Artjournaling from the heart

Phew, I'm back. January is almost finished, 2014 sure started off in a flash :-)

After 3 weeks on the road, I'm happy to have decent internet again.

And guess where I was last weekend ....?

Ooh, just looking at the picture makes me long to be there again..... I was in beautiful Jervis Bay, where the lovely Tracy Verdugo had organised a weekend artjournaling workshop with Orly Avineri.

I've been admiring Orly's raw emotional journaling since I discovered her book through one of the blogs I was following. It was something I longed to do myself, but had no clue how to. I've been keeping journals for years, but that's more to try out new ideas, to sketch or to make drawings for new paintings. Whenever I tried collage or something I ended up trying to make it "pretty", and got really frustrated in the process.

I was hoping to learn how to let go of that perfectionism, how to make my artjournal an outlet for what's inside me, how to use collage in a way that complements this.

I got all that and so much more out of this workshop. This wasn't really a workshop, it was an experience. And Orly has such a beautiful way of explaining everything.

Two days long we splattered paint and tea around, glued little pieces of paper that were lovingly "pre-treated" by Orly in a very unique way, made self-portraits in lots of different ways, got a lot of great tips about the use of certain materials and generally had loads of fun.

This is the first spread that I finished. Up until now I did't really like using the 2 pages, but now it really makes sense and for this journal I wouldn't want it any differently.

This is a detail of the second spread. When it was nearing the end the words of a song from Stash (a Belgian band) kept popping up in my head, so I wrote them down, although I kept most of the lyrics unreadable ....

I discovered this little figure in the pieces of collage I had there. It symbolised for me the light and the hope, even in times of great sadness.

And now I'm hooked. In the evenings I couldn't stop adding more bits and pieces and penwork. The last days were pretty frustrating because "normal life" got in the way of my yearning to paint and to play. And it'll stay like that for a few more days I'm afraid, with the new schoolyear starting next week, and a pile of administration to work through.

I'm so happy I had the chance to do this workshop. Thank you Orly for everything you taught us in such a gentle way, and thanks Tracy for bringing Orly to Australia and giving us the chance to experience this!

I'm linking this for the first time this year to Paint Party Friday. Looking forward to seeing what my favorite artists have been up to in the last weeks :-)

Wishing you all a wonderful relaxing weekend full of joy! Thanks for visiting ♥ ♥ ♥