A drawing a day and Teachers workshop

The first weekend I spent in Kathmandu was taken up with a full day of teaching art to Nepali teachers. it was a fun day with all of the teachers appearing to enjoy themselves learning while making artwork.
I have been diligently drawing everyday and have nearly half a sketchbook of imagery. It has been a good discipline to draw each day and I have certainly noticed an improvement in my skills.

A New Adventure

This time next week I will be in the bustling city of Kathmandu in Nepal.
I am fortunate to be travelling with a friend who has lived there so I am looking forward to learning about Nepal from an insiders point of view.
I will be doing a some teaching for a day - running a workshop for teachers on creative ways of teaching art to young children.

I am also planning to create some visual memories for me to use at a later date in my own artwork.
I have prepared a new visual diary by painting some of the pages with ink and gesso.I find it easier to get into the drawing and layering if I already have started before I leave.
I have a little visual diary too that is pristine.

 I hope to spend time drawing and collecting papers - as usual, and then cut, glue and draw over the top.

Preparation for art time

The time has come to stop procrastinating and start work. My garden is nearly all weeded and dug over so I really need to knuckle down to some art work. The weather here in Melbourne is hot, so being in the studio is tempting as I have air-con to keep me sane.

To start the process I needed to sort out the many brochures and maps I brought home from the trip. I started this by sorting into a bag per country.  Already I feel less overwhelmed!

Next,  a visual diary. I decided that I would make one and try to make it a well organised and visually interesting diary rather than my usual mess. So i have stitched together pages of different types and sizes of paper so that I have different surfaces to work on and the size may help determine the piece.

The next thing I have done is to print up thumbnail prints of photos from each country, as I noticed when I looked at a country/city's photos all together that there were commonalities in the colours, patterns and textures, so I hope to capture these in my work as I start the creative process.

So now I have no excuse!! Just got to stop being distracted.... oh that short attention span.

Book 11 Germany - at last!

Finally, I have completed the German book. It is a house book- very simple construction and I have drawn a different type of house on each side, the houses in germany were lovely and we had such a lovely time in these houses it was fitting to make a house book.

Since arriving home I have barely had time to sit down, busily returning to the manic pace of life, catching up with friends and family,back to work.... Ugh!! let me go back onto holidays.
Well I still have 2 books to go after this, I am so glad I did the others along the way as I would never had been able to get them done now. It was really worth the time I spent to capture the moment.

Book 10 Croatia

Due to being busy travelling I have taken my time getting around to finishing the Croatian book, got it half done then visited friends in Germany and then I was too busy chatting!

Back of book ( or cover) 

So the Croatia book is not really a book, more like a pamphlet. It has floating islands and pop up spits of land- Dubrovnik and Split. All on the back of a pamphlet page, that has been collaged with blues of the sea from other pamphlet and magazine pages, with a wash of watercolour pastels.

So as I leave Europe tomorrow to begin the journey home ( via Dubai) I won't get time to finish the remaining books until I get home- I have started the Germany book. So hopefully in a week or so I will be able to upload them.

What an adventure- 3 months travelling, what a lot of creative ideas I have collected. So much to do when I get home, can't wait to get on with it!

Book 7 Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, 5 towns on the north west coast of Italy. They are perched on the cliffs of the coastline, and people have cultivated the land and lived there for 1000 years! so hard to imagine lugging building and farming material up the steep hills, and by steep I mean really steep!!

 My little concertina book is double sided, the front showing the hills and villages of Riomaggiorre, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterossa. I have used the brochure that had photos of the towns, so I cut them out and used the rest of the brochure as the book base. I covered the brochure with torn nice paper in the shape of the hills, and on the back I painted gesso over the whole thing. The rest of the imagery is painted with watercolour over watercolour pastels.

 and the back of the book shows the train that runs between them- mostly through a tunnel, and the walking track that many people walk along. Actually there are many walking tracks that explore the hills/mountains behind the villages but there is a main track that runs along the coastline - steep and thin and magnificent. This side of the book has been gessoed then I used a fineliner pen to draw and the map of the area became the train!

 

Book 6 Venice

I have been a bit slow with the creation of the Italian books. Too much travelling and walking - I have been too tired to create much - collapse into bed at the end of a day.

I have finally done the Venice book. I have used a couple of business cards from  restaurant that had a map on the back for the covers- gesso over the business card bit. Then using a free postcard covered with gesso I have made 3 thin strip drawings that are unevenly concertina folded. 

 front cover

 back cover - typical window and shutters in Venice

detail

3 levels- rear is of buildings on a canal, middle is a series of different boats, front is buildings, canals and bridges 

Book 5 Morocco

Morocco, land of pattern, colour, contrasts, very old buildings and traditions. A place where the modern and the ancient work side by side. Craftsmanship is still valued but the tourist dollar is desperately sought.
My book this time is a concertina with a separate concertina going in a different direction. I used newspaper to join the pages and images from brochure to show the beautiful Berber jewelry and Berber carpet patterns. The rest is drawn and painted.
If you are interested in following the journey check out my offexploring blog.

Book 4 Barcelona

Barcelona is the home of Gaudi and his amazing architecture.
 His work is an inspiration to me as I love the way the natural world influences his designs creating very organic shapes and patterns. I also love his use of colour in everything from houses to park designs.
 Mosaics feature in almost all of his work and this allows colour and pattern to be a major aspect of the built environment.
What a thrill it has been to see his work in person, it is even better than in the photos I have poured over for years.
Of course I feel that anything I make pales into insignificance after that but still I will soldier on.
Book 4 tries to capture the busy narrow streets of Barcelona mixed with the formality of some of the street plantings.
I made much of it while travelling to Valencia on the train, I had gesso-ed the map of Barcelona before leaving and cut and drew on the train ( i did leave a little mess under my seat of small cut up bits of paper)

 art on the train

                                                       Finished little pamphlet stitch book

Book 2 - Switzerland

So I have managed to create the second in my mini travelling book series.
This one is made from  a a brochure's map pages to create an X- book with pockets to hold the tickets, the cover is several tickets stitched together then stitched to the X book,

Art materials packed

We leave tomorrow for the epic adventure. I've packed my bag, cleaned the house written lists, and sorted out the art materials I am taking.

 I have graphite pencils, fineliner pens, glue stick, gesso, black ink, small printing roller, paper, small visual diaries, etching ink in a tube,watercolour crayons, and a watercolour paintbox, scissors and a  small cutting knife. That should do, if necessary I can pick up anything else I need along the way. 

It all fits neatly into a small vinyl toilet bag and a zip lock bag for the paper products. 

Next blog entry will be from ...... London!!