July Journaling

Painting outdoors has been a challenge, because of the extremely hot weather. On July 2^nd, we met at the Art House. Students could either paint indoors, where I had still lives set up, or in the garden. The Chicago Fire day lilies were blooming by the sitting area, where Sue sat next to the small Japanese Maple tree.

July 9^th, we found a lovely place to paint in the Memorial Garden at the Historic Village in Vicksburg. We sat under some beautiful old trees, which provided shade all morning.

The first rule for painting outdoors is to find a comfortable place to sit, and then to find a subject to paint.

I gave a lesson on how to draw the gazebo, and how to compose the page in a pleasing way. Everyone found an intriguing subject, whether it was the gazebo, or something else that caught their eye. After Emma painted a scene of the garden, she finished a journal entry that she began while on vacation. She is using a small moleskin watercolor book, which is a great size to keep with you all the time.

One of the challenges to working in a journal, is that you must consider the placement of the "ditch" of the book, so that it does not disrupt the composition.

The next journaling class (July 26^th) will meet the same place, so that we can finish the paintings we began. Check back in a few weeks to see more of our paintings!

June Journaling Outings

Each summer, I take students on mini-outings to sketch in their journals. The classes meet for three hours, either on a Monday or Thursday morning. The students work in watercolor, ink, graphite, or colored pencil. I always do a short demonstration, and then everyone has a few hours to work in their own journals. The journals are like diaries with images. Sometimes the sketches turn out great, while at other times, all that we can say is that we had a good time and learned more about the spirit of the place.
　
Our first class met at Apple Knockers in Vicksburg. Our theme for the summer is "Gardens". Almost all of the nearby gardens seemed to be resting after a burst of colorful peonies and irises, but I found this little oasis right in the village of Vicksburg. Apple Knockers has lovely planters and beds, and also a patio on the east side of the building where we could sit and sketch.

This is my painting kit. I hand-bound my own journal, and use a Winsor Newton Field box. I sewed the rest of the kit together, so that I can pull my supplies out of my handbag at a moment's notice, and be ready to paint.

Afterwards, we had a nice meal on the patio. Unfortunately, I didn’t save room for ice cream.
　
Our next outing was to Rawson’s King Mill in Leonidas. Dave often works in black and white, but is slowly rediscovering color in his smaller sketches. He thought he might need yellow paint, but he managed quite nicely with his limited palette.

Dark clouds loomed overhead all morning, but it didn’t rain until we were on our way back to Vicksburg. The park is a wonderful place to paint.

The roses were beautiful, and the sound of the waterfall was so refreshing.

Sharon enjoyed the roses, but everyone who painted them agreed that they were difficult to paint.

 A tiny spider built a web on me, and a friendly cat took a nap under the roses while we worked.

We had so much fun, and I did not see a single mosquito!