Pam's Book Art

As many of you know, we recently lost a founding member of the Australian Art Swap Group, Pam Parker. Not only was Pam a wonderfully supportive admin and organiser for our group, but she was also my beloved mama.
I was blessed to spend 4 months by her side this year so some things have had to slide as her needs were my priority, we did try to keep up all the art swaps but in the end, death came quickly and my darling mama was worried about meeting her art obligations, I assured her I will honour them all so you will be seeing posts up until this round finishes by Pam. 

I have been helping my dad go through all of mums stuff and I have about a tonne of her art supplies to bring home and I decided I will use her supplies and as much of her hand in each piece I do for mum. I just worked on this page, playing with all mums materials and listening to her music, I still feel so very connected to her. 

This was the inspiration for mama's page, I found it in one of her stashes of papers as I was gathering book pages and suddenly I knew it was perfect for Lisa's Journal.
I covered the pages in Lisa's fabulous little journal with scraps and torn pages, then I used some of mama's paints to finish the background. While that was drying I started to go through mama's magazines to find the words, mama was an avid magazine reader and collector so no shortage of materials and it took me a long time to find them all. 

It was really lovely to be home and arting and to feel mama close. 

A Haiku for a Lunar-tic

One of my ongoing obsessions has been with the moon. I share a Moon Goddess tattoo with my daughter which shows just how obsessed I am.

When it came to Pam's wonderful Haiku journal I had to do a spread honouring my love of all things Lunar.

I began the process with gesso, papering with music and book pages then some stencilling with model paste, circles to echo the moon...now to build. 

I really wanted to try to capture a full moon rising over the ocean, one of my favourite things to watch. I chose my acrylic paints and began doing some layers. I had masked a circle space for my moon beforehand.

Once I was happy with my sky and ocean I began on my moon...lots of greys, white and some blue. To create a sense of a sparkling lunar reflection I added some silver Liquid Pearls to my spread.

 Lastly, I smudged graphite pencil around the moon and the haiku piece.

The Haiku is not my original...it somehow disappeared. It took me a while to consider what I wanted to say. Having taught many Year 8 students during my teaching years all about Haikus it was time for me to come up with one of my own.

Historically, Haikus are about reflecting on the fleeting moments in Nature which help the poet to consider one's life-based reflections. As I had recently lost my father, his memory became an inspiration for the result. I hope everyone enjoys my artistic and literary attempt, but especially Pam xox

Memories of the Sea

My darling mama has had a bugger of a year, In March she was diagnosed with cancer and a month ago she had a stroke! Enough already!
Art to the rescue once again. 

Melissa's Under the Sea journal came into the hospital with me and mama told me a story of her favourite Sea memory and it was a holiday we shared about 15 years ago. I was her scribe and her assistant to create this page as mama only has one hand working I think she did very well. 

Janies Haiku

Pam's Haiku page I always knew would be a challenge. I had a vague idea about what haiku poetry was and where it originated from. Little did I know then, I would end writing not one, but two for Pam.

I became so absorbed in creating this illustration, I completely forgot to take any pics of its development. I had the idea of something tropical and balmy to escape to from the cold winter of Montefiore - where Pam lives - so I penned the attached haiku. After a number of attempts I ended up with the two attached and my illustration then started to evolve. I first found a palm tree from a Kaisercraft paper and another paper by K & Company with a design that looked like waves. I ripped them to fit the page. I then painted a sandy foreground, some sea, and the sky. I then started to stick down my collage elements; first the tree, then the waves. I found suitable doors on Pinterest and printed them off. The hibiscus came from Kaisercraft Collectables: Paradise Found or Island Escape collection. The last thing I did was add highlighting with metallic mists and paint, and dimensional effects which don't show on the photo. Pam, I hope you like my art and haiku - made especially for you.

As it's hard to read the haiku on the art I'll print them here for you to read:

The doors open wide

My imagination is set free

It floats waiting

Perfume lingers still

Flowers in unexpected places

A balmy day

Haiku Art - Hungry are the Fish

Dragonflies Hover
Above the Waterlilies
Hungry are the Fish

by Jenny James

Who knew I could write poetry? There's a first for everything! My watercolour painting skills are constantly improving, proof that with practice one can achieve anything.

Here's how my page for Pam was created...

In the beginning... it always starts with scribbling out ideas on scrap paper then nutting them out in my journal.

Writing a poem with the correct number of syllables was interesting. Once I worked out what I wanted to paint or create (dragonflies and waterlilies) and realised it didn't have to rhyme, it was much easier.

It was planned to be a pair of giant gold fish swimming underwater, as viewed if you're also underwater.

Less is more... so I started with water and pencils as I'm always heavy  handed when I use paint. I then waited an eon for it to dry. Well, maybe 10 minutes...

Still trying to be "less is more" but pencils weren't giving me enough paint, so dug out my Winsor & Newton watercolour sticks... I've included this closeup to show the amount of paint used. I love the texture of pencils and sticks!

I painted more water onto the page and let it dry again... the second fish decided it didn't want to join us, so that's where the quote is going.

"Trust the Mess" ... that's what we're told to do so many times with abstract art and other types of creativity, but its as hard to do as waiting for paint to dry! lol :) Took a couple of hours this time.
This photo is showing what happens when you give up on micro layers and just go for it. Thank goodness its meant to be water hey? At this point, I was happy with the clouds and tiny forest in the background :)

This is my favourite palette! This pic was after adding pink gouache to the petals, brown to the stems and shadows in the water.
Things we take photos of when waiting (again) for paint to dry...!

I really love painting with watercolours... especially when its working! All that's left to do is all the bubbles, the fish's details and other bits and pieces.

Here fishy fishy... a giant goldfish eyeing off the dragonflies above the flowers. The bubbles have white paint pen highlights and brown paint underneath to make them appear round.

The above pic is my finished painting. Hope you like it Pam :)

Sorry, no progress pics for the dragonflies.... they weren't behaving! Thank goodness the turned out ok... quite happy with the wings.

I used more pencils and dry watercolours to add depth and shadow to everything. The quote is drawn freehand with pale blue pencil then again with black pencil. Then using the blue pencil again, I added extra words to make the dodgy bits look like they were meant to be there (of course they were).

Then the 3 little fishes with their teeny tiny bubbles were drawn in too, just because. The writing is all a bit crooked, but then again, it is underwater! lol

So that's my Haiku Art Page for Pam... Thanks so much everyone for reading my blog post. Hope it makes you smile!

Have a happy creative day!
:)
Jenny

AASJ7: Sharon's Pages in Pam's "Haiku" Journal

Hi Everyone!

 

Here are my pages in Pam's "Haiku" Journal!

 

 

I have to say I was a little apprehensive about this "theme" as I really wasn't sure about writing a Haiku but I had some brand new stamps from a US Design Team I am on and the idea popped into my head and the "Haiku" verse just popped into my head to match the stamped/collage images I wanted to create LOL!

 

 

I used paper doll collage elements by Art Tea Life - you know by now this is my fav store - I always feel inspired and creative when I'm working with these elements along with the fab new rubber stamps by Blank Page Muse "Vintage Scents Perfume" set.

 

I started adding a layer of gesso to the page backgrounds and then added strips of scrap papers, tissue papers, book pages etc.

 

 

I added yellow, pink & white paint to the pages with a sponge.

 

 

I stamped one of the perfume bottles from the set over the lower half of the pages - then I added white gesso through a stencil to add some interest to the top and bottom of the pages.

 

 

I used little alphabet stamps to "write" the Haiku verse and added the wording and collage gals plus muslin cloth and diamantes to finish the page!

 

scent of a woman

capture the perfumed fragrance

does it make you sneeze

 

 

Pam I hope you enjoy my pages!

 

Sharon

 



Janie's Nature Art Journal by Pam.

The month of June saw the arrival of Janie's Nature Art Journal which is already looking very special. My entry was a little experimental as I decided to give watercolour a try. I painted the background with pretty pearlised watercolour but it didn't flow as it should.....(no idea).  So then I got some stencils out and my distress inks added the flowers and tres. Then some black paint for the dragonflies.  A lovely little butterfly arrived in some happy mail so it had to join in too.
The quote is from a song from the 50s by Al Hibler.

Hope you like it Janie.

Sing me a Haiku- Pam.

 I really wanted to make a pretty page for Pam, so I moved away from my usual pallet and went for a baby blue background. 

In keeping with the Japanese feel of the Haiku theme, l went for trees in blossom, cherry blossom.

It took a while to hand cut the little pink leaves and stick them all down but I think it was worth it in the end. 

The little bird sings his Haiku to Pam with love. 

Where birds sing my dear, 

That is where you will find me, 

In peaceful moments.

Time for a Cuppa with Pam and Sharon.

Because of changed address circumstances, we have had to tweak the sending order of the art journals a little, while Louise is at my home. As a result I have done my work in Sharon's lovely art journal and then I will slip it back to Robyn to do as her June entry.

I began by collaging the pages with tea bags and then I did some stamping in cocoa brown. Then I added my focal points, a bit of outlining and called it done.

Enjoy the little things every day.  Chin, chin!!

Galaxy with Pam May 2019.

Amanda's Galaxy art journal is developing well and becoming very pretty indeed.  I had some thoughts about what to do and my mind went back to a favourite subject which includes some traditional Indigenous knowledge.

 The story of the Emu in the Sky is part of the traditions of many Indigenous groups and as it changes it indicates differing seasons and gatherings, one being the gathering of emu eggs.

And so.....may I present to you, The Emu in the Sky.

The beginning.

On the job.

Pam's HAIKU Journal

Hi there ladies,

I loved contributing to this project. Around 22 years ago I first learnt about Haiku poems, I really enjoy the simplicity of this type of poetic structure. At first I started off with something completely different to the outcome of the piece, I guess that's just the way process journey goes.

I started by laying down an opaque gesso, waited for it to dry, then adding an aquamarine and light mint on the right and left hand side of the journal pages. After it dried, I picked out a Jane Davenport stencil and used a thick black marker to outline the details of the face, I drew the hair in. I wanted to try something different, so I ripped up some beautiful paper and began to paste all the pieces down with pva glue.

I added some matchmaker acrylic paint, it's a customizing skin colour blend, at first I finished with the above matchmaker mix, but in the following you will see that I added more brown for definition; well I tried haha.

So this is the mix I ended up with. I added four Haiku's, I liked them all very much but I didn't like the way I presented them, so as you'll see I totally changed the background layout.

I went through all of my paper stock and came across typed words 12 x 12. I like the effect of the ripped up paper so much so that I decided to do the same with the back ground. I used washi tape for the young lady's eyes, I wanted to add something different. I love the way it came out. Now I needed to decide where I was going to present my Haiku's.

I didn't want to overload the whole area as it looked very busy as it was, so I wanted to tuck the poetry away in a fun little spot. I used washi tape to line the edges as well as plain sticky tape to protect the marker used to write the poem and to also protect any washi from coming away. I thought I'd use a little velcro closure to keep the tuck spot lid closed. I like the way that it reveals a little poem inside. I used some aqua pastels to colour within the small areas of the triangles, just to give them a bit of something.

This is a wide view showing the tuck spots open.

Another wide view in Black and white with tuck spots closed, just for something different. I decided to put two poems on there, I didn't want too many on the page at once as it just didn't feel right, I felt like they were all taking something away from each other, so two was enough.

All in all, I had a wonderful time creating in this journal and trying to put words together about subjects I love, I hope you like what I did Pam, it was a lot of fun.