Art Journaling 101 with Amy Maricle

 

I am taking an online course from artist and art therapist Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio. 

Art Journaling 101 walks you through ways to jump right into creating, beginning with defusing the inner critic by writing out what our critic says to us and making a drawing of it.  

I call mine the Hobgoblin, and I imagine it to be a cranky, snide gargoyle.

Afterwards, we turned our attention to embracing our Muse.

Through the course, I've been eager to watch each short video and create more pages because the process is so easy.  

It's inspiring to have an instructor outline a technique, then invite you to make your own variations.

Amy demonstrates a variety of techniques for creating backgrounds as well as ways to fill the backgrounds with drawings and writing.

We created backgrounds in watercolor, 

both splashy and smooth.

Instead of facing a blank white page, now there's an inviting field of color on my art journal pages.

Amy demonstrated a technique using 2 colors of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons with gesso. I incorporated a layer of music sheeting for more texture.

She shared a simple technique for filling a page with acrylics.

Which provided the ideal surface to write a quote.

I recommend taking this inexpensive course because it inspires you to jump into creating right away.  

Sometimes, the hardest part of art making is getting started and deciding what to do.

I created all of these pages in a span of one afternoon. I tucked the activities into an otherwise busy day, and felt uplifted by the process.

Here's a link to the class: Art Journaling 101.

Happy Creating!

Winter Spells Art Retreat

I recently signed up for an artist's retreat called "Winter Spells," designed to to reconnect participants with nature and our creativity. After teaching so many classes, it feels exciting to be the student, open to new inputs and approaches.  

The 2-day, virtual retreat is offered by Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio, who has given us all homework.  In preparation for our February retreat, we are invited to take walks, noticing nature around us, taking it all in, and then creating  -- in written entries, drawings, paintings, or even singing and dancing.  

I've begun taking walks outdoors in nature with the sole purpose of slowing down and noticing.  I often take my nature journal with me and fill it with observations and sketches.  

These sketches below were from a hike I took in Raccoon Creek State Park on a snowy day.

It felt so uplifting to spend time in nature with no other plan than to listen to the songs of the Tufted Titmouse drift, and sketch the scenes that drew my eye in. I had forgotten how healing it could be to just sit still in nature.

I hiked up to the closed campground and sat on a picnic bench to sketch this gnarled, old maple trunk, my mind only following the crazy contours -- a drawing meditation.

I noticed that beautiful details popped into focus as I hiked -- the tiny windblown seeds that dotted the snow like confetti, a snakeskin hanging from a maple sapling, eight feet up.  

I came home refreshed, energized, and delighted to have tapped back into nature journaling in a new way.  What a delight to take someone else's course, and feel cheered on and led by another artist.