sketchbook journals - update

The 3 sketches below were created as visceral reactions to the events of August 12th, going to The Huntington and artist Linda Miller in that order.

At the end of August 12th, I was drained emotionally from the events in Virginia but I wanted to at least work on one of my sketchbook journals for a few minutes. I have been spending most of that day creating gelli plate prints for collaging. I'll blog about that at another time. This sketch is made in my repurposed magazine sketchbook journal. I started by adding similar magazine pages to the right side to mirror the image on the left side. After reading a few pages from Jane Davies' book "Abstract Painting: The Elements of Visual Language" earlier in the day, I was inspired to mark up  by painting the yellow open squares and small blue squares. I was getting angry and frustrated at what I thought was the lack of cohesion and creativity. I took a large brush and swiped black acrylic paint a few times across the pages. After I stared at what I had done, I realized why I felt this way. This sketch was my way of letting out the emotions from the events in Virginia. I stopped at this point because it was done. I had experienced a moment of art therapy.

Before the events of August 12th happened, I had scheduled earlier in the week to visit The Huntington with a friend on August 13th. The timing was perfect. We spent 2 hours walking around the peaceful gardens. It was a much needed relief. This sketch was made in response to that visit in my small artist made sketchbook journal. I painted using Golden Fluid Acrylic in Green Gold, torn pages from "To Kill A Mockingbird" and a black Sharpie.

Still on the peaceful mood from visiting the Huntington, I created this sketch on August 14th. It was heavily influenced by the brushstroke artwork of Linda Miller. I used Golden Fluid Acrylic in Naphthol Red Light, used tea bag paper and black acrylic paint.

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