Summer Countryside

 

Hello everyone, it's Alison here (a.k.a. butterfly) from Words and Pictures, and I'm excited and honoured to be hosting the July challenge here at Art Journal Journey.  Thank you so much for having me.

It's my first time hosting here, and I'm looking forward to it so much, as well as the chance to revive my much-neglected blog, and - best of all - the chance to reconnect with so many of you, whose wonderful work I've been missing through all these months.  I've been busy relocating to a new country, the Czech Republic, and everything has been stuck in boxes for much longer than I'd hoped... I'm only just swinging back into action, just in time for this lovely "job" at AJJ.

Lots of you already know that my creative work background lies in the world of theatre, working with words and especially Shakespeare's language.  The "pictures" in Words and Pictures - the world of mixed media and watercolour painting which has become so vital to me - put in a fairly late appearance in my life, though I have now been playing (obsessively) with inks and paints and pastes and papers for nearly a decade.  And it's very clear, after six months without my full hoard of craft supplies, that I'm a better human being when I'm able to be playful and creative visually as well as verbally!

The theme I'm offering up for July is Summer Countryside, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you all translate that through your creative imaginations, using all your favourite colours, mediums and materials, in your art journals.  It will come as no surprise to those that know me that my first page for this month features wildflowers growing in the summer countryside (and I'm tapping into last month's theme with all these butterflies too!).

 

The background has some simple washes and splatters of Distress Ink over gesso and torn strips of washi tape text.  Then I layered up the wildflower stamping in various colours of Archival ink, before adding some lovely butterfly stickers, fluttering around the place with their wings furled up for added dimension.  I'm delighted that my new Summer Edition collection of quotes for PaperArtsy fits the mood perfectly... this quote by Sir John Lubbock captures exactly how I feel about a summer's afternoon spent in nature.

I hope you'll enjoy spending some time in the Summer Countryside with me this month, and I can't wait to see the artwork the theme inspires you to create.  Happy summertime crafting, all!

Alison xx

www.alisonbomber.co.uk

www.alisonbomber.blogspot.com

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