Visiting the Ocean ...

Spent the weekend at the beach. 

This was my view for a few quiet magical hours. 

I have a great beach chair and a brought little Dexter and 

he dug holes in the sand while I watched the ocean.

I had the full intention of sketching while I was at the beach
but some how the experience needed all of my attention.
So I let my art supplies stay in my art bag
and I just sat a listened to the waves.

Weekly Sketch Book

A new week...a new journal Sketch Book page.  This week I've started the page in a new way...by adding some color and some left over bits from some decorative labels.  The date stamp is an old stamp I got from my favorite dollar store...Daiso. Its been hanging out in my studio in a dark drawer for years. It's time that it found the light of day and was put to an artistic purpose.    So here we are at the beginning of a new week. Let's see how the week unfolds.

By mid week I had added numbers and some gesso to cover up some smudges that made it hard to read the numbers. I kept removing color and ink and suddenly I saw this little clown face emerging from day 21. So I just went with it. The little bird is from a series of stickers I got earlier this year from a company called Typo.

By week's end we all took a trip to Cayucos, California to listen to the waves of the ocean and get some much needed rest. I added that to this week using cut out letters from one of the brochures I picked up on our trip.

Art is ...

I almost always carry my camera with me on trips.  I love to take photos.  My dad is a photographer and he taught me to always be prepared with a camera and notebook.  You just never know when something really cool will happen. 

Looking,  waiting and watching...is something I love to do on trips.

In the photo above, I was in San Francisco hanging out with friends and we turned the corner and this mural was there in all its glory.

Big Juicy Journal: Learning to Love my handwriting

This is one of my big messy pages from my Big Juicy Journal. I'm learning to love my handwriting. I used to hate my handwriting until someone said it looked like graffiti tags. That one comment made me see my writing in a new way.  I started to see the slopes and the curves of my penmanship as part of my creative expression. So now I can't say I love my handwriting but I don't hate it and each day I create in my journal I learn to love it more.

Juicy Soul Retreat

The Juicy Soul Retreat was so much fun. One of the things I love about journaling is the freedom to swing out and play. Some of my best techniques have come for experimenting in my journal. The Juicy Soul Retreat is a group event where we all create in our journals and experiment together.

Andrea and I guide our group through the process but there is a point where everyone lets go and some amazing things get created.

Every Retreat we give out goodie bags of art supplies and little surprising bits to use in their journals.





The first half of the day was experimenting with 9 Journaling Techniques for creating juicy backgrounds. Everyone had a chance to try them out on big pieces of paper and we rotated around the room working on each others pages. In the end we all had great backgrounds to use in our journals in the future.

Lots and lots a yummy supplies.

We all need a little snack from time to time to keep the creative juices flowing.

Our Next Juicy Soul Retreat is July 28, 2013



Weekly Sketch Book

This weeks Sketch Book journal has been really rewarding.   I've been journaling in little bits of time in the morning and evening before bed.   I love looking back to see the special moments of the week.

This was my page at the begining of the week.

 

 

By weeks end...the pages got much happier.  

Journal Pages ... Birds

Journal Pages...Dresses

I found a dress form in a magazine. It was an advertisement for fabric and I fell in love with the various shapes and possibilities of creating dresses from my journal pages. This dress is made from a page out of my Big Juicy Journal.  I used ink and my craft paints to add color to the background. I used lots of gesso for the white circles. The circles where made with an empty toilet paper roll. I have this technique of  mixing the paint on a palate (usually wax paper) and dipping the paper roll in the paint and leaving the circle impression multiple times all over the page. I love the way the colors blend together. It it usually dries differently than it looks wet...so there is this element of surprise.