My First Blog Post

Hi, I'm Neena. I have been art journaling for a number of years, although I didn't know it was called that until a few years ago. My introverted self used writing, pasting, and a bit of doodling in a notebook as a way to find a bit of solitude. Since I discovered art blogs and videos, my journals have become more arty. I am actually starting to think of myself as an artist. Others may not be that generous, but I don't care. I am having fun and plan to have even more. One of my goals for using this great thing called retirement is to improve my art skills.

I work in several journals. The one I work in most often is my daily journal. I do something in it nearly every day. In the past, it was only for a few minutes on most days. Once I retired, I found myself spending more time working in it.

I use the left page of my daily journal spreads for making notes about techniques and supplies used as well as documenting what's happening in my life. For privacy reasons, I'll only be photographing the arty right sides of my daily journal spreads to share on the blog.

I've been experimenting with abstract art while learning more about using acrylic paints. On the page below, I used glazes to build up the colors of the geometric shapes. The black lines were made with pastel pencil. I did this back in March, including some journaling about winter.

The piece was definitely not finished, but I couldn't decide what to add. Recently I was flipping back through this almost finished journal to find pages that need a bit more work. Adding stenciled and stamped designs popped into my head as soon as I saw the page.

Two things that ended up creating the focal point were due to messes that had to be rescued. The circles on the diagonal strip started out as a stamped image, but something pasted on the next spread kept it from printing cleanly. I colored in the circles and then added some marks with acrylic markers. Just below that you see a black stenciled area over some pink. When I was painting, I dripped a blob of another color on the pink. I grabbed a baby wipe to remove it. It took some of the glaze as well, leaving the lighter pink area. That area really pops under the black design. Sometimes messing up is a good thing.

Supplies used: acrylic paints, Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid (Satin), black pastel pencil, black Pitt Artist Pen, stencils, stamps, acrylic markers, colored pencils

A friend says this is not bad for a first post. I hope you think so, too, and will visit again.