Journaling's Different Approaches ~ Split Page

The second half of leading my "Plein Air Experience" portion at the "Expand Your Art Journaling", tandem-teaching with Elinor Peace Bailey, had moved down to the secluded, dappled-sun shine "Guy Talbot Park" just down from the Vista House.

We settled right in doing several focusing exercises and then, to contrast with the mega-view we'd just completed up at the Vista House (see previous post), I was gifted this perfect lil' "Heal-All" blossom (brought to my attention by Sally, thank you, Sally), I did a quick sketch close-up. What I love in doing an intimate painting of something so detailed and in-your-face ~ is that as you focus your attention, begin adoring this lil' damsel of-a-blossom, you become astonished at the variety of textures and colors that are revealed to you. You become more aware! And so was my experience with this plant, which I later pressed and then, sealed with Mod Podge before I glued it on the page. Here you can see the participants busy discovering intimacies of their chosen subject. As the sun began moving westward we clustered back into our cars for an interesting, chatty ride home that even a traffic jam couldn't dampen.

The third and final day of our workshop was split between the two of us. We all gathered in the cozy garage workplace and Elinor took first lead. For my journal page I nested Elinor's portrait up against the map of the Columbia Gorge area ~ and to my surprise, her turtle-neck ended up being the exact color of the map's border. Love serendipity!

For today her portion of the class would focus upon making our very own personal doll (and coming from a world class doll designer ~ we were all excited). She gave us basics to think about around designing our paper dolls and it proved more challenging than I'd imagined. For some reason, I decided to create a male paper doll and when just playing with the facial expressions ~ I swear he looked as perverse as possible!! Not at all my intent ... so it took some revision. But here he is ~ still looking a little twisted! I became aware that male dolls are decidedly less interesting to create. I heard everyone around me playing with flowered outfits and ribbons in their hair and adding buttons to the shoes. My guy was boring by contrast ... but a good lesson ... non-the-less! When I finished up my journal page, I needed a way to 'sit' my doll permanently into the page. Yet, I wanted to be able to take him out and move him in different positions. My solution was a business sized envelope (a transparent one here - to less distract from the page) and, sorry "Beach Boy" (which is kinda what I've named him) but, you'll have to stay folded at the knee to fit.

Next half of the day, after lunch, was my opportunity to share one of my favorite mediums to use in journal pages: Paper Clay (yes, just go to Paperclay.com to see what amazing things you can do)! Seems I've started a tradition to use a paper clay creation on the beginning page of each new journal I start. I find it adds excitement, dimension and when one cuts out behind the stitched in paper clay object, you cultivate several pages with unusual hole cuts around which you must to design. First, comes the rolling out of the medium (thin enough to move around, but not too thick either), then, carve, imprint whatever you imagine up. Next, it must totally dry and then, you may paint it. And then, once again dry, you can seal it. Here's the initial piece I started, impressed with lace (thanks for the great idea Elinor), painted and sealed. See the lil' holes around the edge with which I can stitch it into my journal page? Fast at work here is Elinor ... imagination "robusto!!"

And finally, here resides my full page spread, showing in full how I integrated the two days together.