My Journal Recap - Homage to Art!

I was so happy to get my Round 4 Journal home last weekend, compliments of Joan!  We're so lucky that we both live in Melbourne (well I do, Joan is a bit further south!) and get together with the Art Mesaj Group once a month on a Sunday to mess around in art journals.  Any other Melbournians are welcome to join us!

Anyhoo, back to my journal.  It's about A5 size, and my instructions read "This journal is about admiring other people's art and wanting to try and emulate it yourself.  Imitation is known as the most sincere form of flattery, and so long as you credit the original artist, it's a wonderful homage to their art!"

My front cover is in the style of Roben-Marie Smith , a wonderful mixed-media artist.  Roben also has a great Facebook group called Claim Your Happy that you should definitely check out.

My inside cover comprises my contract, some texture-paste flowers in the style of  Toni Burt - I adore her gorgeous faces with flowers, and my title page a lá Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  Julie introduced me to art journalling about 4 years ago, and I love her use of bold colours, stamps and stencils.  

My first entry was from Jan, and is based on the gorgeous metallic art of Gustav Klimt , coupled with the flowing trees and backgrounds of Sue Davis.  I love the colours and composition!

Next page in my journal is by Lesley and features the iconic Banksy. Thought provoking, modern street art that is amazing!  Lesley's page is grungy with heaps of Banksy stamps, and I love it!

Next up is Pam's entry, based on the healing art of Bebe Butler and the backgrounds of Traci Bunkers.  Gorgeous colours and textures here, and Pam added a lovely paper flower too.

Next is my entry - my take on Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.  I've admired his work for a long time; such passion in the brush strokes!  I also discovered that Vincent wrote to his brother Theo often, and the letters are beautifully written.  Definitely worth checking out!

The we have Colleen's bright page paying homage to Dyan Reavely.  Dyan's art is fresh and quirky and her Dylusions products amazing!  I particularly love the Dylusions journals and paints, but have yet to try the sprays!  Colleen's page is just delightful. 

Joan chose Ken Done as her inspiration.  His Australian art is bright and certainly iconic!  Joan has done two different pieces; the one on the left is called Collection, but not sure of the gorgeous parrot on the right.  Love the colours Joan!

And that was the extent of my guest journalists since Joanna didn't get a chance to do a page!  At the back of the journal is my sign in page, based on a Rothko print.  His simple colour blocks really appeal to me.  Next to that are my doodles based on Cherie Bitanga's gorgeous art doodles.  Cherie used to contribute to the 52 Week Illustration Facebook Challenge that I was part of, before she became famous. 😀  The quote is by Adam J Kurtz, who I follow on Instagram.  His posts are funny and real, and well, just  make you feel better.  💗

My journal also has a flap that goes over the front cover.  The front part is heaps of flowers done in the style of Alisa Burke.  Alisa does beautiful vibrant art with a lot of flowers.  The inside flap is a girl done Penny Stamper style.  Penny Stamper is Angela Kennedy, and she draws beautiful but often sad girls that I love!

 


My rear cover is based on a Dina Wakley silhouette.  Her art is messy and colourful and I love it!  I have Dina's book Art Journal Courage which is fab.

And that's my journal!  Thanks so much to all the lovelies that contributed to it - and next week it goes off to Jenny so she can add something too!

Looking forward to the next round!   💜💛

Joan works in Empowerment

Joans page in Lesley's "Empowerment Journal"

Lesley Journal is A4 and made up of lovely thick paper. The existing pages from other participants are all wonderful and so much better to see them in real life. 

This month I picked a quote I wanted to use first and then made the page to complement it.  I originally envisaged a spread with lots of white space, but it did not turn out that way.  As usual my mind had one thing in mind and my art muse had another.

I started by using a 12x12 stencil which has lots of small shapes randomly placed and translucent texture paste from Tim Holtz,  I used it all over the left page and on top and left side of the right page   I then used some Lindys magicals which are water colours to colour the left page.  As I said before at this point I was thinking lots of white area left uncoloured..I used greens, yellows, blues and pinks from different sets of magicals.  I really just wanted some drips but as usual I was heavy handed with the powers and ended up with lots more colour than I intended. The translucent textured paste took on the colours of the magicals beautifully.

On the right page I imagined a young women with lots of coloured hair making a statement of empowerment. As I can't draw I thought at first that I would cut one out from a magazine and collage on, but then I realised two things, A: as the journal is A4,  finding a face that I did not have to scan and enlarge  and still be able to print out in required size after cutting out was going to be a task in itself.  B: as the page was all about empowerment, should'nt I take the bull by the horn and try to draw my own face and have enough courage to use it. And so it came to pass that I drew freehandly a face on the right side and painted her up with some other watercolors I had.  Apart from vampire like teeth and a long crooked skinny nose, it was passable.  I could live with it mostly but not that nose, so I covered it up and tried again.   The journal then sat on my table for a few days, whilst I decided if I was going to let her live or was going to gesso her out completely.  By the time I had fiddled with her nose and eyes each day she waited, she kinda grew on me and I decided she could stay. I later on  added some feathers and bling to her hair and dress.

After adding some background stamping to both pages, I decided it still needed something. I then added some more magicals, this time some orange and pinks. I also dragged out some gold leaf sheets I bought about 9 months ago but had not yet used.  The foils were a beautiful copper base with green and blue type effects so fitted in with the colours already on the page. The pictures do not do justice to the fantastic sheen and colour of these.  I rubbed on first one colour where I had placed the size and later on when I accepted that I was not going to have much white space and that I should embrace the page that was emerging, I add a heap more in a slightly different colour pattern. I put it on the left page and only on the right page where the textured paste pattern was. I also added a small amount to her hair.

I then stuck on some borders I had in compatible colours to left and right pages.  The left got a multicolour one and the right a metallic pink one. Just as I had decided that it was probably done, and I should print out my quote and put it on, I found a packet of bright gold leaves on a banner. Probably a purchase from an op shop at some time, and I thought I had to add some of these to the page.  As they were gold rather than bronze I painted them with a bronze inka gold paste. I added one to the girl's hair and two to ground my quote.  The quote is from Coco Chanel.

I then sprayed the whole page with a matt protective spray. It is very different from what I imagined when I started out, but I started this year saying that I was going to let the art have control rather than my right brain, so hopefully this is proof that I am succeeding somewhat.  I hope you like it Lesley. 

Inital face

After I change the nose 

COLLEEN'S PAGES IN PAM PARKER'S JOURNAL

INSPIRED BY TEESHA.

It's such an honour to be the first to work in your beautiful journal Pam. 

Pam's pages are quite large & I used the first pages, which had a large flap as well. So I decided to use each page separately & do 4 individual pages.

I npainted all the pages, &, put borders, that I'd cut from magazines, around the edges. Then on Page 1 I used a cut-out of a motor bike. I cut the bikie's head off & put a deer head on, added an eye for the headlights. Added some texture paste circles & stencilling.

I added lots of doodling & some stamps along the borders. I wrote the words:- Born to be free, Born to be wild, Born to ride.

On page 2 I used a cut-out of a beautiful woman with a tall lacey hat, & then put a chicken in her hair.

I then replaced her face with another, added doodling & stamping & a bird on top of the hat. I printed & cut out the words, which say :- I think I have OCD (Obsessive Chicken Disorder) Little voices in my head keep telling me, go get more CHICKENS.

On page 3 I used a picture of Steve Irwin holding a very large lizard. I replaced the head of the lizard with a really "cool chick" wearing sun glasses & stamped some frogs & words

A bit more stamping & doodling & some striped hats & this was done.

On page 4 I used two cut-outs with superman shirts on & proceeded to doctor them. Changed their heads, legs, & the outfit on the larger one. Cut a skirt from a piece of colourful paper & added those gorgeous boots.

More  stamping & doodles & a pretty heart hanger on his arm & striped stockings on the girl.

The words say:- Deep in their hearts most wish to be understood and cherished.

 I enjoyed working on these pages so much, & I hope you like them Pam. And, yes, I had to put some chooks in. 😉

Joan's House Journal

Beginning the new Round of Travelling or Circling Journals.

The new round of traveling journals begin in AASG on July 1st.  It was with both excited anticipation and anxious nervousness that most of us waited to pop our journal in the mail box on or close to the 1st.  As I had only a few days previously welcomed home my traveling journal from 2015 I felt a bit like I was just doing the next journal in the round.  My new theme was "House" not "Home" as I had done a journal called home some years ago in another group.  After deciding on the theme a month or so ago, I was still a bit uncertain what I was going to do in my journal myself. I am in round #4 group.

My journal is a handmade one  created especially for me by Julia Deane.  It is Stonehenge watercolour of 285gsm so should stand up to any  mixed media thrown at it.  It measures 9inch by 9inch and is about 10 double page layouts including the cover.

I painted the front and back cover in dylusions and other  acrylic paints.  The front was done in colour blocks and the back was just a "lets put paint on and see where it lands" situation. The colours I used were greens, yellows, orange and blue.  I then used various wall stencils to further enhance the back and front. 

I used house stencils from Mike Deakin Art on the back and a couple on the front of the cover.  The beach house stencil, was one I had in my stash for about 20 yrs and originally used on tiles in a kitchen I renovated in an previous house I lived in.  I stuck some chipboard stickers to spell house on one of the colour blocks and coated them in glossy accents.

The front cover has a wide flap on inside and I painted it orange and used another Mike Deakin Art stencil.  I then painted, stenciled and doodled on  the inside of the cover in turquoise and orange. I printed out my contract on one side and mailing order and backstory of my journal on the other side of a piece of paper and put it in a plastic bag which was then put in the pocket.  I left the inside back cover unpainted and stuck a recycle piece of packaging to the back page to form a pocked for tags for other artists to write their details on.

I printed out a digital postcard I created for a swap some 15 yrs ago . The verse was from a poem I wrote when I was about 12yrs old, so you can see I have been obsessed with the theme for a long time.  As I had very little ink left in my printer the card printed in very muted colours so I used paint colours to blend in with it. I covered my page in old dictionary pages.   I used impasto through 3 different stencils to create texture in the background, then painted over it leaving the word house from the dictionary page exposed. I used pink, pale blue, grey, and turquoise paint.  I then used a little bit of Inka Gold in silver and lilac to enhance it. I layed down a couple of small doilies and some paper embellishments behind the postcard and off centered it as the focus of the page.

My two page spread was a row of little paper pieced houses.  I used watercolour for the sky and acrylic paint for the grass.  I stenciled over the grass with two colours using a stencil from China.
I use Tim Holtz washi tape for a dividing border.   This page was inspired by a previous spread I had done in another of my journals which in turn had been inspired by a spread done by Lynne Gray at a crafting weekend we attended in March. I did not like how this one turned out as much as I liked my originally one but it was done.  I am looking forward to seeing what the other artists in this round create in my journal.