Saturday, February 12, 2011

Three Adventure Journal Pages

 This page is from a pigment-collection journal that I made to record excursions to collect colored clays with a friend near Brasstown, NC.  We each made a journal to keep maps, notes on processing, samples of the paints we made, and little plastic bags of the actual processed pigments.  This page records a fine trip that we made early one morning to the Chatuga Dam area when the lake was very low and we were able to dig clay out of exposed banks.  This is the best maroon color I've ever found.
 This page from the same journal  records a golden yellow that we found in the middle of my friend's road one sunny morning.
My grandson Luca was 5 years old when we went on an adventure to draw haunted houses near his house in rural New Hampshire.  Luca and his brother and I have had a tradition for the past few years of making a trek to the same haunted house, crouching down in the adjacent woods and sitting on a moss-covered log (snow-covered in winter), and drawing the house whilst speculating on the activities we infer from the clues we spot as we draw.  On the occasion of this drawing, Luca and I were alone, and at Luca's suggestion, we sat side by side on the log and both started drawing the house.  After around 15 minutes we changed sides, and he drew on my drawing and I drew on his.  After another 15 minutes we changes again.  We enjoyed the way we couldn't tell his from mine, but both our styles had mixed together and resulted in something more wonderful than either of us could have done alone.  (We also decided that someone was living in the house, but only in one downstairs back room, and coming and going daily with fresh supplies for exactly what we do not yet know.)

13 comments:

  1. Love the Exquisite Corpse aspect of the drawings.

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  2. Yeah, that's exactly what it is! i hadn't thought of it that way.

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  3. What a lucky grandchild!!
    THis reminds me that I must see if my garden clay is really just blah gray or has some redeeming color characteristic.
    jeanette

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  4. Gwen,
    So happy to have found your blog!!! Just ordered your new book. (Have had your other two books for a long time and the leather bound journal that I made from your most excellent instructions is one of my proudest accomplishments.) Thank you for sharing your love of journaling and all of your knowledge.
    Gail

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  5. Thanks, Jeanette and Gail for your comments! I'm truly happy to hear those instructions worked for you, Jeanette. And Gail-- try looking in the banks of creeks and in construction sites where the soil is cut away and in the sides of deep holes. But some places just don't have a lot of iron in the soil and the colors are not very dramatic. In that case, when you travel bring along some small plastic bags and keep an eye out for good colors.

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  6. wonderful blog - just found it through Melanie Testa. You can rotate picture in your picture program like Google's Picassa, but not in blogger.

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  7. I bought the Decorated Page. I am always scribbling notes on paper or little notebooks. Altered books fascinate me and I'd like to scribble in a journal, make it pretty and have a memorable keepsake. Thanks for blogging. I'm along for the journey and I'll be taking notes.

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  8. Thanks Jamie! I fixed it in Photoshop. Was just hoping for a lazy quick way to magically flip it in blogger without going back to Photoshop.

    Elle- Welcome to the journey!

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  9. Oh yes, this blog made my day! Thank you (and Melly Testa)! Of to Amazon...

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  10. Gwen I'm so impressed with your blog. Benedicte is still in progress and I chide her regularly. Melly showed me her butter box book yesterday and now, having seen two of them, I'm completely inspired to try my own. And by the way, I adore your new book. xoxo

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  11. Gosh, I love these pigments! I'm going to have to keep an eye out for clay in my rambles. I think we have iron in our soil here (NH) and if I do find some clay, it should have some color I think. Love your shared house pages too!

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  12. I found your blog through Melly's too! I am in the sketchbook challenge with her. We don't live TOO far from each other Gwen. I live in upstate SC (near Greenville). I go to Asheville at least once a month for an art group that I am part of there. I would just love to meet up with you sometime! I have all your books and am a (rabid) fan - well, maybe not Rabid...but a very, very big fan of yours. Love your new book!

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  13. Love the drawings - I hadn't seen these! Luca misses drawing with you. And he doesn't believe me that a man named Andy lives in the house, who once plowed our driveway when we first moved here and were still bumbling city folk. He is willing to consider, however, that this man Andy might be a werewolf.

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