Diary pages week 6

I'm a bit behind posting this ....in fact a week behind, 

never mind..

I'll probably fill in round the hyacinth with some doodles sometime, 

but I'm happy with how it is for now.

 ..and I had a couple of blank pages to fill in between weeks 6 and 7, which fitted in well with the fact that I went to a writing workshop, so I filled the pages with some ramblings. I think I've shrunk this so much that you won't be able to read them!

Boat news

The news is there isn't much news at this time of year. 'Hope' is out of the water, propped up with bits of sticks and wedges. We go down there now and then to do maintenance, repairs etc. It's usually pretty cold, but yesterday the sun shone, hooray.

 

Sticks and wedges.
Boatyards are scruffy places.

The view from the cockpit, a 'sea' of boats!

Tool boxes at the ready

Arty photo of some rope

My tools for the day ...

A blurred picture of a hole in the floor inside the boat

The hole on closer inspection.
It was my job to get that water in the bottom out!
It's a long way down there..
hence string, rag and bucket (see picture above)

Arty photo of our boats propeller

Rusty neighbour

Rewarded at the end of the day
with a beautiful sunset across towards our mooring.

Parsnips and Books

How about this for an impressive parsnip?

Harvesting parsnips is always a surprise, all you can see on the surface are little green bits, underneath might be tiny scrawny things (lots of mine are!), or HUGE like this one..

..that's only a teaspoon, in case you're wondering!?..

We went over to my parents last week, and every winter she puts this little book on display, then puts it away in the spring. It's titled 'Things to enjoy in winter'.

It's beautiful.
What's particularly amazing is that I made it, many years ago. I made several, about 4 or 5 I think, and gave them to people as Christmas presents, they were a fairly major labour of love, I hope some of the other people appreciate them as much as my mum does!

Diary pages, weeks 4 and 5

I'm just about keeping up with filling my diary,
Here is week 4 topped up a bit

 And week 5

I took photos this week rather than scan, I think I prefer the photos, it looks more in context. I took these in indoor light, not bad considering.

Art Journalling

I spend too much time looking at other peoples blogs, and I've now got the hang of trawling through flickr images as well, to fuel my addiction. 

One subject I feel drawn to and fascinated by are 'Art Journals'. There are lots of people out there producing very lovely pages, two of my favourites being

http://caatjesartsystuff.blogspot.co.uk

and

http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.co.uk

The trouble with this 'Art Journaling' thing for me is that I don't really get it. 

I look at their work and think it's lovely, and I want to do it, but I don't understand why. I can understand drawing and painting as a way of engaging with and observing the world, and I can understand creative writing as a way of expressing stuff that is inside us, but art journaling just seems like daubing and splattering paint, and sticking bits of stuff here and there. There are also a LOT of female faces in peoples art journals. I don't get that at all, and I suspect it is fuelled by the media, most printed versions of which seem to be full of images of peoples faces. I can only comment on printed stuff as I don't have a television, and most of my printed material is scavenged from others for fire lighting as we have no regular newspapers or magazines.

A few days ago I thought I'd have a go at this art journaling thing. It was a sunny day (oh yes, we did have one) so I west into the conservatory and threw paint and stencils and glue and scraps of paper about, glad that the sun was drying layers and allowing me to keep daubing and splattering until I felt the pages had 'enough' on them. Here are some in progress...

Art Journal pages

Art Journal page 'Really Great'

Art Journal page 'Think Different'

Now....what do I do with them?!
 I found doing them easy, and I'm beginning to realize that doing this sort of 'art', as opposed to "Art" (with a capital A, as in stuff to sell or put in a gallery) is something I enjoy and am not afraid of. It's something I'd like to run workshops in. I hesitate to say 'teach' because I don't think it's a matter of teaching I think it's more about encouraging. But I can't see myself running 'Art Journaling' workshops until I feel as though I get what the point of it is!
 For now these pages will say in my work-in-progress pile until I'm inspired to do more on them. Will I get what it's about by doing it, or do I need to get what it's about before I do them?