Art & Journals

I love the combination of words and art.  To me, the two belong together.  Nature and travel are two of my favorite subjects.  Here are some photos of some of my journals and pages. Just click on an image to see a larger view.

Mixed Media Journals 

This mixed-media journal is from summer 2016, when I was fortunate enough to volunteer at a summer camp for fourth graders at Catoctin Mountain Park.  It was a heartwarming experience. It is fun to use all kinds of different objects in journals.  I have lots of this stuff on hand from when I used to scrapbook and make cards.

I made the journal below from an old book that I “gutted”.  This book was falling apart anyway, so I like to think I gave it a new life. The pages are from all types of paper – scrapbook paper, carboard, watercolor paper.  I worked on this to use as my Artist-in-Residence journal while at Catoctin Mountain Park.

An old book gets a new life

Nature Journals

I covered a watercolor tablet for this journal of summer scenes and notes from around my neighborhood.

Travel Journals

When I travel, I take watercolor pencils and/or a small travel watercolor kit  and a fine-tip black pen for writing.  Most of the time, my journals are not completed by the time I have to come home, but I make notes and sketches on each page to remind myself what happened and where I was.  Later at home I will finish the sketches and paintings and add in quotes and more information.  For these next two journals I used 5-1/8″ x 8″ watercolor journals.  The paper is thick enough to stand up to watercolor pencils and regular watercolor.  It has a nice texture to it as well.

For this next journal, I used notes that I made in another small journal during the England/Wales trip, then transferred those to an old British travel atlas that I found in an antiques store.  I brushed white gesso on the pages where I wanted to write. I added in words and a calender using rubber stamps.