More from the travel journal

This is one side of the calendar page I made for my travel journal. I got this idea from my friend Paula, who always puts a calendar page in her travel journals. I made the page in advance, and then added a few words about each day, and some bit of ephemera collected that day. I really liked doing it, and it will be a regular feature of my travel journals from now on!
This is another sketch I made sitting in the Plaza in Santa Fe. I drew the sketch and then painted it later. I realized as I was scanning it that the tree looks like it might be dead, it was actually all leafed out, but I am not that proficient with watercolor, and couldn't figure out how to add the leaves without blocking out the buildings! You can see my sketch lines for leaves in the background!

I really loved the Peerless Watercolors for traveling. I can thank my friend, Paula, for that suggestion, also!

Of Blue Sky and Adobe

One of the things I loved best about New Mexico was the intense blue sky. This effect was partly because of the altitude, over 7000 feet in Santa Fe, and pretty high in the other places we went. Another thing I really loved was all of the adobe! The color was incredible, and the outline of the adobe buildings against the blue sky made it even more beautiful.

I was in love with all of the old adobe churches! They were beautiful on the inside, too, but cameras weren't allowed. The church above is in Chimayo, a tiny town about 30 minutes from Santa Fe.
This church is in the tiny town of Trampas, on the High Road to Taos.
This is the church at the Taos pueblo. It is very small inside, but absolutely beautiful. There is a wonderful painted scene behind the altar with Mary in a dress that looks like a wedding dress.
If you are a fan of Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams, you will probably recognize this one, it is the famous church at Rancho de Taos. This is the back end of the church, and it is what you see as you drive by on the main road to Taos from Santa Fe. It is just as beautiful as all of the many paintings and photographs indicate.

We arrived in Taos just a few days after the entire church had been re-mudded. It is a big celebration, and there was an article in the paper about it. Many of the other adobe churches we saw had straw visible in the structure, but this one did not.
The church from the front. It was a beautiful and serene spot. Most of the churches we saw were dedicated to either St. Francis (because Franciscans built them) or to Our Lady of Guadalupe. We laughed about how we had been in more churches in a week than we had been in about 5 years!

The color of the adobe against the blue sky made me think of the land rising up to meet the sky. I found a wonderful quote in the main guidebook we used,

From the earth I was made,
And the earth shall feed me,
The earth has sustained me,
And in the end, I shall be earth also.

From Fodor's Compass American Guides Santa Fe, written by Lawrence Cheek. The quote is from an "ancient New Mexican hymn". The guide book was tremendous, by the way, I would highly recommend it, if you plan a trip to Santa Fe.

Land of Enchantment, indeed!

We came home from Santa Fe on Monday, to mid-70's to 60's weather after a week of 80's and 90's, and I am tempted to turn on the heat in our apartment! I loved the weather in Santa Fe and Taos. I never did get completely acclimated to the altitude, but I loved the weather! It was hot sometimes, but there always seemed to be a breeze coming, and sitting under trees in the Plaza would cool us right off.

I had a lot of fun with the watercolors I brought. The above sketch from my travel journal was made after we got caught (in the car, luckily) in a torrential downpour. I loved how the adobe still glowed even in the rain and with dark skys.
We went to Taos overnight, and tried to cram way too much into the short time we were there. I did this page of two memorable things we did. We visited the Taos pueblo and also the Mabel Dodge Luhan house. I found both to be incredible, though in very different ways.

I bought a Polaroid printer called a POGO the day before we left, and was able to print out wallet sized photos with adhesive backing, which made journaling really fun! I love my POGO, and think I will find many uses for it, beyond journaling.

The trip was fabulous, and I will be writing more about it over the next few days, so check back!

An Adventure! and a book in which to chronicle it

Tomorrow we leave for a week in Santa Fe, the oldest capitol city in the United States! New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment, and that is what it has always been for me. I have never been, and this is a much anticipated trip!

Above is the cover of my travel journal, I have been working on it for a couple of weeks. The covers are museum board, nice and heavy. I like using the binder rings, because I can move things around, as well as allowing the book to lay flat for painting and writing. The pages are hot press watercolor paper cut to size, in this case they are 9 x 7 1/2.
A collage I made on one page using images from a tourist guide magazine DH ordered from New Mexico. Some of the things I am excited to see.
I prepared a few of the pages with paint and stamps, but many are blank. I am going to be sketching and using Peerless Watercolors to paint. I also have two memory cards with me for my camera, and I plan to fill both of them! Another advantage of binder rings: more pages can be added if need be!

Something wonderful to share...

I am very excited and honored to announce that I have some art work published in LK Ludwig's new book, Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media! I received my copy over the weekend and poured over the book many times. It is a beautiful book, with a wide variety of collaborations.
I am especially pleased that LK chose to write a long section about the Photoart Journals yahoo group, of which I am a member. Catherine Anderson started the group in 2006, shortly after ArtFest. I was lucky enough to be one of Catherine's roommates that year, and found out about the group from her.

We have made over 30 books in the last 3 years, and each one is a treasure. Being in this group has enriched me in many ways. The page above illustrates one of our early books, but one of my very favorites. The book is about Texture, and it was exciting to look for and photograph different textures. One of my texture photos is on the page above!

I found the book to be very inspiring, I am thinking of some one-on-one collaborations that I could start, and maybe another circle journal in the future.

Beautiful Paper

Last year at ArtFest, my friend Catherine and I both took classes from Anne Bagby. Catherine took a stamp carving class, and I took the class called Beautiful Paper. I blogged about my class here and about making collages with the paper here.
A couple of weeks ago, Catherine spent the night with us after this year's ArtFest, and we played with some of the incredible stamps she has made over the last year. She has about 20 4x6 and 6x6 inch stamps now. They are all very beautiful, and we had a great time layering them on unwaxed deli paper.

This paper is very strong, and also translucent, making it excellent to use in collage.

This one is a single stamp used over and over, because I loved the stamp. I glazed over it with a reddish glaze, which brought out the design even more.

This one has several stamps on it in different colors, the glazing (with red again) made some of the stamps ghostly, because they were red, also.

I really love this cat stamp! I almost ruined it with a blackish glaze, this is a close-up. The page below is a section of one of my favorite papers. It was a great day, and confirmed for me that I love creating my own paper. I recently bought some carving tools, and an excellent DVD of Anne's technique from here.

Look for my own hand carved stamps, coming soon!