A Travel Journal

This is a Travel Journal that I have just completed for my painting teacher, Shelley, who leaves for a short holiday in Spain on Thursday, and who has become interested in journaling after seeing the simple journal I kept during a recent visit to my parents in South Africa. First the front:

 

Then the back:

 

The project was relatively simple to construct, the cover being made from a scrap piece of flannel dipped in dilute PVA glue, then cut to size once it had dried.  This was textured with layers of tissue paper, handmade paper and bandage gauze, dried again and then machine embroidered with thick cotton perlé.  At this point I gessoed the whole thing to add stiffness and give me a white surface to decorate, which was done mostly with washes of acrylic paint, a simple stencil border and four squares cut from mount board and sewn down to the front.  The central band is a scrap strip of tapestry canvas with a ribbon couched down by machine.  The cover squares were further embellished with punched paper suns glued down with acrylic medium and a very small amount of beading.  A small amount of pastel colour and a press stud to close completed the cover.

You can just see that I lined the cover in dark green satin to hide all the ends of threads, etc and to allow for the creation of a pencil pocket inside the front cover.  There are only 4 folded sheets of paper inside, but these allow for a title page, a double-page spread for each day of the trip and a page for notes at the back.  The binding was a simple pamphlet stitch job with cotton perlé again.  The pages measure 19 x 26 cm, so the whole thing fits into a plastic page-protector for packing.

Of course, I really want to see what it looks like when it comes BACK, so keep reading and I'll let you know!

Ticking over

A much quieter week this time, but I still had a painting class on Tuesday, using the luscious new paints I had bought on Saturday - blessings on Cass Arts for making such great materials available at affordable prices! Started by painting a 3-D invention of my own devising (photo to follow) and then went on to fiddle with some of the other pieces which were standing around. The availability of more subtle tones enabled me to get the two larger works from last week to a state where I was happy to bring them home, and I also started another canvas with gorgeous sunset-and-green tones - but that will need to be completed next week. Still have no idea where I'm headed with all this, but I'm certainly enjoying myself!

Snow week!

London underwent an amazing transformation on Sunday night and the early hours of Monday morning, as snow fell steadily for almost 16 hours, and continued gently throughout most of Monday. Alexandra Park, very close to my home, was thickly carpeted, and by 11am was full of delighted children who had the day off school. All the boots, gloves, scarves and hats had come out from the depths of cupboards, as had the toboggans and even skis! Anyone walking across the park like myself had to keep a good eye out for those coming down the hillside at high speed, and with absolutely no brakes - they did all seem to have very good lungs though.

My painting lesson was again in the conservatory, with a splendid view of the snow-carpeted garden and steadily falling flakes. Worked on two larger canvases this week, both of which received additions to the surface - one had curved shapes cut from thin polystyrene, the other sheets of rice paper, later partly torn away and a few pieces of cloth, as some of our painting rags had such lovely colours that it was fun to incorporate them. I went back on Tuesday to continue them, and even remembered to take some photos this time - now to see if I can get them up on blogger!

Me in a painting class?

My friend Shelly, whose luscious paintings I have long admired, very kindly offered to teach me some painting basics, as I had expressed a desire to move beyond being an astute buyer of art supplies (which were gathering dust). So on Monday morning I had a lovely walk through the park to her home, and we set up a table in her conservatory, settled the dog comfortably and got out the paints.

Shelley warned me that her methods were unconventional, as the usual way of learning painting had never worked for her. I assured her it had never worked for me either, so I was happy to try anything she suggested. Starting with a damp and unprimed canvas, she encouraged me to spread lovely feather-edged washes of colour over small areas, allowing them to meet and bleed together. We set that canvas aside to dry, and started another, using the paint in a different way this time. And so the day went on - we each did FOUR canvases, admittedly none larger than A4 size, but all very different from each other and all quite satisfying in their own way.

I was amazed - I was having fun AND I mostly liked the results! Every other class I had tried and book I had read had tried to start with a pencil sketch - and if you are not comfortable drawing, that leaves you crippled before you even get the paints out. This session was totally different and far more productive - AND I am invited back next Monday too - watch this space!