Category Archives: Uncategorized

HAPPY NEW YEAR – OR IS IT?

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Hello friends,
I hope 2026 is going well for you. I wish you all the best this year. Unfortunately, for us it has brought more problems and stress.

T’s heart operation was a success, and his heart is functioning better now than it has in years. That’s the good news.

The problems started because we couldn’t get any pain relief for his broken rib. The break was not recorded on the discharge notes from the hospital. We only had paracetamol at home. T didn’t get to see a doctor over the holiday period. I wasted a lot of time, on the phone, trying to get him the help he needed.

T spent most of January in bed, trying not to move because of the pain. This had an effect on his mood  – the mood swings have become much more noticeable and difficult to manage. It has been difficult to get the mental health support he needs. This seems to be a common issue in the UK.

We also had a lot of ‘tech problems’ recently. I knew that our old computers would eventually stop working so we ordered new ones. They arrived around Xmas time. Now I realise that many of the advances in computing are completely unfathomable, and probably unnecessary for us senior citizens. It’s been an ordeal for me to try and work things out. I’m SLOWLY getting there. T doesn’t even know how to connect his new computer, and he’s not in the right headspace to try and figure it out just now.

I had intended to refocus my blog more on art and creativity this year.  Originally it was just about art journaling, but Health issues have taken over. I’m going to try harder to refocus. I know that things will get better, and eventually I’ll get back to normal (whatever that is).

The image at the top is another page from my Paint and Doodles journal.

Take very good care of yourselves and, hopefully, I’ll be back soon.
Big Love

AJ

The Long Wait is over!

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I’ve been away for a while again because, out of the blue, I received a phone call from Southampton Hospital on Friday 5 December advising me that T’s operation was scheduled for 17 December. T had just gone out to see his therapist when I received the call so I had to wait until he got home to tell him. I was really pleased that it wouldn’t be necessary for us to travel to a foreign country to get it done now, but he immediately went into shock and subsequently through the whole spectrum of emotions before we got to the hospital. By the time he went to the Theatre for his op on 17/12 he had come to terms with everything and was mentally in the right space.

His operation went really well, he spent one night in Intensive Care, then a couple nights in the High Dependency Unit before returning to a normal ward. He had to be put on a 12 hour drip because he was so dehydrated and they also sorted out a couple of other problems. Although the op went well the surgeon accidentally broke one of T’s ribs (he apologised when he did he ward rounds and saw T after the op). The new valve has settled in nicely and his heart is functioning better than it has for years. Unfortunately the pain from the broken rib is delaying his recovery a bit, but it gets slightly better every day. He was discharged from the hospital on 24 December and we got home at about 4:30pm. The trip home (which involved a half hour taxi ride from the hospital to the ferry terminal; a short wait then a half hour fast cat ferry ride to the Island – the sea was rough that day which caused T more pain and caused me to feel sea sick!; then a slightly longer taxi ride home) he was exhausted by the time we got home and in need of more pain relief then went straight to bed for a rest.

The lovely cats were pleased to see us and we were pleased to see them.

Christmas Day was very quiet, T slept and rested most of the time. I took the opportunity to go and visit my Mum and when I got home I cooked a ‘sort of Xmas Dinner’ in the evening.

Each day things are getting better and we are optimistic that he will be healthier and able to do more in the future. However he is still in heart failure, that will be treated and hopefully improved by medication, the pace maker, exercise and diet.

While T was in hospital I was able to stay near to him in Heartbeat House again. I am so grateful that place exists, it’s clean, warm, safe and full of other people away from their homes and caring for relatives who are heart patients. Some of the people I made friends with at HBH had to stay there over Christmas but I know they will have supported each other and it’s important that our loved ones are looked after and helped to recover.

So because of all of the above I haven’t had much time for creativity again in the past month. Today I am sharing a small project I did earlier in the year – a birthday card for my friend Claudine. It’s called an Explosion Book (or Squash Book). The two images above show both sides of the book/card ‘exploded’ but it all squashes down to a small square. I forgot to take a picture of it squashed!

Here is a quick YouTube tutorial on how to make one There are longer and more detailed tutorials available if you search for them.

For anyone who is reading this I hope you had a lovely Christmas. People who know me well know that I’m really not a big fan of Christmas but nevertheless I hope you all enjoyed it. I do however wish you all the best for Good Health and Happiness in the New Year.

Big Love from me
AJ xxxxx

See you next year!

A Small Project

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Every Friday I attend a ‘Creative Carers’ group. It’s a chance for me to spend time with others in a similar situations (i.e. we are all carers for a loved one) and to be creative in some form.

A few weeks ago we attempted to decorate some small chests of drawers (14.5 x 16 x 7cm). I painted mine with primary colours but I messed it up by applying too much paint and at the end of the session I couldn’t even get the drawers back into the cabinet! At the end of each session we have to take whatever we have worked on back home because all the available cupboard space in the Carer’s centre is full of art supplies and there is no room for our finished, or incomplete projects. Usually I throw out my attempts when I get home. I really enjoy the company of the other people there and I enjoy trying all the different things we do, but I rarely produce anything I would want to keep.

So I took my set of small drawers home but before I threw them out I decided to at least get the drawers to fit. I sanded everything down and then waxed the inside of the box until the drawers slid into place.

I still wasn’t that happy with the finished result so I decided to draw a mandala design on the front and onto the top and side and then colour it in with lots of bright colours using my Posca paint pens and some gel glitter pens. When it was finished I was quite pleased with it so I gave it a coat of matt varnish.

I’m going to give it to a friend 🙂

That’s all for now folks, Big Love from AJ

Painted Page and Doodles

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In an attempt to get my mojo back I have started a new journal to fill with doodles.

Whenever I use any sort of paint I like to use up any that is left over from what I’m doing and I tend to use it in a blank journal, in this case a board book. This means I’m not confronted by a blank page.

This page started off with paint smeers on it and I added some collage doodles and marks.

In the years that I neglected this blog everything seems to have become a lot more sophisticated and I’m feeling a bit lost with the technology and terms used. I think I’ll just have to keep playing about until I ‘get it’.

That’s all for now, Big Love from me.

AJ xxxx

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Hello… Am I back? Who knows? Anyway, if you do happen to be here, then welcome (or possibly welcome back) to my blog.

Here are some Twirly Ball things I made recently from recycled book pages and broken jewellery (English spelling 🙂 )

This blog has been dormant for a long time and I am going to TRY and reactivate it. The truth is I haven’t been very creative since my last post (in August 2019) and I’ve missed it a lot.

My (spare room) “studio” turned into a dumping ground for all the stuff I didn’t know what to do with, there were precarious piles of stuff on every surface and all over the floor leaving just a small pathway from the door to my computer, there was still a high risk of an avalanche, so the pathway had to be nagivated with great care. Earlier this year I decided I had to do something about it and it has taken months to sort it all out. I’ve got rid of loads of stuff (don’t worry I still have more art supplies than I need), reorganised everything, sorted my art supplies into smaller and lighter boxes, and labelled everything. It seemed to take for ever but I finally got it done and my studio now feels spacious and airy (for now). Unfortunately I don’t have a good track record for keeping my space tidy, but I’m going to try!

A lot has happened in the past 6 years or so and TBH it’s been, and continues to be, really tough.

Here is a summary of some of the challenges I’ve faced:

We all had to deal with the Covid pandemic and lockdowns in 2020.
Around about that time T’s health was in serious decline with multiple issues – he’s had 5 surgeries (2 of them redos of previous operations that went wrong)! and many hospital admissions.
He developed cognitive problems that took well over a year to be sorted out with a change of medication.
He’s still physically unwell but at least now we can have sensible conversations again.
He currently has memory and mobility problems and is now in advanced heart failure. He’s been waiting for heart surgery and hopefully it will be done sometime in the next year, we are hoping it will be sooner rather than later because we were told it was urgent a year ago.
My Dad’s health also declined and he had to go into care during the Covid lockdown he never returned home and passed away in Feb 2022. Mum and I were with him when he died.
Mum has been lost without him and I really miss him too. They were married for 72 years. Because she knew I was dealing with a lot of issues too, she decided to move into a retirement home where she knew she would be looked after. That happened sometime in 2023 she is in a home that is close to where I live so I visit her whenever I can.
I spent a lot of time last year sorting out and emptying her home so that it could be sold. She tried to help me at first but it was too upsetting for her going back to her old home. In the end I did most of it on my own. I spent hours in that house on my own crying, packing things to be taken to chatiry, sorting and cleaning, it was heartbreaking and exhausting!
The house finally sold a year ago.
I retired from work in August 2020 after working for the same company for almost 30 years. In all those years I had attended, and even organised some, retirement parties, they tended to be lovely events. However Covid regs meant my retirement party was restricted to just 6 of us meeting outside and having a picnic. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day, the location was lovely (on top of a reservoir site) and the people I shared it with were some of the favourite people I worked with, but it still felt a little bit flat and disappointing.
We both caught Covid in November 2023, ironically when we went to Southampton hospital for T to have a brain scan. I wasn’t too bad but was positive for 2 weeks, T was very poorly and had to go to hospital. He was discharged on Christmas Eve but he was still unwell and had to be readmitted on Boxing Day. It wasn’t a good Christmas!
Then last year T spent about 5 weeks in hospital over Christmas waiting for Heart Surgery that (for various reasons) never happened.
In May this year I had my 70th Birthday!!! I’m definitely beginning to feel a bit ‘creaky’ now but on the whole I think I’m in good health which is fortunate because I am now T’s main carer. I do get help – he employs a lovely lady C (who previously cared for my Dad and then my Mum) she comes for 10 hours a week. She is a fantastic carer, for both of us, and now she has become a close friend.

So with all that above (and more) going on in my life I haven’t really had the time or the inclination to be very creative. Recently I’ve begun to realise how much I miss it and have decided to try and re-establish some sort of creative routine.
The ‘Studio’ is finally sorted out, organised and doesn’t feel so claustraphobic so I’m hoping to get back to being a ‘creative person’ again.

While I was tidying and reorganising the ‘studio’ I found loads of projects that I had started with enthusiasm but never finished. So I’m going to try and complete at least some of those before starting anything else? I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy any more art supplies for as long as I live (but in all honesty I probably will – it’s an addiction)!
One thing I did finish recently was the Tikis and Totems Journal I started in 2015 as part of the Artstronaut’s Club run by Teesha and Tracy Moore. Here are the images from the completed journal: If you have followed my blog before you will have seen some of these images and if you follow me on Facebook you will probably have seen all of them recently. You can click on the arrows to see all 12 pages.

  • Front Cover
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Page 10
  • Back Cover

I’ve upgraded my blog and now have my own domain name
ajs-art-journal.com I’m not sure what difference that makes but you can find this blog by using that link or the old one (I think) AJsartjournal.wordpress.com. Actually I am struggling a bit at the moment, I’ve been away from this site for so long I’ve forgotten how to do lots of stuff. So if it all looks a crazy jumble I apologise, I think I will have to watch all the training tutorials again! But please let me know if when you view it things are not right and I’ll try to sort it out.

That’s all for now folks I hope to be back soon definitely sooner than 6 years next time.

Big love from me
AJ xxxxxxx

Inspired by dinosaurs

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Hello friends

I hope you are keeping well and happy. I didn’t realise I’d been away so long again, I am struggling to get back into regular blogging. Also very little time for making art, which is a shame because the more I make art the easier it becomes and when I don’t do it I find it difficult to get back into my flow. But sometimes there are more important things to do in life and that’s OK.

So I thought I would share the image above with you, it’s a project I finished over a year ago. The picture is about A3 size and I made it as a house warming present for some young friends who had just bought their first home.

The project started when I bought a children’s book about dinosaurs:

It’s a lovely book with great illustrations and and a wonderful colour pallette.

First I created a background.

Then I added a collage border and focal point using bits cut out from the dinosaur book.

Next I added shading using Inktense water colour pencils.

Then outlined everything with black ink.

Using paint pens I altered all the collaged elements. Although I use elements cut from books I use them as inspiration but I always want to make them my own with my own mark making.

Finally I added the beautiful Apache Blessing and some swirly bits and put it in a frame. I hope they like it, they said they did, but people are very polite and to be honest I wasn’t entirely sure about it. I do love the colours of this piece though and and the Apache blessing. “Walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life”.

It’s summer and the weather is hot, I LOVE it! The garden is thriving, it takes a lot of watering which is time consuming but worth the effort. Whenever I can I use water from the water butts and when they are emtpy the plants get a splash of tap water, just enough to keep them going until the next rain.

Our cats are as gorgeous as ever and I am happy to have them in my life.

Jack in his castle, it’s an ornate tomb in the cemetery, but he’s claimed it as his own.
Bill just wants his tummy tickled 🙂

I am TRYING to blog more regularly, but at the moment failing spectacularly, I’ll try harder!

I am trying to stay off politics because the situation in the UK (and the world) is driving me crazy. It really does feel like the lunatics have taken over the asylum. I could easily slip into full raging rant mode, but I won’t.

I’ll be back when I can and in the meantime take good care of yourselves.

Big love

AJ xxx

Geography of the Soul

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Castle 02 a

Hello friends

Things are still pretty hectic in my life, but they are getting better, I’ve just got to make sure I keep things moving forward and keep breathing.  I hope things are good with you and less chaotic than they are for me right now.

Here is another page in my Internal Landscapes Journal, I finished this at the beginning of the month. I am fairly pleased with this one because I liked the way it progressed.

I started off with this page and this is how it progressed:

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

I overpainted the original page trying to extract and simplify the main components, but I still was not happy with the end result.  So on the facing page (which originally had mainly text) I gessoed the whole page and I decided to extract even more from the original image and the end result is the image at the top of the page.

I was trying to produce something that might look OK painted big on a wall, I still don’t think I’ve achieved that, but I do feel I’m getting closer.

The quote is by Josephine Hart and I think it’s from a book called Damage.  I haven’t read the book but I believe this is the opening line and it’s such a perfect piece of writing.  Here is the quote in full:

“There is an internal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives. Those who are lucky enough to find it ease like water over a stone, onto its fluid contours, and are home. Some find it in the place of their birth; others may leave a seaside town, parched, and find themselves refreshed in the desert. There are those born in rolling countryside who are really only at ease in the intense and busy loneliness of the city. For some, the search is for the imprint of another; a child or a mother, a grandfather or a brother, a lover, a husband, a wife, or a foe. We may go through our lives happy or unhappy, successful or unfulfilled, loved or unloved, without ever standing cold with the shock of recognition, without ever feeling the agony as the twisted iron in our soul unlocks itself and we slip at last into place.”
― Josephine Hart

And here is a proper wall artist in action and delivering lusciousness 🙂 :

 

That’s all for now folks see you soon.

Big love

AJ xxxxxxx

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2018 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Ancient Places

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KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you, there is such a lot going on in my life at the moment I’m struggling to keep all the balls in the air, just got to remember to keep breathing in and out, and repeat.  Unfortunately I have no time for making art right now as other things are taking priority.

So while I’m waiting for life to return to some sort of normality, or at least calm down a bit I thought I would post something I finished earlier this month.

It’s a spread from my Internal Landscapes Journal, it started off like this:

003 Ancient Places spread s

Then progressed to this:

003a Ancient Places spread s

and ended up as the image at the top of the page.

I messed up the bottom right hand corner ‘big time’ and in an attempt to salvage the spread I collaged on the head and hat.  It wasn’t very successful, but the rest is OK apart from the fact I don’t really like the colours.

But there you go, it’s just an experimental book, so even if I don’t like the end piece I can always learn from the process.

Look after yourselves and have fun.

I’ll see you soon

Big love AJ xxxxx

 

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2018 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

 

 

Internal landscapes

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002 finished for blog.jpg

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you, here everything is ticking along as usual.  I spent much of March trying to get back into the routine of being creative every day.  Decorating the bedroom was also a creative act but completely different from putting paint or collage on paper and I had missed doing that.

I still have the big piece of wood (30″ by 44″) to paint to go on the wall above the bed but I need to get some ideas before I attempt that.  So I purchased this book in a local charity shop:

001 Landscapes Cover small

It’s a big paperback book measureing 12″ wide by 16″ high of photographs of landscapes taken from the air.  I’m using it as a kind of sketchbook to develop some ideas.  I am using what is on the original page to inform and inspire what I put over the original images.

Unfortunately I didn’t take a ‘before’ photo of the page above, but it was the index page.  It had images on the left hand side and text on the right.  I gesso’d over most of the page leaving just three small elements of the original images on the left hand side which are now contained within circles.  I added the circle to the right hand side of the page to give some balance.

In case you are wondering I ALWAYS leave the covers of my sketchbooks/journals until last.

This is also part of my long term project Inside/Outside in which I am looking at all aspects of inside and outside.  A book showing images of the surface of the planet are ideal for my investigation.  I have a feeling that when the book is finished it will be all about Interior landscapes.

I’m not too sure how I feel about  the finished page above but it was good to be working with paints again and I do like the colour combination.  I generally find green the hardest colour to work with!

Inside the book I stuck some of the pages together to give a firmer surface to paint on.  I’ve had varying degrees of success with this as some of the pages didn’t stick very well and there are some air bubbles trapped!  But it’s just an experimental sketchbook so I’m not too bothered with the end results at the moment (and I’ve never been bothered about perfection anyway)!  For now it’s just more important to be going through the process of getting paint onto paper and having some fun.

Just before I go, here is a treat for you 🙂  I discovered this amazing artist today and she is only 9 years old.  Incredible Talent!  Here is Pakritee from India, if you like this video perhaps you will leave a comment and encouragement for her on the YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo_Ha-JkGQQ.  There are other videos of her painting too.

That’s all for now folks

Take good care of yourselves

See you soon

Big love

AJ xxx

 

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2018 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

It’s finished! (Well almost)

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Bedroom 1

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you and you are well and happy.  It’s taken 10 weeks but the bedroom decorating project is finally finished, well almost!  The new furniture arrived a couple of days ago and we’ve been moving piles of clothes and stuff back into the room this weekend as well as breaking up old furniture and taking it to the local landfill site.

There are still a few things to do, I need to put shelves up in the left hand alcove and that big space above the bed needs some artwork.  Fortunately I have a big piece of wood that will fit the space and providing I can paint a good enough painting it will go there. We also need to get some better bedside lighting.

The white patch in the centre of the bed and on the headboard are just sunlight shining through the window.

Here are a few more photos:

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

We had to move everything out of the bedroom, apart from the bed, while the work was being done, so we’ve been living in chaos for 10 weeks!

Here is a photo of the work in progress:

Before 1

This was taken early on in the project because we soon realised that moving all the furniture out would make life a bit easier.  Unfortunately T got the flu early  in January and was really poorly for a few weeks, then even when he recovered from the flu he had terrible back pains so wasn’t able to help much.  Fortunately before he became ill we had stripped the walls back to plaster and filled in all the holes, and sanded down and painted the woodwork.  After that I was pretty much on my own doing the decorating whenever I got a few minutes to spare.  I washed and then painted the ceiling, it took three coats of paint before it looked good, and doing stuff above my head really hurts my neck, but I was determined and so relieved when it was finally OK.  I also put lining paper on the walls first and then wall paper – red on two walls and cappucino coloured on the others.

The house was built around 1860 and the floorboards were uneven and had big gaps between then so I purchased hardboard and covered the whole floor with it to make it more even before the new carpet was laid.  That was a whole weekend wetting the hardboard and then attaching it to the floor by hammering nails at 4″ intervals across the whole floor.

The thing I am probably most proud of is the window sill I made.   I always thought it was strange there was no window sill in the bedroom.  I looked at putting a wooden sill in, but it would have cost of lot of money and I’m not sure I’d have done it properly.  Then one day I was down in the cellar and I found a sheet of PVC that was left over from when we had the soffits and fascia boards replaced at the back of the house a few years ago.  So I decided to use that as it was free.  I cut it to the right size and cut it into the wall, stuck and sealed it all in place.  It matches the new PVC window we had put in last year, and the window looks so much better with a proper sill.

Here’s the before and after pictures:

There has been so much stuff  crammed into my art room for the past 10 weeks I haven’t been able to do any art, even if I’d managed to find the time (which was impossible).  I’ve missed that kind of creative activity and I’m looking forward to getting my paints out again soon, although at the moment it is still far too chaotic to be condusive to creativity.

I am really pleased with the bedroom, it has a lovely calm feel about it even with the shocking red walls and red carpet.

The two cats have been quite disturbed about the whole decorating project, but I think they approve now it’s finished.  Bill Kat was so impressed he spent a little while investigating the new furniture, then he went out and a short time later came back wtih a lovely present – a live rat! which he delivered to me and let go under the new bed!  Fortunately T was able to capture said rat and liberate it outside.  I think Bill got it again though because yesterday I found a dead rat of a similar size on the path at the back of the house.  I know that the little ‘presents’ he brings in are to show how much he appreciates us, but honestly I wish he wouldn’t do it, it creeps me out!  Especially if I have to deal with live rodents on my own.

So I hope all is good in your part of the world and I’m hoping to get back to normal, whatever that is, soon.  At the very least to get back into some sort of regular art practice.

Look after yourselves and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ xxx

 

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2018 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.