Art Sale, A Rework of the Ceret Sketch, and More Altered Book Fun

I had a wonderful time at the JCAA Artist Garage/Bake Sale last evening and I met some new, fun people. Actually I met a woman in the parking lot as I was arriving who felt like a friend from the very first. She actually has spent some time in the town in which I grew up. I feel that she is a kindred spirit and those are not easy to find. I am hoping to get to know her better soon. It is unfortunate that she lives as far south of Jackson as I live north of Jackson; but we are planning to meet at the June 28 life drawing class and we'll see how it goes from there. I did sell a few things, but was unhappy to pack up much of what I took there to bring back home.


Any of you who know me well will not be surprised to find that I redid the Ceret, France, sketch in ink. It is after all the first sketch in a new Moleskine and my intent was for it to be my Virtual Travel journal and to be in pen and ink. I may try adding a bit of color, but fear the pages were not meant to take water. I think I like the sketch better in ink - and that is a good thing as I erased the pencil work on this page. I think it is a better composition anyway and the people seem to be more noticeable. I am trying not to put so much detail into my sketches. As you can see on the rounded wall on the left of the sketch, I put in far too many of the horizontal lines. I think I just needed one to indicate the curve of that wall.

I also spent more time in my altered book yesterday and I must thank you for your comments. When I apply gesso today, I will try putting it on thinly with a credit card (if I use it at all) and see if I get better results that way. I must admit that I was emulating Donna Downey whose videos I watched with the little girls when they were here. She was putting her gesso on quite thickly - I just remembered she was using a journal she made herself with watercolor paper. Quite a different proposition to these thin book pages.

I don't think these are done yet, but I've moved on.

I'm really liking the beginning of this two page spread.

The first two pages above seem a bit discordant to me and I think I will probably add more to them. Both the words on the left hand page and the flower on the right hand page are image transfers gone wrong. I wasn't able to remove all the paper and haven't decided whether to leave them like that or see if I can remove some of the paper so that they aren't so filmy. The problem is that when I started to be more aggressive in the paper removal of the paper on the text one I removed some of the words themselves.

I do like the latest 2-page spread I am working on. I didn't gesso it first and that is working for me. The striped part on the left hand side is an image transfer that didn't quite work out. There was actually a quote from The Lorax on it that hasn't come through - but I love the colors and was happy to find some flowers in an ad in a magazine to go with them. I may work a bit more on this today.

I have an appointment to get my hair cut today and it needs it. I am a bit shaggy. Miss P is coming this evening to spend the night and she and I are going up to St. Ignace to stay at my Mom's for a visit and for Aunt Mary's memorial service. I am anticipating a very good time. She and I are taking a few art supplies and will be doing some walking and sketching for sure. I'm not sure if I will be able to blog with my iPad or not, but you know I will try. I will be sharing our adventure and artwork for sure either while we are there or when we return.

I am not going to my conditioning class this morning because of my haircut appointment, so I need to make time to spend on the treadmill. And then I have to do some head scratching to decide what to take up north.  I am afraid it is going to be another very hot day and that means I won't be spending much time out of doors, but then again both the treadmill and the art supplies are indoors, so I'm in luck.

What do you have planned for today? Are you making time to be creative? Are you sharing it? I'd love to see what you are up to.

xoxo