Y’huh, I know it’s Tuesday… but don’t we all get those weeks that won’t kick-start properly?
Ok, so I’m up n running now! Reflecting on the latest page-a-day pages….
I took advantage of Satuday’s sunshine to photograph my pages in the garden (reminded as I type this as the rain pours outside my window!), so Saturday’s page with the typewritten hi, was only just begun. Just as soon as the lighting conditions permit I’ll bring you up to speed with the latests 😀
I know I’ll need to get the otherside of another cup of coffee before things start making sense today, what’s what and where to go isn’t making much sense yet!
I’ve built up a few days worth of photos to share with you, even cropped them down and renamed them, but in so doing I realised I haven’t got a good grip on the production/posting here ratio! Bear with me, there could be an onslaught coming soon as I catch up with myself!!
Meanwhile, I hate to post a post entirely unillustrated, so here’s a little something else I’ve been working on but not shared before….
I’m so enjoying the page a day project, and the 12 in 12 (updates on that one soon) but it has meant that not so much art has been going on outside of the sketchbooks.
So I decided to venture out of my papery comfort zone and onto canvas. This is a first for me! It’s still a work in progress, but here’s how it’s starting out…
Being a deep canvas I want to incorporate the edges. With no particular plan I started out with acrylic glazes….
Starting out with collage bits the trial layouts begin then gluing commences!
Bit by bit…
More glaze to bring the bits together,
And some dyed scrim for a bit of texture
More paint, blending some of the raw edges together
More layers
More dyed scrim
And doodles in thread
I’ll post more as it develops, but so far I’m pleased with the way it’s coming together.
Through the pages of the recent weeks I’ve made some unexpected discoveries:
Everyday I look forward to my bit of time set aside for play, there are similarities, sure, but everyday is individually distinct from it’s neighbours.
The ‘no rules’ rule liberates any planning, expectations, or regrets. By photographing the interim stages they are captured, so when they vanish under another layer of something-totally-else, I still have a memory of them to refer back to.
The properties of one small detail can infuse into other parts of the page. A textured paper inspired these scored lines…
Sometimes new characters drift through my subconscious and out the end of the pen. They reside here, waiting to return in a future idea. Or not. It doesn’t matter!
The adage less is more does not apply. The contents of the page unconsciously reflect the content of the day, and some days are bright, loud, bustling and care not for a controlled, contrived design and color scheme. They are just pieced together with what is at hand.
The possibilities ARE limitless!
Thursday’s page focused on utilising bits of the dyed paper through stacking n stitching, to exploring cut and torn shapes
As Sunday’s cut-out page was backed with card, turning over to Monday’s page, meant incorporating two big rectangles of card bang in the middle of the page. I often follow the adage If you can’t hide it, make a feature of it, so this page was destined to be layered in a chunkier fashion than before.
Collaged into disguise with layers of dyed paper, bits n scraps of leftovers from old projects (those swirl shapes keep on coming back!), unified with layers of tissue paper.
After accidentally modpodging too far over the edges, as an exercise in ‘let’s see what happens’, I brushed modpodge over the card, then red ink. Scraping back when it was nearly dry revealed the shiny gold again.
Embarking on a project like a page a day, without an aim in sight, more a stretch of the journey traveled in a new fashion, has to be done without expectations.
I’ve doodled and made art since before I can remember. Habitually, obsessively, because I love the process, and because (probably like all artists) I have to.
This is a different approach: One book that daily documents my trials and tribulations of the moment in color and shape, tone and imagination. Day in, day out. And then spilling out the results out into the interweb.
Having pondered if the pages might soon look samey, I’m starting to realise the range and variety of imagery that can be created.
By observing small slices of each page on screen, perspective changes. Fresh ideas emerge.
The inspiration from something touched upon days prior can be reignited afresh when a blank page beckons.
And an unexpected bonus is to be blessed by the delightful and encouraging words from folks who join along the way, Big thank you! 😀
When I began this project (a month ago today) I had no idea how long I’d stick with it. Or how easy/difficult, much fun/much of a slog, it would become.
Or for what reason I wanted to do it.
But I did want to.
So I began.
Ingredients:
That’s it, no rules.
Just one page at a time. One day at a time
(With maybe a little to-ing and fro-ing in between, but with the majority of today’s page being created today.)
Day 1: 16 March 2012. A Friday.
Home from work with the whole evening set aside to arty things, with the possibility to spill out over the weekend.
And wow did it spill! Everyday is painted, collaged, drawn on, doodled on, written on; dripped, splished and splatted on.
(I’ve posted previous pages if you’re interested here, here, here. And here n here!)
There are days that I’m more pleased with the result than others, but isn’t that a metaphor! If I find something really wanting on a page I’ll go back and add it. Using my sketchbook as a work surface (no drips of color go to waste in my world!) means some ‘new’ pages will begin with splishes and spills of color. S’okay.
Today ‘s page looks a lot like a page with inky paper towels stuck to it.
That’s cool. Cos I’m not so interested in what the page as a whole looks like.
These are the bits I like.
The miniature landscapes,
The inter-mingling of inks and dyes,
The light and the shade cast by wrinkles and dimples.
I love the crinkles formed in tissue paper when it gets wet n painty.
and the rivulets of ink, dabbed in a semi-dry state, neatly outlining themselves and marking their dribbly paths
doodles run around inky tidemarks, colors blend and merge the disparate 
layers piled high, paper takes on a feathery appearance, ruffled.
Not starting out with a ‘plan’ to how a page will take shape is liberating.
It’s not a piece of art it’s a page in a book.
It’s just for today. I offer no judgement.
Free to let the colors and shapes just happen.
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