Taking note(s)

 Back in high school, art class had one requirement: carry a sketchbook at all times. Great advice. Today I'm not fully dressed until a sketchbook is within reach.

 For years I traveled with just pencils, a sharpener, and an eraser. But now the portable tool kit has color too: watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils.

 These are pages where I let my hand wander: a chance to ask"what if?" and work with what happens.

When it is cooler I will take my kit to Fresh Pond, and study real trees, real shadows. In the meantime, these are the echoes they leave in my mind.

Arlington Center for the Arts - Spring Classes

2011 Screen Print on Fabric Linda B. Dunn

I look forward to teaching two classes this spring 

at Arlington Center for the Arts:

2011 Journal Collage

Visual Journaling 

Ursula K. LeQuin has it right: “It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters, in the end. ”  We'll explore a variety of ways to wake up your hand, eye and heart with an art journal. 

Go from an empty book to pages bursting with color, texture, text and line.

Four Thursdays, 7:00–9:30pm May 17, 14, 31,  and June 14

2011 screen prints from stencil

More Seductive Surfaces

Make and use simple screens to create wild, original fabric. We'll play with resists, use store-bought and hand-made stencils, and painting directly on the screen.No sewing - just fun with paint on fabric.

Returning students and beginners will work side by side, a supportive group of adventurous souls, who  play with color, technique, and design.

Four  Wednesdays, 7–9:30pm  April 4, 11, 25, and  May 2

Ideas on the work table

If I have time, I might even sign up to take a class myself. Tempting offerings include Creative Book Building with Alice Stanne, Drawing Ordinary Objects with David Andrus, and Art and Meditation with Ian Schaff. There's always more to learn.

The next page

This two page spread resulted from the collage work

 I did preparing for my Art Journaling class.

Layers of ink, watercolor, and colored pencil.

It looks like one thought, but actually the image comes
 as the colors and patterns hit the page. I only have the
vaguest idea when I start.

The process is circular, or a spiral. Put color down. Watch what happens.
Ask, "What next?" Repeat.

Inside my journal

This week's journaling class was about collage. 

For me, collage with scrap paper is a great way into further layers.

The texture calls for color.

The students spent the first half of class painting different translucent papers:

 tissue paper, rice paper, and a mystery paper I picked up at a recycle center. While painting,  the conversation  turned to death, dying, parents, parenting, so we took the papers and created a path-

established a horizon, then built from there.

They could have easily worked another two hours.

Next week, text and pattern:  fills me with ideas.

Invitation to the Muse

Start a sketchbook. Play with paints. Experiment with pattern.

Registration open at Arlington Center for the Arts.

Hope to see you there.

 

Another Journal Page

 

Pears pears pears. They have the most sensuous shape. And they are forgiving: no perfect circle, not even perfect symmetry. Just that feminine slope and curve.

So many layers on this page. It started with text. Then I played with watercolor through a new Seven Jewels stencil from ArtistCellar. A bit still peeks through on the bottom.
As I laid in a color gradation with acrylics. Once that was dry, I doodled with markers, and the pears  began to emerge. So, more acrylic, some waters-soluble crayons, sandpaper (to take areas back a level) and white correction pen to bring some bright to the page.

Not a finished composition by a long shot, but perhaps some ideas.


Time to turn the page and see what's next.

Do Everything You Know

A motto to consider.

As Lynn Krawczyk, aka Fibra Artysta, noted, interest has grown this year in art journals. I've been surveying the literature, gleefully bringing home armloads of picture books from the library.

 I love picture books.

A spare table became art journal central. I check in with my sketch book during my morning coffee. In the evening, I settle in again for a second round.

This is just for pen and pencil work. But the journal work at this table often leads to a messier idea, and I drift upstairs to my studio. The second wind carries me through until bedtime.

But just what do I do? My method seems quieter than much of what's  on-line. So I thought I'd post some pages and talk about how they came to be.

This page began out as notes on True Visions, by L.K. Ludwig. You can see the list of recommended journal artists in the corner. Later I added a pair of pears
So, in December, this was a nearly blank page:

But then came Christmas and the arrival of new stencils from ArtistCellar plus a new box of colored pencils. I took these and my trusty Koi watercolor set to the in-laws house. (They're used to me now.) After dinner, I doodled away. So the result was unplanned, and unexpected: the accretion of layers and colors, each answering or ignoring what came before. It's a meditative place to be. I have no idea what is coming next.