Free as a Fish!

Posted on June 23, 2011 by ajsartjournal

There is something about fish that I really like, I love visiting aquariums and I’ll even walk into a pet shop just to have a look in the fish tanks with no intention of buying any.

Once I learnt to SCUBA dive just so I could dive on a reef just off Tobago. It was fantastic, but not something I’ll ever do again. I loved what I saw but there was something freaky about being so far under water.

Here is my art journal tribute to fish and the wonderful environment they live in. I know the Octopus image came from The Graphics Fairy, maybe the shells too, but I can’t remember where the fish and the lady came from. When I first started to collect images I thought they were just for my personal and private use, but now that I have decided to put my art journal pages online in future I will attempt to record and acknowledge my sources more accurately.

The secret of life…

Posted on June 18, 2011 by ajsartjournal

I’ve used this spread as the header for my blog because these were the first pages that I was realy happy with. They have lots of layers because I kept doing things that I didn’t like, then I would paint over them, or try to remove the hideous layers (with a baby wipe). This is what Paula (aka Journal Artista) calls ‘Working through the Uglies’. If I hadn’t heard her say that on her Ustream channel I think I’d have given up. But I persevered and I’m happy that I did, I like these pages 🙂

I also like the words on these two pages – the secret of life is to enjoy the passing of time. It’s very true, from the moment we are born we just keep getting older. When you are young time stretches before you like infnity but as you get older it really speeds up and you realise that you have to enjoy each moment as much as you can. When I was young I thought that being the age I am now (mid 50s) would be awful, but the truth is it’s really fine, I’m OK with it, I’m content.

The very first layer on these journal pages, which probably only I can see now, are some shop receipts from a local shop from the 1920s. As well as trying to be creative I also have a passion for local history and heritage which you can check out (if you are the slightest bit interested) at this website: www.rshg.org.uk. One day I intend to almalgamate these two interests and produce a Heritage Art Journal.

I’d like to thank the many, many people who put online ‘Free to Use’ collage sheets and images, people like The Graphics Fairy, Vintage Moth and many more too numerous to mention (and because I forgot to make a note of the names when I downloaded the images – sorry!). Every single one of you is so generous and so inspiring. Thanks!

Big love
AJ 🙂