Sketchbook Challenge - July

July's theme - Element

Elements of Weather - With all the hot and humid weather lately I tried to capture the opposite with this black and white collage giving a sense of cold, snow and wind. The elements used to make the collage: the insides of security envelopes, mulberry paper and an unfolded paper bag handle.

Elements of Water and Air - A collage of the water and sky meeting in the distant horizon. I used painted tissue paper, more security envelopes and a little bit of stacked journaling introduced in a post by Judy Hurwitt one of the Sketchbook Challenge hosts.

Element of Air - Grasses leaning in a warm gentle breeze. A colored pencil and watercolor sketch.

A Fun Saturday Workshop

A couple weeks ago I took a Folding Book Sculpture workshop with my good friend and inspirational teacher Laura Gaffke at Above Elite Studio in Westerly, RI. It was a beautiful summer morning and we students were greeted with coffee and homemade cranberry scones! If you have taken one of Laura's classes here I'm sure you would agree that her studio is such a welcoming space with wonderful natural light and a great creative energy.

For our book sculptures we painted backgrounds for the pages, painted on old book pages to use later as collage elements, then painted some more, cut, collaged, stenciled and stamped. We were having so much fun that the day flew right by. As usual, since I work on the slow side I did not finish my book by the end of class but did keep my promise to complete it by the end of the week.

I've been enjoying working in my garden so much this year that what else would my book theme be but about gardening. I created pages with three generations of gardeners in mind as I was thinking about where my love and appreciation for plants and gardening came from. I mentioned my Mom's special summer Hollyhocks in my last post and although my grandmother was known for her collection of indoor African Violets what I remember most are the Bleeding Hearts in her yard every spring. I thought they had the prettiest and most unusual flower - I still find them amazing. My page is about the Cosmos. I love the bright colors of the flowers and delicate feathery leaves. I can't imagine my garden passing into the fall season without those hardy flowers. 

  

Something New in the Garden

My Mom always had hollyhocks growing along the fence in the summer but this is the first hollyhock I've planted in my own garden. I just love these pink flowers that bloom their way up the tall stalk. They remind me of the fluffy crepe paper flowers we used to make in grade school. Why did I wait so long to plant one? I don't know but I will definitely have to add a few more next year.