Wanderlust 2025 - part three

Here are my favourite pieces from the last twelve weeks of the art journaling course, Wanderlust 2025.  The broad theme was 'Storytelling' and within that, we had 'Journaling', 'Capturing Moments' and 'Taking Inspiration'.  Above was all about gratitude and using different ways to capture things we were grateful for.  I used a die I bought earlier this year to make the mini clipboard and a die for the paperclip. 

More journaling opportunities with this page. I used a napkin for the flowers.  Simple, but enjoyable. 

I think this was a 'capturing moments' lesson.  We used a photo and then drew the image on tracing paper.  The flower is one of my cosmos flowers. 

I used magazine transfer for this page.  The magazine images didn't really like the textured watercolour card page, but it gives a faded and worn look , which I like.  The images are of the Eden project in Cornwall and views of Florence and Rome, all places I have visited. The birds stamp is one I have cut from lino and it is one of my favourites to use.  The word is also a transfer, using magazine letters onto sticky tape, which was a new technique to me.

Memories of a holiday to Egypt turned into the next page, with tickets, money, and photos.

We looked at Expressionist artists as the inspiration for this piece.  We were asked to just go with our intuition and not worry what the image was going to be.  You can see the Van Gogh influence in the lines here, I think.  I am still not sure what the three hill shapes mean, but I enjoyed the process of this one. I think the face is somewhat enigmatic too.  

We chose a favourite poem or song lyric as the inspiration for this page.  Mine is 'The Way through the Woods' by Rudyard Kipling.  Again, I thoroughly enjoyed the process on this one too and am pleased with the end result. 

Finally, this interesting page.  This is very much in Dyan Reaveley's style (she was the teacher for this one) and she does have a recognisable style in her work.  She told us about something she does every six months or so, which is to go through magazines and pull out pictures which appeal. It should be an intuitive process. My pictures include cake, gardening equipment, flowers, a woman reading, a pen, a vase, a mug, some blue glass, a cat face, a silk scarf and some jewellery.  It depends what magazines you have used for the images you might find.  I loved creating the collage, although it took a bit of time to get it right and I had to take a photo of it  before I started glueing things down. 

On to the last twelve weeks of this year's course - the broad theme is 'Leaps and Bounds'.

Happy New Year 2025

Happy New Year and I would like to send you good wishes for 2025. Yet again, the year seems to have gone quickly, so it is time to look forward with plans for 2025 and revisit aims from last year.

(Photo of Big Ben off the TV at midnight)

Read interesting books - this is never a difficult one for me. I have read a total of 88 books this year, including all the Brother Cadfael murder mysteries. Other books I have enjoyed are Divine Might: Goddesses in the Greek myths and Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes; Frank and Red by Matt Coyne; Berserker by Adrian Edmondson, The Socialites by Caroline Lamond and Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.  I have (of course) also revisited Miss Marple stories by Agatha Christie and various other books by Jane Austen, which I read on a pretty regular basis.  Reading interesting books will definitely continue through 2025. 

(All the photos above and below are from the Care December 2024 course - the Pink Edition)

Be Creative (using what I have) - I have certainly continued this aim, having signed up to lots of interesting online courses. (In fact, I need to actually do some of them this year as I took on rather too many all at the same time!)  There is a Colourplay course, a sketchbook course, a mixed media collage course and a gratitude journal course, amongst a few others! 

I am becoming increasingly fond of watercolours and want to work through the abstract watercolour book I bought. I also would like to work through the collage book.  Over and above all that, I would like to focus on lino printing and gel printing more.

I continued to do the Wednesday slow drawing class with Amy Maricle and loved that quiet and relaxing hour, so that will be continued.  I am also enjoying using pen and watercolour together, so I hope to develop that further. I completed the Whimsies, Words and Watercolours course, with Joanne Sharpe and enjoyed learning how to create interesting lettering styles. Colour swatching continues to be one of my favourite things to do and this course included quite a lot, so I was in my element.  I have bought a few more supplies (of course!) but I have used many supplies I had but had forgotten about, so that has been good.  I am starting to notice what supplies I use the most and what I can possibly donate, which leads me nicely on to...

Get rid of or donate things I no longer want or need - I have done really well this year, probably halving my book collection and donating lots of things to charity, to let someone else enjoy them.  I need to continue this into 2025 as I still have far too much stuff.  I would like tidier areas and spaces so this will continue to be a focus.  It isn't something I find particularly easy to do (as I am a hoarder!), but I am encouraged by my progress so far.

Take more notice of nature - I have done this through gardening as well as when I am walking home after work, or walking anywhere, enjoying the changing seasons.  Birdsong is a delight to me and I never fail to be uplifted wherever I hear this. The mixed media art journaling course (Wanderlust) often focuses on nature, so this also encourages me to get out and be more aware.  I have pressed some flowers and leaves from the garden, in order to be able to use them in my journal.  

Sadly, I haven't visited any other gardens this year either, which is something I do enjoy, so I would like to put this right in 2025. I still have these two gardens on my list: York Gate near Leeds (described as a beautiful Arts and Crafts garden) and The Manor at Hemingford Grey, near Ely, (which was the home of Lucy M Boston who wrote the Green Knowe stories) so I must make an effort and get out there.

Those aims are now plans for 2025 and it will be interesting to review them again this time next year.

I hope 2025 will be a good one for us all.

Happy New Year 2024 - making plans

Happy New Year and I would like to send you good wishes for 2024. Yet again, the year seems to have gone quickly, so it is time to look forward with plans for 2024 and revisit aims from last year.

Photo from the TV of the Fireworks in London

Read interesting books - this is never a difficult one for me.  Reading is one of my main hobbies and I enjoy the 'me time' which reading gives.  I have done pretty well again this year and have read a total of 87 books.  Some old favourites, such as Miss Marple and Jane Austen.  There have been some which I found out about from the TV book programme, Between the Covers, such as The Dictator's Wife by Freya Berry and The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk. There were a couple which sounded interesting, such as The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods and The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson.  Then there was Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes, which I heartily recommend if you like the Greek myths. This exploration of some of the women in the stories is fascinating as in the retelling over the centuries, they have had a 'bad press', which Natalie sets out to put right.  

All the photos above and below are from the Care December 2023 course (the Blue Edition)

Be Creative (using what I have) - I always try to use my supplies before buying more. However, I have bought a few things (!) over the year. This is OK as long as I do actually use them but I need to have a sort out of my stash and donate supplies which I haven't used.   I have taken part in a few monthly/weekly challenges/workshops, such as Artful August in January, Index Card a Day during June and July and Care December. I have completed my Wanderlust year long course and enjoyed continuing to learn about different media.  I have signed up to Wanderlust 2024 to keep this going.  I also signed up to, but haven't yet completed, two courses with Kate Crane.

I started to do a Wednesday slow drawing class with Amy Maricle and loved that quiet and relaxing hour, so that will be continued. I also did some online workshops with her (Watercolours, Little Book of Wonder and Magic and Mist) and really enjoyed them.  I did another online watercolour class, incorporating a writing element, with Joanne Sharpe and have signed up to her year long Whimsies, Words and Watercolours course, so there is plenty to keep me busy and learning there. I also plan to focus more on lino printing and collage.

Get rid of or donate things I no longer want or need - I have made a little progress with this, but need to focus more on it as I have accumulated far too much stuff over the years!  I find it really difficult to sort things out but must make it a habit. 

Take more notice of nature - being a gardener does help me to stop, be aware of and enjoy nature. Just being able to stop and observe or stop and listen gives that mindfulness which is important in our busy lives. I always have plans for the garden and this year, I need to pot on my roses, patio cherry tree and patio apple tree.  A bit of rearranging and sorting out there and in the shed won't go amiss either!

Sadly, I haven't visited any other gardens this year, which is something I do enjoy, so I am aiming to put this right in 2024. There are two in particular on my list, York Gate near Leeds (described as a beautiful Arts and Crafts garden) and The Manor at Hemingford Grey, near Ely, (which was the home of Lucy M Boston who wrote the Green Knowe stories) so I must make an effort and get out there.

So those aims are now plans for 2024.  It will be interesting to review them this time next year.

Wanderlust 2023 - weeks forty-one to forty-nine - Monoprinting and carving

I was really looking forward to the final focus of monoprinting and carving and I really did enjoy it.  The first week was looking at different kinds of carving and printing  and we used stencils on the gel plate, heat sensitive printing foam (where you heat the foam, press an object into it and an image is created.  When you have finished, you heat the foam again and the image disappears. I used some japanese anemone seedheads), foam shapes on a kitchen roll inner and a lino print.

My linoprint was of honesty seedheads, from a calendar - 'silver pennies'.

The next week was making papers using the gel plate and then creating a collage image.  My papers included corrugated cardboard, my own foam stamping plates, bubble wrap and my own stamps.  I chose the tree as we were enjoying nice autmnal weather.

Week forty three was using charcoal and then oil pastels on the gel plate. I had wanted to try using charcoal on the plate, but just hadn't got round to it, so this was my chance.  We used a photo to trace over using the charcoal and then stuck the image to the gel plate.  We then made some 'wonky people' using oil pastels, which was a bit of a trial and error process, but I got there in the end.

We then had to represent a favourite place using gel plates and bearing value and contrast in mind.  My place (not that you'd know from the image) is Haddon Hall. The little bridge is represented by the arches, the swirls are roses, the wavy lines are the river, the castellations are just that, and the diamonds are the window panes.  I wasn't sure I had chosen the right colours, or that I had enough contrast... 

...but when I desaturated the image, it looked better than I thought.  There are light and dark areas.

We next made a lino print again from a photo and made decisions about how much to take away or whether to add patterns.  I was really pleased with this. I made a frame for the image with gel plate printed patterns.

For this week, we used a gel printed background which was a very colourful one.  We then painted out a lot of the colour using black acrylic.  I used a face stencils for my version and was pleased with how it turned out. I like the change of colours from warm to cool.

For the penultimate week, we took our inspiration from Matisse's paper cuts and designed our image using cut out paper.   We then made a lino print of the image and printed it on paper and material.  I decorated the paper print with acrylic pens and stitched over the material version.  

I used three stitches: backstitch, split stitch and french knots.  It took a while but the result was worth it.

The final week was just having fun with colour, so I did!

There was also a wrap up week, where we were encouraged to bind any loose pages and then make a cover for the journal. I need to decorate my cover, so shall do that shortly.

This year has been about experimenting with different media and I have learned a lot. I have found some lovely techniques and will be using them again in the future.  I have embraced some media, such as pastels, which I didn't think I liked.  

Most recently, I have rediscovered my love for lino printing and collage and this is an area I really want to develop, so this will be a focus next year.  I have also signed up to Wanderlust again next year, so it will be interesting to see what that will bring.

Experimenting again

I have been making some tentative experiments using distress inks (watercolour ink pads) and some pre-printed designs which resist the colour.  I used some blending sponges to apply the colour and I am pleased with my first attempts.  

I think this was my favourite one, which was the last one I did and I was a bit more confident with the technique.  I like the way the colours blend so easily with each other to create other colours.  I have also bought some watercolour brush pens so am looking forward to highlighting patterns and seeing what that looks like.
I have also bought some water based lino printing inks and am hoping to start printing again (I have done a bit of lino printing over the years, for A level Art and Craft and for my Foundation course in Art and Design and I really enjoyed it).  I was inspired by a book, 'Block Print' by Andrea Lauren, which Chris bought and which shows many different printing ideas, including lino and using wooden stamps. I am going to start with making backgrounds for my wooden blocks (I have a Blockwallah birch tree block I am going to use) and see how I get on, then move on to more complex designs...well, that's the plan, anyway.
I just need to get rid of a cold which Chris has given me (thanks for sharing), and then it will be all systems go.