My Journal

I wasn't able to really "get into it", my journalling, as I was running a trip!

collage entitled Fault Line
We were in Umbria about 3 days after the big earthquake of Amatrice and area
My collage was also inspired by the contemporary work of artist Danilo Fiorucci I saw at Flash Art gallery while in Trevi.

But here in Verona I have gone back and added colour to some of the sketches,

I do remember the blue blue cloudless sky
while sketching the negative space
 the oldest olive tree in Umbria, 1700 years old.

....although I know it isn't the same.

I sat on the grass at the bottom of the small hill
and sketched the hammock I saw every day as I walked on the way to the pool.

Sitting in front of something and sketching it is better for the brain. You remember the place well when you go back and see the sketch.

I had already washed this page with green not knowing what it would become
but the wash was perfect for what I sketched-
the olive tree trunks.

For example, in one sketch I saw 3 shapes that reminded me of the cypress trees that are usually planted around the cemeteries. I automatically painted them green but then I remembered I had drawn three arches inside a wall! Had I been painting right in front of the scenery this wouldn't have happened.

I worked on a weaving inspired by our afternoon where we learned about silk making during medieval times.

The weavers often macrame their ends.

I worked on a collage.

I collaged over the yellow cover of the journal.
When I get back to my Toronto studio,
I will make a book wrap
using the colour palette of the Umbrian landscape.
There is everything in this collage:
the stone walls, the olive trees, the religious figures,
the vineyards, the entrance to the city, the medieval palazzi
(I am going to unstick that archway...it bothers me!..maybe it is the white beside it)

heard from the other travellers that are still in Italy exploring on their own that they continue to sketch!

Burlap bags on the floor of the paper making bottega.
They are filled with rags which were turned into pulp for paper making.
I stitched the side of the page like the edges of the bags were sewn.

 I am so happy about that.

We had to sew something into our book.
I sewed a hand-made paper, made using medieval tools
and washed with a local red wine.

I worked it so the red thread encircled the sketch
 of a dead moth I found on the terrace.

It means they liked their sketching experience in Umbria.

(images of some of the pages of my Umbria journal, summer 2016)