i set up an outdoor studio table in the shade today. played in the travel journal. only finished 1 page though because mostly i was busy watching the hummers buzz & zip through the patio, trees, and a few inches from my head. they're pranksters those birdies.
about the travel journal. you know how it is. some pages you dig others you want to rip out. i'm putting them all out here in chronological order for the most part. the good the bad and the ugly. please don't rush to reassure me that none are ugly. not necessary. i'm not fishing for compliments. just letting you know that i am not madly in love with every page! and that is okay because in 20 years when i pick up this book i'm going to love the entire thing. every last mark. every last word.
i went to amsterdam and this is what i came home with.
tomorrow when the working stiffs of the world hit the road to the office i'm going back outside with my coffee and paint brushes. it's important that i say that as much as possible before reporting for duty in early january. in an upcoming post i'll write a bit more about my decision to return to work and what the future holds. but for right now…it's sunday night and i don't have any place i have to be in the morning. except outside watching the hummers argue over who's going first at the feeder.
I love reading about your travel adventures and am glad you are brave enough to share them all with us. I think it’s just beautiful.
I don’t know which pages you’re not thrilled with…all look quirky, fun-filled, happy, uniquely YOU! I had to say that even if you aren’t fishing for compliments. So there! I’d love to travel to Amersterdam, you’ve made it sound and look so quaint…have to let you know that the Dutch cookies you love…you can get them at Trader Joe’s and World Market/Cost Plus stores. At Trader’s they are kept above the ice cream open freezer.
I’ll be very interested to hear about your decision to return to school and what the future holds for you. Are you plannig more trips or just staying at the home port until work resumes?
I have loved watching suck every moment of joy from your time away from work. It will have been a year very well lived.
Your journals never cease to inspire me. I have such a desire to journal but that blank page psychs me out most of the time. I’m really hoping to turn that around.
Ha ha, now we all know you snuck out after dark to explore in your pj’s and without a bra, clevely disguised by your black overcoat and boots! I am so not surprised!! 🙂 Love, love, love seeing your sketches (which are completely wonderful)(not a compliment, just stating the facts, ma’am!) and reading about your adventures, as always – thank you so much for sharing.
my face is wearing the biggest smile. thank you for sharing, living, and bringing such joy to the world. your colorful garden and travel journal is most inspiring:)
Enjoyed seeing your journal. Love all the color. Does the Frans Hals picture look a little like your sweet sister with the big eyes and upturned nose?
What a wonderful trip you took us on, MaryAnn! It brought back so many lovely memories of Amsterdam trips. It’s one of those places that one wants to return to after visiting, so thanks for taking me along. And now transported to your patio, which is to die for! Your artistic talents just keep giving me peeps in so many ways, making me happy each morning just to hop on to your blog. 🙂
Did I miss your tales of the Rijks Museum? I’ve wanted to see it for a long time. Thanks for doing for us.
love the cat page! And Vermeer… Looking forward to hearing some more about your going back to work thoughts.
Oh what a wonderful journallll( i just sang that to you using the op ening of “Oklahoma” as the music…:) What fun to chk out the pages of your journal and recognize all the places( and characters…cats) you encountered! I truely feel as if I’ve been on a Dutch vaca! I’m all smiles! Thanks.
If I could draw/paint Franz Hals as well as you, I’d be downright tickled pink! I do think you have a particular gift for facial characterization. I love the bold use of paint with the postcards and more traditional MAM-style in this book. It’s making me think I need to do some rethinking of my France journal. On account of being just a mite staid. You raise the bar as per normal.
Finally, the journal. aaahhh. Worth the wait. Beautiful photo of your outdoor studio, too. What a lovely place to immerse yourself in journaling and art. I think I should be in CA instead of PA!
Love these journals!!! Your drawings are so good! How did you develop the patience to draw like that?
of course, LOVE your pages, and your haven too, but your photos of both are particularly beautiful!!! xxoo
Can I first say….that your outdoor space if MAGNIFICENT!!! I would LOVE to have an area like that…..AND…..your sketchbook/journal is also MAGNIFICENT!! I just love your blog….I feel like we are art buddies….
I was probably daydreaming the day you told us what you do about photos you take, but humor me and tell me: Do you print them at all? And put them into your scrapbooks? Or a separate book?
You are so lucky to have the opportunity to travel and record what you’re seeing. When you’re old and gray, like me, you will be able to remember the setting, the sounds, the smells and everything else that brought you to that place. Thank you for taking me on your travels.
GASP(!!)at the first photo! Wow! And it’s your yard! Shut uuuuuuuppp!!
Oh, and I totally know what you mean. I love my work, but I hate it when my job, like, cuts into my day. Don’t you? Really gets on my nerves.
Loving your pages, thanks for taking me on the trip with you. What fun. Sorry you are going to be a working stiff in January , at least you know when the day comes you will do retirement well. Until then HAVE FUN
People who scrapbook face the same kinds of dilemmas that you discuss. And there is the temptation to “re-do” pages we find less than perfect. Maybe it’s important to resist that urge because the scrapbook (or journal) helps illustrate your progress as an artist or writer/artist. Even if you don’t like the way a page turned out, you always learn things about your craft/art and your ability to transfer your ideas from your brain to the page. And as you said, in time you will be less inclined to see flaws and more likely to remember the moments that the page preserves.
These things are important for us to ponder and discuss. Thanks for including your thoughts and dilemmas regarding your work. It will encourage the rest of us who follow your blog/work to have the discussion with you and each other.
Delightful, as always.
love love the idea of adding Dutch masters in between your pages….have you seen the FB photo of the woman re-creating a pose? let me know if you are interested….its mighty funny
your choices of color, too, are wonderful and now that I see your beautiful patio, wowo! now you need to get your journal pages onto your shirts! punches of delightful color….
Holly
Oh MAM =) some of your pages are really beaytiful, but you know, as you say, others are charmingly lovely, and todays about the cats you met, hits MY heart with a bang. You allways meet cats =), and sheep, and old sweet persons. Just go on doing what you do best, take us on more trips, ´cos we love it.
Liv
Oh to live in southern Cal and have a patio of loveliness. Dreaming of it from gray Seattle.
if i could draw like you, i would never, ever do anything else!
as I heard once from a rather wise and gentle woman of some fair amount of ‘bound’ and ‘journaling’ wisdom…’fo get A bout it’ I’m soakin in all the color and the good, bad and ugly cuz I kinda like thinkin that I am not alone when I do a page and then wonder what in the hell I was thinkin but I leave it be and move on to the next page. If I really, really hate a page I just go over it but then none of my journals held the details of a much loved adventure to some far off and magical place and if I did have such a journal I’d want to remember it just as it was, even the day I mucked up whatever page I just couldn’t make go my way and then that would remind of something else that happened that day…so I totally agree with ya, your journal will be much loved and treasured in all it’s glory, don’t mistake this with a compliment, I’m just callin’ it as I see it. Can come over and borrow your sweet, little back yard? I LOVE it so much. I don’t know how you ever manage to NOT be back there all the time. I think I’d have to be crow barred out, that or the call of something wonderful on the stove or maybe a nice and enticing beverage or 2. 😉
I don’t think it’s going to take twenty years . I predict those pages are going to grow on you faster than that. Wow, love this. Especially all the kitten cats you see and saw. See Saw:) lovely lovely book. And your view in that patio is amazing! I’d fly in there too if I was a wee bird.
NOT reassurance, by any means: I love those cats, and the portrait guy with the bulbous nose. And the whole package is coherent, lively, fearless, and a departure from your earlier work. I’m sure you’ll love every page before another month is out. And of course, your outdoor space is the ultimate. Thank you for showing both of them.
I am so in love with your back yard! Question: when you travel, are you sketching ‘on site’, or taking pictures then sketching from the pictures? If it’s the latter, how are you viewing them to reference?
Thank you for sharing your Amsterdam travel journal…it is YOUR perfect visual reminder of a wonderful journey. I am, (as always), inspired by how you approach and carry out your dreams. I love being transported by your words, pictures and most of all your artwork. Enjoy your Monday in your “happy spot” doing whatever you want!
I am in love with your sketching! Even though you are planning to return to the classroom in January, is there any chance you might consider a sketching class in the future? Oh, pretty please!
You are one Prolific and Wonderous Unit.