Daily Art Practice: Visual Painting Journal – Newest Pages

I started doing a daily painting in my visual journal on January 1st and believe it or not, I’ve stuck with it. I got a little behind over the past couple of weeks, but I’ve been slowly doubling down on my daily paintings and I’m almost caught up. I did my first post about this project on January 25 and then an update on March 27. In both of my previous posts, I shared a selection of daily paintings from my journals (I’m on journal number 3). I figured it was time I did another update and share more paintings. Going through the pages of my journals, I am reminded why I’m incorporating this practice into my daily schedule: 1) It gets me into the studio, and 2) I’m experimenting with composition, colors, and ideas. All very good things.

100th Painting!
April 10, 2019
Dayna J. Collins

Daily Art Practice: Visual Painting Journal

I decided to shake things up a bit when I hung my 2019 calendar, thinking I would paint a quick abstract each day in my visual journal. Who knows how long I will maintain this practice, but so far, so good, and today is January 25th.

I’ve learned a couple of things along the way. First, it is fun to paint quickly, loose, and free, for no reason other than the joy of painting. And second, as a result of painting quick, loose, and free, I have several ideas for bigger paintings!

My acrylic painting station in my studio. Photo taken the morning of January 25.

No need to share every daily painting, but here’s a random selection.

My journal is 9×9 inches, mixed media paper, and spiral bound so it lays flat when it is open. I’ve been using Golden acrylics, a black Stabilo pencil, sharp pointy objects for scritching and scratching, Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 Stabilo pencils, a paintbrush, occasional stamps and stencils, a No.2 pencil, and a palette knife.

Palette paper for the week ending January 25.

Tapestry of Resilience: A Visual Journal

We’re back from our six-week plus trip and my blank pages are now plump with found fodder, scrounged materials, a few photos, and lots of writing describing our adventures.

I posted on my personal (and public) Facebook page throughout our trip (Dayna Davidson Collins), so I’m not sharing about any of the trip. What I am sharing are some of the pages from my travel visual journal. In my last blog post, I shared that all of my pages (104 of them) had been pre-gessoed and painted, so all I took in the way of art supplies was a pair of scissors, a jar of matte gel medium, a paintbrush, a brayer, wax paper, and three gel pens – black, white, and red; all my supplies fit in a zip lock baggie.

The daily routine went something like this:

We set out for a day of exploring, hoping to easily find the Tourist Information office so I could gather brochures. Sometimes we weren’t near a TI, so the hunt was on for paper fodder. Art museums were good for brochures, and often their tickets were large and had beautiful art images on them, but there didn’t seem to be as much paper materials as there has been in the past. In a pinch, I bought a bookmark or a couple of post cards so I had images to incorporate onto my pages. Or I picked up bits and pieces of trash or pulled down chunks of posters.

At the end of the day and after dinner, I sat at my makeshift desk or on the bed and cut up images and words to use on my pages. I would make a list of everything we did and saw and began gluing things onto the pages; each day had a two-page spread. I glued, brayered, cleaned up the gluey edges, placed a piece of wax paper over the pages, and weighted them down with whatever was heavy and handy.

In the morning while sipping my cappuccino (which my sweet husband faithfully fetched), I removed the weights and wax paper, grabbed my gel pens, and referring to the list I made the previous day, wrote in and around the images I had glued, recounting what we had done and added details I thought were interesting.

Here are a few photos of me at various points of our trip, working on my pages.

Working at a table in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Sneak attack as I worked at my desk in our Berlin, Germany apartment.

The Pages. As I mentioned, my travel journal has 104 pages, so I’ll share a sampling of my two-page spreads, in no particular order.

When we got home, I had a few blank pages remaining, so I printed off some photos, inserted those on the last pages, then added my completed travel journal to a stack of pages from previous trips.

Eastern Europe: Tapestry of Resilience

104/48/14/8

I created 104 journal pages.

We’re going to be gone for 48 days.

We will be staying in 14 cities.

We will be visiting 8 countries.

We leave on Friday.

MY JOURNAL

South American trip, Southwestern USA trip, current trip (just waiting for an embellishment to grace the cover).

Creating a journal for this trip has been a highlight and a labor of love. I started working on it about four months ago, tearing watercolor paper into 9-1/2 x 11 inch pieces, gessoing the front and backs, and then painting the pages in a variety of colors. By doing this Herculean task in advance, all I need to take on the trip in the way of art supplies is a pair of scissors, a jar of gel medium, a paintbrush, and Uniball pens in red, white, and black. Presto – instant art studio. At the end of each day I will glue in the ephemera I collected, and write little notes and summaries about what we did.

The Trip

We try and take a big trip every two years. Last year would have been our year, but the stars didn’t align for us to be able to plan to get away in the fall. When January of this year rolled around, we started dreaming and scheming and settled on eastern (central) Europe. We worked with a travel agency to help with the planning, and that proved to be a great decision. They worked out all of the details to get us from one place to the next, and gave us limited choices of where we would stay. We’ll have an initiation city tour the first morning of every city where we stay, and then we’re on our own (We’re starting in Dubrovnik, Croatia and working our way north, east, west, and continually north, ending in Berlin). You know we’ve got some good stuff planned – on the beaten track, and definitely off the beaten path. Can you say Sniper Alley? Thank you Atlas Obscura.

The Packing

We’re trying to pack light and compact, each of us taking one medium suitcase and a carry on backpack/messenger bag. For those who know us, packing light isn’t our thing. But probably one of the most important decisions, is what books to take. These are the two main ones I chose (thanks to Joni, who recommended The Art of Fielding).

Getting Out of the House

Howard is busily working late into the night thanks to a one day trial that was supposed to be over last Thursday, but turned into a 4-1/2 day trial and concludes tomorrow. His three days to get work wrapped up and ready for him to leave, dwindled down to just tonight and half of tomorrow. But some of it will ~~all~~ get done.

Tomorrow is my hair day, a three-hour ordeal, plus several more errands . . . and maybe one final trip to our downtown bookstore. Today I met with my friend Jami, who will be house sitting for us and keeping company with our six-toed cat while we are away. So many details to attend to.

Friday morning we will be picked up by Sam and Stewart and escorted to Portland. We’ll treat them to lunch, and they will deposit us at the Portland Airport. And it begins.

Deluxe taxi service from Sam and Stewart in 2015.

NOTE: I won’t be blogging during our trip as I sometimes have in the past, it is just too time consuming. But I will be posting on my Facebook and Instagram pages, so if you’re interested, follow along.

Facebook: Dayna Davidson Collins

Instagram: DaynaLovesArt

Art Retreating on the Metolius River

The Salem Art Group makes an annual pilgrimage to Camp Sherman every summer thanks to the hospitality and generosity of Katy, who invites us to stay at her family cabin, which is located right on the Metolius River on Forest Service land. It is quiet, remote, and there is no cell service or WIFI, making for the perfect art venue.

This year, seven of our 10 members were able to attend, and after sorting out who would sleep where, unpacking our coolers of food, and setting up our art-making spaces, we all settled in for the business and fun of making art, chatting, and eating. Art making happened during the day, late into the night, and early in the morning, necessitating moving around to chase light, avoid heat, or to stay warm. It was all part of the art dance.

The food. We ate really well thanks to creative cooks and eating the bounty of summer. One evening, Susan prepared a beautiful dinner for everyone, one morning Jessica made pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup. I brought along a little container of cold brew.

The art. We all worked on individual projects throughout the week. A couple of people stitched, a few painted, all but two of us sketched pretty much all of the time. I didn’t sketch, but I did get sketched!

My art project for this year was to work on four Salvage Collage pieces for an upcoming show at RiverSea Gallery in Astoria. I lugged bins of book scraps, a box of book covers, and dozens of covers from pulp fiction novels. I set my space up on the deck, under cover, with a view of the Metolius River.

Every year, Bonnie makes little blank journals for us and during the time we are together, we each work on our individual journals, usually in the evening and after we have moved inside. From a blank book to crammed pages!

Some of us used bits and pieces from a central collage pile to create books. For me, I used pieces of discarded books I was working with during my week. Here are my pages:

Several of us went for a hike every day, with Katy leading us in all different directions.

It was a great week and I returned rested and reinvigorated, and already looking forward to next summer.

Beach Retreat

Twice a year my Salem Art Group goes on an art retreat, one in the mountains along the Metolius River and the other at the Oregon Coast. For October, we were off to Cutler City to stay at a friend’s beach house, which is perched on a small hill with a view of the Siletz Bay. I rode with Tory, and if you’ve followed by blog for any length of time, the photo of my stuff lined up on my patio is familiar.

Six of our eight art group members were able to make our beach retreat.

Starting at the left and around the horn: Katy, Tory, Bonnie, Dayna, Susan, Nancy

In a nutshell, we spent three full days making art. Of course, there were walks, lattes, chatting, a movie on the life of Eva Hesse, reading, laughing, and a bit of sleeping.

New oil and cold wax work by Dayna J. Collins

In our spare time, we all made a little journal.

Visual Journal by Dayna J. Collins. Created using posters torn off of European walls and layered with family photos.

And then it was time to load up and head home.

Art Camp in the Woods

I recently went with four members of my Salem Art Group to make art in the woods. This is my kind of camping. The cabin belongs to the family of Katy, one of our members, and is located along the Metolius River in Camp Sherman, which is located in Central Oregon. This is an annual trip, where we do five basic things: eat, art, read, walk, and laugh. Repeat.

We arrived on Sunday and got set up to make art outside under the trees. My goal was to get layers of oil and cold wax onto boards in preparation for an upcoming show. Mission accomplished.

In the evenings (and the mornings, and sometimes in the afternoon), we all created little art journals, which Bonnie had made for us. One night we even worked outside by candlelight.

There was lots of creative food preparation and dining on the deck.

There were a couple of wildflower walks.

There was lots of sketching.

And lots of outdoor painting.

Here are the pages of my completed journal, which I titled By the River: A Make Do Journal. My title reflects that I had no art journaling supplies along with me, so the pages were created using what I could forage either from outside, the junk drawer at the cabin, or from my fellow artists who planned ahead much better than I did. It was fun having to make do.

What a restful, peaceful, energizing four days.

The Artist’s Journey: An Online Class

I recently finished a four-week online class with California abstract artist Nancy Hillis. I don’t find many classes I want to take anymore, but something about this one caught my attention. The official title of the class was The Artist’s Journey: 3 Secrets of the Masters to Transform Your Painting. I was also attracted to this class because I love Nancy’s style of non-representational abstract paintings.

The class was four weeks with five modules. During the month long class, we watched video demonstrations, read written course material, worked through workbooks, and interacted with other participating artists in a private Facebook group. We even had the opportunity for a one-on-one telephone consultation with Nancy. Each week we were given a painting challenge to put the lessons into practice.

I won’t give away the class in detail, but I’ll share a bit of what we learned. Our modules covered everything from why we create art, to the importance of committing to a daily studio practice. Nancy covered a variety of topics, such as trusting yourself, the importance of practice, and allowing yourself to be surprised. She offered lots of lessons addressing various techniques, i.e., activating the canvas (making marks), to veiling and experimenting with flux (creating layers). The module on composition was invaluable, filled with game changing pointers. Module 4 covered value and how to use value to make strong and powerful paintings. The final module was a refresher of everything we covered and how to move forward. Wow. This class was worth the investment of money and time.

Photos. How do I choose which photos to share. Rather than break my post down into weekly bites, I’ll just share a sampling of photos taken throughout the past month.

About two weeks into the class, it was time for Art After Dark, the monthly Open Studios event at my downtown studio. I decided to share what I had been working on rather than display finished art like I usually do.

Palettes. I ended up with so many great pieces of paper that I used as my palette, that I saved a bunch of them!

Time to hang up my gloves? No, I’m more inspired and motivated than ever.

I’m Home After an Awesome Trip

I’m home after travelling 16,293 miles over six weeks. I visited seven countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina). We cruised for a month, then spent a week in a San Telmo apartment in Buenos Aires, where we met up with our oldest daughter, Melissa. Gratefully, she spoke fluent Spanish (and danced a mean tango). We crossed the equator for the first time, and rounded Cape Horn during hurricane force winds. I read five books, three of which I gave five stars (Orphan #8, The Invention of Wings, and All the Light We Cannot See – because I know you were wondering which ones received five stars). At various times, my husband was told he looked like Nick Nolte (hopefully not his mug shot photo!), Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd), Richard Gere, and a new one, Jeff Bridges! I collected rosaries throughout South America and I journalled our trip onto pre-painted and aged pages, so when I got home, it was pretty much complete. I took so many photos and posted them on my personal FB page throughout the trip (Dayna Davidson Collins), so for now I’ll post just a few from Buenos Aires, where we concluded our trip.

I’m Headed to the End of the World and Around the Horn

I’m headed out in about two hours for a trip that Howard and I have been planning for the past three years. We had hoped to take a big trip last fall, but we had too many other things going on so we had to veer away from our every-two-year travel plan. In the past, I’ve blogged about our month-long trips, spending many hours editing photos, writing text, and then publishing as we made our way through a country. My dear, patient husband would sit nearby as I connected to weak internet signals in little Internet cafes back before WiFi was as plentiful. One of our early trips was to Italy in 2008, where we rented a car and explored for a month. A link to those posts is here: Arrivederci! Then to France in 2010, where we rented a car and drove all over the country. Here’s a link to that trip: Viva La France. I blogged about our cruise in 2012 when we went to Italy, Greece, Croatia, and a bunch of other cool countries. Here’s a link to that one: A Grand Adventure.

We are off this time for another cruise, this time we’re heading south. However, I’ve decided not to blog during the trip (well, I might sneak in a post or two or three at the most, or I might not). I’ll be posting regular updates on Facebook (Dayna Davidson Collins) and occasionally on Instagram (daynalovesart). Unbelievably, several friends have said to post lots of photos, although I hope to show some restraint in what and how many photos I post.

So, where the heck are we going? We are flying to San Diego early tomorrow morning, then on Wednesday afternoon, we’ll board the Holland America cruise ship, Zaandam, and head south. We’ll be making three stops in Mexico, I’ll be spending my birthday in Antigua, Guatemala, then on to Ecuador, a couple of stops in Peru, five stops in Chile, a visit to the Falkland Islands, a stop in Uruguay, and finally ending up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We’ll truly be at the end of the world and just across from Antarctica as we round Cape Horn and go through Glacier Alley.

This ambitious itinerary means we have to pack for tropical equator weather and then prepare for cold, windy, penguin viewing weather. The cruise is 32 nights, then we’ve rented an apartment in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where our oldest daughter, Melissa, will be joining us for a week. Melissa speaks fluent Spanish and is a tango dancer, so it should be an adventuresome week and I have a feeling she will keep us out late and way past our bedtime.

Preparing to be gone for six weeks has taken a lot of energy, time, and planning. The house sitters have been arranged……

… my hair has been colored . . . .

. . . . the plants have been corralled . . .

. . . . hiking boots have been packed . . . .

. . . . winter hats purchased . . . .

. . . . a variety of reading material tucked into our luggage . . . .

. . . and, of course, art supplies and pre-painted and prepared art journal pages lovingly placed in my backpack.