Art Journaling

It really all began in 2002 with a garden journal to keep track of what I was planting in my garden, and it has morphed into art journaling--painting, collaging, stickering, stamping, stencilling, sewing, beading, printmaking, and writing, all within the confines of a sketchbook or visual journal.  I'm addicted to it.  here are some of my favorite pages.

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/marcia-hero.html

Colorado trip

We're out here in Erie Colorado visiting Chuck's cousins.  Erie is just east of Boulder.  They're wonderful people and tend to like the same things we like, so it's always fun to stay with them.  We arrived last Sunday .evening, so Monday morning we spent some time getting our internet linked through theirs and rested from the drive from Milwaukee.  In the afternoon, we drove into Boulder, stopped at the AAA office, and picked up maps and brochures and the like so that we could navigate around town and up into the mountains.  We found a nice dowtown area with an outdoor shopping mall and stopped into a small Mediterranean restaurant called "Felafel King".  The food was very good, and so were the prices.  After that, we headed back to "base camp".   After going out for Chinese food for dinner, I took out some of my art supplies and played around with the watercolor pencils.  I painted a small still life of Judy's "money tree".  I don't know why they call it a money tree, since it certainly doesn't grow money.  If it did, I would have purchased one by now.  Judy painted a watercolor birthday card for Sandy, her sister.

Tuesday, we drove up Canyon Road to the damn on Boulder River.  Just beyond that is a town called Nederland, so we stopped in the tourist office and asked about scenic areas to paint.  The gentleman who worked there was very friendly and accomodating,  He gave us a simple map of the Peak to Peak highway and pointed out some highlights.  "Go to Brainard Lake, park in the parking area east of the lake and you will have a beautiful vista of the glacier".  So we went, and he did not mislead us. 

A little history of the last year, and some journal pages.

It's been a long time since I posted before today.  Last year after my sister had a 2nd major heart attack (and didn't die, miraculously), she moved back to Wisconsin with her husband to be closer to family.  Now she's considering moving back to Nevada, and we're (the family) all convinced she's not running on all cylinders.  Oh well.

On May 1st of last year I had an accident at work and tore my right rotator cuff, resulting in a surgery to repair it in June.  I was out of commision for 5 months, off of work, no painting with my right hand, and had to resort to trying to paint abstracts with my left hand--painting a successful abstract is actually more difficult than a representational painting.

Now I'm back at work, painting with my right hand again (thank goodness), and am taking Lorin Willey's Thursday night oil painting class. 

I am obsessed with art journaling and have tried a lot of different background techniques, and am experimenting with different papers and wet and dry media.  AHHHHHH--the possibilities are endless!!!


Journal page with hand painted doodled flowers, mixed paper background and butterfly die cut.



Journal page of my Art Angel Muse.


Journal page, self portrait.


Journal page with ART letter zentangles.



Journal page with oil painting greeting card pocket.

Girl with pigtails

I fingerpainted this over a background on which I cleaned off my palette using a palette knife. I love how the colors show through a bit under her skin tone.