!). Strangely I did a test recently and I was clearly a number 7 (the optimist) which I’ve never been before, so this must be something I have grown towards. I feel rather pleased about this, in an ignorant sort of way though, since I don’t actually know much about the enneagram. Anyway, the number 3 part of me does like to get praise and admiration and I do feel slightly embarrassed admitting this, though I don’t know why because I imagine just about everybody likes it, even if they don’t admit it. My sister Kathryn remembers me at about 3 years old twirling around in a circle of family who were admiring me in my new outfit, which would have been sewn by my mother. So actually they were really admiring HER and her clever sewing, but I’m sure I was feeling the admiration!

How I made the page (for the art journalers out there): First, painted the page with aqua acrylics, paler in the centre. Then used a plastic lace table cloth piece given to me by Fran from our class (thanks Fran) as a stencil and sprayed it with dylusions turquoise spray ink.  Loved the effect! Stuck on the curtains and clouds. Went home and googled “vintage dancer” and found this copyright free image. She was black and white, I printed her out and painted her before cutting her out and sticking her down. Found a font that looked a bit 30’s and copied down the heading in that font using a Posca paint pen, then wrote on the right hand page all the things for which I have been praised over the years. I haven’t used vintage images in my journal  before but I love this one and probably will use some more in future. I am very happy with this page for lots of reasons, the colours, the stencilling, the image, the curtains and the insights that I had about myself. Thanks for listening!

Some new pages

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I have a new, smaller  art journal A5 size. I bought it to be a kind of “trash” journal in which I could try out new techniques and not be too concerned about how the pages turned out. Zom encouraged me in this because, as she rightly pointed out, I am now becoming increasingly reluctant to take risks in my large A4 journal, as it now has so many pages I’m happy with and is three quarters finished.

Having said all that, I am already fairly happy with my first 2 pages in this small journal. The one above is about the good things, and the bad things about having a Methodist minister as my father. I made the background using Dylusions spray inks, and a Cathedral stencil from Artist Cellar. In fact, I made the background just to try out my new stencils, and the Cathedral window design got me thinking about my upbringing in the church.

As you can see the girl has a stained glass window skirt, and she’s wearing Exeter Cathedral on her head! It was interesting for me to write down some of the things I’m grateful for with my churchy childhood, and also some of the bits I wasn’t so happy about.

 

Witnessing my thoughts

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I belong to a women’s group that meets very infrequently (although we all love it when we do meet) This page was inspired by a meeting we had a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about Eckhart Tolle and trying just to allow ourselves to witness our thoughts and not get attached to them. Not as easy as it sounds! One of our members lovely 25 year old daughter died one year ago in a fire in Paris. We all so admire how she has dealt with this unimaginable tragedy, and one of the main things she does to survive is not attach to her thoughts but just keep returning to the present moment. Listening to her speak makes me resolve to do this more also, after all, my thoughts must be very petty compared to hers. I used the image of the thoughts drifting into my mind through a window, and I just watch them as they pass through and allow them to float out the door.

To create this page, I took a photo of my own eyes. First I tried fading it out to black (on photoshop) but it looked like I was wearing a burka, so then I faded it out to skin colour. Then I cut it out and blended it into the page more with acrylic paint. The window had a light brown surrounding, and the door a dark brown, so I tried to match this with paint to blend them into the page and then blended both browns into the skin colour above. This was quite difficult, I have trouble with acrylic paint it seems to dry so fast, before you have a chance to blend it! Then I wrote some examples of the kinds of thoughts I might be likely to have. I must say, I am pleased with this page, I like the way my funny little eyes are floating up there, I love the window and door and I love that this page is really meaningful to me as a reminder to summon up my witness more often!

To finish this post I will leave you with a quote from Eckhart Tolle (who I consider one of the great teacher/philosophers of our time)

“Be present as the watcher of your mind — of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations.  Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react.  Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future.  Don’t judge or analyze what you observe.  Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction.  Don’t make a personal problem out of them.  You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.”

Eckhart Tolle

Medieval page

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A while ago I bought a book for my sister called “Creative Paint workshop for Mixed Media Artists” by Ann Baldwin. It’s very inspiring so I’ve borrowed it and don’t look like giving it back anytime soon (mwah ha ha!) Oops, my sister has subscribed to this blog and now knows my evil plan. Anyway, this page was inspired by that book. I tried to use layers of acrylic glazes but I don’t really know what I’m doing with acrylic paints and it didn’t turn out the way I expected (or anything like Ann Baldwin’s) It’s OK though. I’ve included a photo I took last July in the Tower of London chapel as I loved the way the light was streaming in. There are several layers of collage, black and white medieval designs and buildings, and some coloured collage on the top layer. I bought a calligraphy felt pen and enjoyed using that on this page.

It is true that I have always loved medieval things (and also renaissance) I love the buildings, the churches, the clothes, the art, the music, the OLDNESS. In Australia we don’t have buildings older than 200 years so when we arrived in Europe last year, I was running around Utrecht (where my son is living) exclaiming over the OLDNESS of things. The canals there date from the 11th century! I’m not sure why I find oldness so interesting, I just do! Does anyone else feel that way?