Great Art Journaling class!

Greetings everyone! Its grey, cold and windy here on the coast and I am looking for a little sun in some art. But before I disappear and become an art hermit I wanted to tell you about an incredibly wonderful art journaling class at C.Andrews Studio. Now most of the people that know me know that I'm not one for blogging or journaling my deepest darkest secrets, pitiful woes or mystical thoughts. And if you've read my blog at all it's self evident that Art makes me happy. But on occasion I have been known to keep an art journal to work out class ideas or experiment with new techniques. So when Maria (known as rinda to some of you) offered an art journaling class at the studio I jumped at the chance to take a class instead of teach one. I can tell you guys that I was thoroughly happy that I did so. This is one of the best classes that I've ever taken. As good as any of the art retreat classes that I've taken from Nationally known artists which is a lesson in itself. This class was in three parts held on three consecutive Sundays. The first class started with a little homework. We were to take 10 of our favorite works of art and to look at any subject, colors and materials we may use on a consistent basis and also what we liked about each piece. This was submitted to Maria by email and we were given a sheet of stamped images to use in the class. I found this a very helpful exercise. It got me to realize that I do indeed have a method for my madness. From this exercise I now understand that I gravitate to fantasy images, love lush colors, and like my viewer to step into different worlds and times when looking at my art. The second class was all about using your stash. All those inchies, Atc's and paper dolls that you are laying around can be used in your larger artworks as well. Maria had this wonderful woman art doll with horns which I chose to use in a piece that had a little more edge. And lets face it a woman with horns is pretty cool. The second exercise in this class was to take a collage image or image from an ATC and reproduce it by drawing it. I realized that I grew up drawing and just don't do it anymore. I really enjoyed drawing again and this is something I might have to do more of in my larger works. Plus I really liked my page. Its a little edgy and asks the question What do Mannequins dream? I must have been in an edgy mood that day. The third class had what I consider to be one of the most valuable exercises that I've ever done in a class. It was the restricted means challenge. We could only use 7 materials to create 4 to 6 journal pages. The very difficult thing for me was that I could only use a collage image if I had four of the same. I didn't have that supply with me so I was forced to choose a rubber stamp to utilize as a focal point. Of course I chose the rubber stamp of winged death. I think Maria might have brought that one for me. How well she knows me! I liked that you had to work fast and not over think these pages. I did make four pages but I still consider a couple of them incomplete without some journaling on them. For that reason I have not included these pages below. I promise to scan them at a later time for your perusal. What was really spooky about the image I chose was that when I cut out one of the winged death images and used the negative stencil it became an Angel. There's something profound about this but again I'm not one to blog about that. The last exercise was to create a collage on a canvas using the techniques above. I chose not to use the stamped image but I tried to incorporate the same colors, feel and subject from the exercise as well as some of the first two classes. Other things I learned in this class: 1. I don't like using spray inks as a background I really like my acrylic paint, gel medium and of course highly textured surfaces. 2. Experimenting with other materials is a good thing it helps you understand what you like and what your art is all about. 3. Restricted Materials is difficult for collage artists because collage is all about using different materials. 4. I still would probably not use a rubber stamped image as a focal point even though I did like the journal pages I created with my winged death. I prefer a random collage image. 5. I tend to naturally pull a theme together with words. The journal became a "dream journal" with absolutely no planning at all.

Page created with a fairy image Maria gave me and stencils. This includes one of my favorite quotes from Walt Disney"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them"

There's that Turquoise as usual.

Tons of texture in this page and of course rich lush color.

Utilizing napkins, and decorative papers. Here again is my fantasy image and lush colors.

One of my own photo images, Nickel Azo Gold and Turquoise!

Horned woman page. I like the edgier style.

My drawn image and an edgier style and don't forget about the Nickel Azo gold!

As I hope you can see I really had a blast in this class and I thought it well thought, well organized and well taught. What do you think? Send me any comments you might have. Also if interested in taking a journaling class from Maria let me know. Maybe we can talk her into teaching this wonderful class again next year!

Cheers!