In the Secret Garden
In the Secret Garden
Art journaling challenge - Page 9
I like to think of my art journal as a “secret garden”, a safe and intimate refuge where I can play like a kid, a magical world out of ordinary time and space where my soul can bloom!
This is almost the last page of my Art Journaling Challenge (just one more to go!) and because I don’t do them in order, this is also the very last page in my journal! Wow, what a journey…
You’ll find links to all the previous pages of this challenge below. Scroll down to join me in the garden!
The Art Journaling Challenge:
I’ve decided to finish my current art journal by the end of the year so I can start a brand new one on January 1st! I’m sharing the pages each week and you’re invited to follow along. You can even set your own goal to end the year in a creative way!
And to celebrate, I will reopen enrollment for my art journaling class, The Artist & the Journal, in the first week of January!
Here is the starting point of this page, you can watch me create it on video in this post. It has just a few pieces of collage, and touches of paint and ink, but it already looks like a half-finished page and the reason is simple: I used a print of one of my paintings, tore it into pieces and rearranged them on the page! I also added a few other paper scraps (napkin, wrapping paper, magazines…).
The print is from my Secret Garden painting, the biggest I ever did (120x120 cm / 47”x47”) and it is so lovely to have a smaller version of it in my journal, especially since the original is being exhibited at the moment. Here is the actual painting, it felt huge in my former studio! (and by the way, it is available for sale so don’t hesitate to email me for details).
“The world beyond the hidden garden vanished from her awareness. There was only this place, this patch of Eden, sunny and quiet and blazing with unearthly color.”
The process here is different from many of my other pages, because it’s not about welcoming the unexpected with no idea in mind, nor is it about letting a story unfold. Here, I am simply creating a “place”, a garden. I am playing with light and color just for the fun of it, and it feels so good! I am also building upon something that already exists, retracing some of my steps from when I created the painting, and bringing it together, simply and harmoniously.
I started by adding some yellows, greens and blues over the collage to brighten things up, scribbling here and there with water-soluble crayons and activating them with gel medium and my fingers.
Then it was time to add more light. The big wisteria in the middle didn’t feel right so I pushed it back with some white gesso. I still didn’t like it and decided to get rid of it, to really open the top of the page and let it breathe. I covered it up completely but then, since the image was a printed napkin, air bubbles and wrinkles appeared, which was an opportunity to have some fun!
I peeled the image off little by little and it created a distressed area where some of the white page shone through. I loved the effect! Just what I needed to make this garden perfectly imperfect (like any secret garden should be!)
““Don’t let us make it tidy,” said Mary anxiously. “It wouldn’t seem like a secret garden if it was tidy.””
Now the flowers had much more space to breathe and bloom. I kept adding more light and color with inks, collage and paint…
Right at the very end, I journaled a little bit to start expressing gratitude for all the joy this journal has given me. There will be a final page completely dedicated to gratitude, but you really can’t get too much of it, can you?
Joy, gratitude and a sense of flow are the feelings that the journey of this page has filled me with. Here is how it evolved from my starting point to the finished page:
I have loved creating this page, it unfolded with so much ease and grace. I have one last page to create, but I already know that once my journal is complete, every time I flip through it I will end up in this beautiful garden!
And here is a secret for you… I love this process so much that a “Secret Garden” online class might be in the works for next year… I’ve wanted to create it for several years, and many of you have requested it, so it’s time to make it bloom!
Join my creative community and put your name on the waiting list to be first to know when I release it:
I hope this inspires you and I would love to see the pages you create! (you can post images below in the comments). Stay tuned for the last page of my journal coming up in a few days!
Light & love,
LET’S ART JOURNAL TOGETHER!
The practice of Art Journaling has had such an amazing, positive impact on my life as an artist. It has made me grow in new and unexpected ways, and I’m excited to share it with you in The Artist & the Journal!