Inner Excavate Along-week 5

This weeks prompt--I look closer
I found a picture of me that I never really liked very much and decided to embrace it instead and use it in a mixed media piece. I sewed bits of fabric onto paper, added embroidered flowers and some words from a book..."When we can't do anything about the world around us, when we can't even seem to do much about ourselves, we can always, always love ourselves"-Melody Beattie

Part of inner excavation is creating an altar, and the altar I've used for about a year is a portable altar that I created out of a box, I collaged it with images that felt peaceful to me and inside I have a candle, some stones and trinkets, creative journaling and inspiration card decks and a box of matches to light the candle.

 "The Whole World Is A Single Flower"

Inner Excavate Along

Working on my Inner Excavate Journal

This week I'm posting about my Inner Excavate Along journal, I'm a few weeks behind and doing my best to get caught up. I put together a long narrow journal with watercolor paper and I cropped old photos into 2" squares using photos of things I love, my favorite places and people ,my favorite activities. On the front part of the journal I used larger photos for the self portrait images and then added in other pretty things and words like "on my journey", "Welcome to my Garden", "making art in my studio", and "books".

I used K&Company chipboard letters for an impromptu title "inner excavate"

This photo shows almost the full length of the journal when its open with a layout of 4 photos on each page. The first couple of pages have more current photos of things I love right now like pansies, butterflies, art journaling, paintbrushes in a pretty pitcher, my favorite coffee cup and more.

This is me holding a pansy which has always been one of my favorite flowers and  'symbols'.

There was also a paragraph  that I liked this week from Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea

"And then to work, behind closed doors neither of us would want to invade. What release to write so that one forgets oneself, forgets one's companion, forgets where one is or what one is going to do next-to be drenched on work as one is drenched in sleep or in the sea. Pencils and pads and curling blue sheets alive with letters heap up on the desk. And then, pricked by hinger, we rise at last in a daze, for a late lunch. Reeling a little form our intense absorbtion, we come back with relief to the small chores of getting lunch, as if they were lifelines to reality- as if we had indeed almost drowned in the sea of intelectual work and welcomed the form ground of physical action under our feet."

Liz Lamoreaux-inner excavate

Journal projects in progress

These are a few of my journals in progress. The one altered book I cut into a square shape and I'm using it to follow along on with Kelly Kilmer's Online Journal Class. The other one in the picture below that are some rectangles of watercolor paper that I haven't bound together yet, and I'm using that one to follow along on Inner Excavate. So I have some little 2" pictures that I cropped from larger photos, and thats all I have so far but I also want to try and incorporate poetry because Lix Lameroux  encourages a person to try poetry, and her poetry definately inspires me to try. So I will see what I come up with next for these journals. But I'm having a lot of fun in the process.

 This other journal underneath is my daily journal which is always a work in progress, I write about  my day, add little drawings, and sometimes a photo , plus daily ephemera.

Liz Lamoreux-Inner Excavate Along

Nature Walk

Pansies that are still blooming in this heatwave...

For this weeks nature walk and sketching I picked a few flowers from the patio garden and my mon and I also went walking in a nearby college town they have a really pretty school campus and it's fun to go walk there in the summer. There are a lot of tree's so it stays a little cooler there.

My mixed media sketchbook page this week. I used watercolor, colored pencils, and some oil pastels for the background.

 This is a picture of a front walkway with roses and snapdragons and a brick path.

This is an area of the college grounds, a cute little nook with benches and a chalkboard surrounded by trees and hedges. So I took some chalk and did a few doodles which was really fun.

A really lovely afternoon before the big heatwave this weekend.

Elisa Loves-Nature Walk

Remember

On Wish Studios Blog Read for this week she chose the word REMEMBER and at first I wasn't sure what I would write about and than I decided to look back at some of my older art journals. It's funny how you can spend so much time working on something, finish it , put it on a shelf and than end up forgetting about for awhile and than be happy when you stumble upon that project again and see where you were at during that time in your life. So this was just a perfect reason to look back through some of those journals. This first journal page was a quote by Someguy I titled it Why Journal and he said "perhaps it would be better to ask 'why jump rope?' or why 'sing in the shower?' Some things in life intuitively bring us joy, and we're drawn to them, often without understanding why. It would be easy to say we journal because it makes us happy or because it's therepeutic, but it's something so much more primal than that. Deep down, at our very core, we're all creative people. And in a world that values profit margins over all else, journaling has become the voice of the individual....a sanctuary of creative expression."
I thought that sums it up very well, and is always a nice thing to REMEMBER.
   
               

Discovering Delight - the senses

This is a journal page I did inspired by Jamie Ridler's blog post on discovering delight in the senses.I added doodles to the page , some alphabet stamps  and color using colored pencils. I drew roses, a cupcake, bluberries, birds, and a cottage garden.

My list is written out below.   What are your favorites?

I love the taste of:

1. wild maine blueberry icecream
2. Harney and sons (hot cinnamon spice tea)
3.  fresh peaches
4. any pasta dish
5. homemade desserts
6. Krispy Kreme individual lemon pies

I love the sight of:

1. the ocean in Maine
2. cottage gardens
3. peoples art journals and sketchbooks
4. puppies and kittens
5. people being nice to strangers
6. pretty shops and boutiques 

I love the feel of:

1. being relaxed
2. scarves around my neck when its cold
3. warm baths
4. cool breezes during the summer
5. old books

I love the smell of:

1. garden roses
2. the process of cooking
3. nature
4. fresh laundry
5. craft stores and art supplies

I love the sound of:

1. the oceans waves
2. music of  Coldpay  and Ryan Adams
3. birds in the early morning
4. the piano
5. christmas music

Nature Walk on Thursdays

I found a fun thing to do on Elisa Loves blog called Nature Walk on Thursdays so I started yesterday, but here in North Carolina is was just too hot to be outside for very long so I picked a few flowers and did a watercolor sketch inside where it was cooler. Hopefully next week the weather is better and I can go on a walk...Here is the sketch that I did last night.

Art Journal- inspiration collage

This is a collage spread that I did in my daily journal, I printed some pictures from the internet that I really like a lot, like other people's sketchbooks , art journals by Pam Garrison and Besottement, a pretty outdoor scene under trees and also a pink rose. Then I spent some time making my own little labels that I can glue onto journal pages. I just drew them with a ballpoint pen added color with colored pencils and then cut them out of the paper {a thinner paper not watercolor paper so that they glue easily onto other pages}. It was fun and relaxing just doodling and coloring them in.

Up close shot of the labels also some pink roses that I drew and cut out to add in to journals as well. And then I keep them all in a little pottery dish on my desk ready when I need them.



Dreamboard

I'm starting a dreamboard journal inspired by Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dreamboards. The focus for my first one is the wish to sell my handpainted home accessories at craft festivals and galleries and to turn it into a business. So I have pictures of craft booth set ups , the name of a gallery, other artwork that inspires me, and words like 'an opportunity to bloom, creativity,  renewal and 'inspiring you to be true to yourself' , so I hope that somehow I can bring these things into my life.

Some of My Latest Sketchbook Pages

 

Summer Manifesto

This is my Summer Manifesto list from Ali Edwards inspirational post on coming up with goals and ideas for the summer. So I wrote mine in my art journal, the list includes:

• Nature Sketching
• Read Novels
• Taking an online Art Journaling Class with Kelly Kilmer
• Picnics and barbeques at the park
• Wish Studios Summer Blog Reading
• Take a lot of Pictures
• The Postcard Project/Love Notes
• Eat a lot of Fresh Fruit Salads
• Take walks when it's not too hot
• and most of all to RELAX

                                       

Fun things to do this summer

This is a photo of my afternoon doing watercolor sketching on the patio. The weather has been so nice for it, but I don't think it will last so I'm glad I took advantage of the good weather.

                                                        FUN SUMMER IDEAS
I found some great ideas for this summer on different blogs like Wish Studio's The Great Summer Blog Read '12 which I think is a really great idea because when I'm looking at blogs I rush through and only look at the photos always wishing that I would just slow down and take the time to read what people are taking the time to write about on their blogs.
Another fun thing is The Postcard Project-love notes from the blog giggling in the rain.
On ihanna's blog she had a post about creating a Summer Manifesto in her art journal of the things she wants to do this summer which I think sounds like a fun idea.

I'm also going to do a lot of reading so I signed up for the summer reading program at my local library.
So I have definitely found some fun things to keep me busy this summer and I hope these links have given some inspiration to you to.






I

Take time for simple joys

My desk with watercolors,sketchbooks,and favorite mug for tea

                Some of the books I'm going to start reading. Some for the second or third time.

Sometimes I go through times (usually in the summer when it's hot) where I need to simplify. I start feeling overwhelmed by the projects I want to do and too many things I'm trying up with. I can feel that happening now,so I think I will focus on just a few of the simple things I really love, like drawing and painting in sketchbooks, reading novels and armchair travel instead of lots of self-help books ,drink large cups of tea and walk in nature to relax, plus water and take care of the flowers on the patio. I also want to listen to more music and keep up on my pinterest boards which I love for inspiration. Hopefully this will help keep me in balance and then soon I can do more projects and art journaling. FOR NOW SIMPLICITY IS WHAT I WANT.

art and discipline

I've been doing some sketching and art journaling lately, but  for me something I've always had a hard time with is staying with each project until the end. I love starting new projects and ideas but it's taken a lot of discipline to learn how to stay with each project until it's finished, which is so rewarding. It's  something that I constantly need to work at though.

A nice nap on Sunday while it rained

More Sketching

These are the covers of two of my sketchbooks and I just recently made a much larger one too, even though I'm still filling up the small sketch book, I like to have the different options...

The inside... an ink drawing with colored pencil of my illustrated discovery journal, watercolors of pansies, and my calligraphy tools. The one below is a watercolor of a favorite Victoria magazine.

Sketchbooks and Roses

A couple of my current sketchbooks with some pencil drawings and calligraphy alphabet

 

A pretty rose at a nearby Rose Garden. Love,love,love roses.

This week's journaling

These are the beginning stages of some art journal pages in progress,this one has an art postcard taped into the binding between pages. I used some watercolor pencils for the background color on the left.

This one just has some paper bits added so far with decorative tape and a flower embellishment.

This is my small sketchbook with ballpoint pen drawings and colored pencil.

My Art Cabinet

I recently reorganized my art cabinet so that I could put in the new art journaling supplies that i have been buying lately. I like to keep it kind of simple, not too cluttered.

I have small decorative boxes for little things, an old drawer that I use for alphabet stickers,decorative tape, labels, and ink pads. Room for current Art Journals  and scrapbook paper. Small garden pots that hold pens and Watercolor pencils and more room in the drawers for things I don't use as often.

Also a little vase of Pansies for inspiration.

Strathmore Online Art Class

At the beginning of March I started the free online Strathmore art class -watercolor sketching with Cathy Johnson, one of my favorites. There have been lots of wonderful tips and techniques that I had never tried. It's been a lot of fun and I still have 2 more weeks to go.