Getting side tracked

Yup that's me, wandering off, creatively speaking.

I know it has been a while since I have blogged but don't think that means I haven't been up to much. Conversely it usually means I have been so busy I just haven't managed to get around to it yet. Such is the case at this point in time. As you all know I have been busily engaged in the Pulp Redux collaboration with 4 other fabulous artists and I'm having a wonderful time doing so, but every now and then one needs to recharge one's creative batteries and take a sideways step into something else for a wee while. I seem to have had little time for journalling lately, in part as I am getting short of journalling pages, (I know can you believe it!!!), so it was time to take a creative break from the book collaboration and spend some time making myself a new journal to play in.

I decide to enjoy a little encaustic play with this one and I think I might be doing a few of these for a while, I LOVE them!


I think I have a bit of a thing for wax!


LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that texture!


I just love the way it feels under my fingers.



This one is quite a big one, 8 x 10 but that's all the more room to play in!




The cover is not a flat encaustic finish but undulates with the items embedded in the wax, but not enough to be a problem when using the book. I really like this imperfect type of finish and the textured results it gives and how it feels to the touch.

Background is clear encaustic wax, acrylic paints, ink, tissue paper, transfers, photograph, fabric, feathers, leaves and bark. Items which represent the usual wandering of my mind which translate into journal entries.
Coptic binding so it opens nice and flat and a heavy weight water colour paper for fun journal play.

Now if only I could stop touching the front cover long enough to do something on the inside, LOL!

Immersion

Time for some journal love! I'm working on a few ideas and projects but it's too early to fill you all in yet, so in the mean time here's a journal page. It must be spring fever or some such thing but colour seems to be taking over everywhere here including my journal pages, and so it's time to soak it all up.


Immerse yourself...

I think I'm tempted!

Are you?

I think it just may beset me too!

Sound advice that!





As I said, a colour fixation at the moment. It's everywhere here, an absolute riot of colour and true spring weather at least for a little bit until the heat of Summer arrives. Now I know for many of you things are cooling down, so I thought I'd share a little of life's colour around to warm your artistic hearts!

The butterfly pic is a photograph and I have painted out the background just leaving the butterfly in all his glory. Isn't it beautiful!
All that fragile beauty gone in such a short space of time.
As to the rest, watercolours, ink, lace scraps, acrylic, text and mat medium and natures inspiration, the best bit of all!
Have a colourful day!

Wandering, wandering... for 45,000 years

Time to share a journal post for September with you all, before the month completely runs out and I get too far behind. Life has been hectic of recent times with illness and work committments but now the committments are done and I am free to art away again, Yay!
Pat over at The Weaver of Grass, asked me a little while ago to share my collage process with you all, and I said I would once the crazy work stuff was over.

So today's the day. I thought we would start with one in a journal. Journals are a great way to thrash out ideas, techniques and allow you to makes mistakes and learn without pressure. You don't have to share them with anyone and they are just the greatest learning tool EVER!!!. So what if it all goes horribly wrong? It was cheap, you lose nothing but time and a little of this and that, you learned something, and you can just turn the page and start again! Yay to the freedom. And no one ever has to see it if that's how you feel, woohoo obligation free experimentation!


So here's the start of Septembers page.



At this stage the page has a coat of Gesso and some tissue paper stuck to it. I used mat medium but feel free to use whatever you like, remember to experiment that's a major part of what you are doing here. I wanted a tissue background and I have zillions of tissue patterns left over from when the kiddies were little tikes. How jolly convenient!


Next its time to splash around a little paint and develop the background. Now I did have some preconcieved ideas here. Objectives to achieve. I wanted bright colours. The page was going to be a reflection of Australian colour and light. It's bright here, bright light and colours so thats what I add to the page. A little stamping is added to the background for interest.

A smudge here and there, fingers are great tools, LOL!


Now lots more paint. What colours do you imagine Australia to be?
Reds, golds, and earthy tones inland. Lots of greens and blue shades along the coast.
I wanted to represent the inland areas in this page , so bright golds and reds, a little green and

voila!



Some scratching here and there, building up the layers and visual interest.

Now for a bit of focus. What do you want to say?

I want the page to speak to you about my home in terms of its texture and colours.

I add a gel medium transfer onto some calico, I like the rawness of it.
Its an iconic Australian image. The kangaroos and the setting outback sun.

I add some stamped numerals and some wording to boost the imagery. I want the message to get across, and I have something to say.



And there it is...

I am wandering, wandering...

45,000 years of history incorporated into the page. (well at least visually I hope!)
Australia is an ancient land. The aboriginal peoples ancestors migrated here approximately 45,000 years ago.
European settlement only a tiny 231 years ago, give or take a few days, LOL!

Journal page -gesso, tissue paper, acrylics, ink, calico, gel medium transfer, paper, bark and text.

Journal Chillin

It's been a weekend to relax and catchup on a little journal play. I have been so busy recently it was nice to just sit and play at something without any pressures or expectations for a change. I have been reading art books, magazines and blogs and taking a few lessons from them all. So here's the first one. The first page is a sort of hybrid creation after watching Pam Carriker and Sharon Tomlinson create portraits for their journals. I've never been tempted to do a portrait, always felt I couldn't draw for quids, but, in for a penny... (and you have to learn sometime, right? Yeah... right! LOL). So here she is.


She's a little washed out from the scanner, but you get the drift! I can live with her, so that wasn't a complete failure!
(P.S. Ro, notice your fabulous stamp!!! LOVE it!)

Onto the second page... texture play!!! Woohoo!


Again I wanted to try something completely new, so, I'm gazing into the garden comtemplating the trees and what captures me...
Bark!!! Hmmm, must be able to use it somehow, what about a major texture play. Incorporate as much as I think the journal will hold up to without completely caving in! So off I went. Tissue paper and gel medium. Modelling paste with background and foreground stamping (I told you I love this poppy stamp Ro!!!). Then sheet music and gel again, then layers of acrylics and oils, followed by gel and bark. Add a few words and the piece d' resistance (did I spell that right???) wax!!! Oh yeah baby it sneaks in again! Gotta say I love, love, love the feel of the page, can't stop touching it! (Makes me sound a bit suspect really, but you know how it is with us texture peoples, LOL) Not an earth shattering picture but the texture... drool!




Okay Kim, wipe your drool up and move on!

And finally the outpourings from too much time spent at NASA/JPL's website.
The eye of the universe. Read into this piece what you will, I'm not influencing your take on this one!


The orange is actually copper but once again I succumb to crappy photography skills. Perhaps I should have stuck to reading photography for dummies instead!

The Inconsistent Muse!

It's time for the May journal challenge over at Blue Bazaar and for a change I have finished one on time and really had one of those wonderful flowing days today. Don't you just love that when it happens!




The page is about the ideas in my head and how sometimes they just seem to bubble and overflow so much faster than my ability to do anything about them. At other times, nothing, nix, nada! No amount of provocation or stimulation will shift anything into any sort of positive action. The joys of an inconsistent muse! LOL. Don't ya just loathe that frustration!