The Pyjamas & The Fins

I am still busy with nocturnal sessions - doing Danielle Donaldson's wonderful online course, CreativeGirl: Storybooks and Studious Girls.  I am learning so much. 

What's more is that I'm getting back to my "first love" of painting mediums - watercolour.  

But I am learning an entirely different spin on it.  

I am always amazed at how small changes can lead to mind-blowingly refreshing results that open up entirely new possibilities in an area that you think you know so well.  

You just have to make time available, be open to changing your actions and stick with it.  

It is something that I may apply to other aspects of my life as well.

It all started with this...

... which led to this ....

After a year of swimming lessons to get our little one water-safe, her daddy bought her a pair of fins and water goggles in December. She spent hours and hours in the pool with them.  Sometimes she would be up and ready for the water at sunrise!  

On one such a morning,  she tumbled straight out of bed and put on her fins and goggles. Barely awake and still wearing her pyjamas but ready for action.  

I had always wanted to capture this moment more poetically.  So I decided to use it as inspiration while practising these new techniques and developing my style.

Geared up and ready.
She still needs some work, but I'm happy so far...

Close to my Heart

Taking pictures of the progress of a journal spread or painting really filters out the emotional attachment that I seem to develop while working on something.  

 I tend to work very light. 

Because I'm a watercolourist at heart, you see.  

My darks can, most of the time, be made even darker.  

The camera lens gives me an objective eye to track my progress and the depth of contrast. 

Thank you digital technology! 

And thank you Jane Davenport and Rachelle Panagarry for your inpsiration.

And here is the final spread. 

Supply list: Acrylic and watercolour paint, brayer, acrylic texture paste, spraypaint, handmade stencils, stamps, coloured pencils, collage on watercolour and mulberry paper.

Windows open.

And windows closed.

Of journalling on the go and doing like the locals do

And so the calendar has turned to 2013 unobtrusively while I was taking in the California scenery.

If you think that your thirst for travel is quenched after weeks in foreign territory and a 2000 mile road trip. Think again. The road merely opens up more possibilities. Next time we should overnight here...maybe stay 2 nights in this and that quaint little seaside village...take more time for a photo safari in that area...how about bringing our friends to do a mountain bike tour of the area...plan our time so that we can make more stops to take in the scenery at viewing areas...and so on and so forth. I believe one should always have a reason to go back.

I am not one who gets up at the crack of dawn armed with a checklist of tourist attractions for the day. I prefer to do as much as I can like the locals do - go to a local coffee shop, sit, watch the people, sketch live, listen, interact, ask questions, read, try to understand. Then come back at night and when everybody's asleep - journal!

For the first time, I made my own journal in preparation for a trip - thanks to Mary Ann Moss' online course, Remains of the Day - please do go over to her blog and have a peek if you want high doses of inspiration.