Invitation 5: Your Visual Journal

This week's art invitation is to start a visual journal. To create a safe place to open your heart, explore your inner world and express your self through colour, imagery and texture. You can add words, poems and quotes to your pages. You can add fabric or photographs. It's also a great way to get to know the seasons.

Step 1:

Gather natural materials from your garden or a nearby natural area (seed pods, leaves, birch bark, wood fibre, leaf skeletons, flowers etc...)

Please be mindful about where you gather and consider offering thanks to the Earth for these gifts.

Gather your art supplies

Here's what you'll need:

A blank journal

(I like Canson Mixed Media Sketchbooks but any journal with thick blank paper will do)

Some paints (I use watercolour and acrylics)

A collection of pens (I use a black pen, sharpies and white gel pens)

Clear glue or acrylic gel medium to attach things

Step 2:

Set aside a few hours to work on your journal pages.

Lay out your materials.

You may want to create a complete page layout or just start by choosing one item that lights you up. Maybe it's a seed pod that will create a unique print on the page or a piece of wood fibre that you attach and then paint. Do what feels right to you.

Consider attaching and painting: birch bark, poplar fibre, and leaf skeletons.

Consider making marks with: poppy seed pods, poplar bark, lovage stems and wood slices. Just dip them in acrylic paint and stamp away.

Consider adding poems: Some of my favourite poets are Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rumi. A quick google search will provide a flood of poems and inspiration.

Step 3:

Repeat this process often. Once a week, once a month, once a season.