Pages and Paint - Week Two

So we're cruising right along in the Pages and Paint class.  It's been fun and inspiring to see the work of the other students and to watch Sarah's videos and learn about her process.  I would be lying if I didn't admit that I was having trouble keeping up with the pace of the class.  Two weeks ago was week two and we worked on larger spreads in our sketch books and started collage-ing things into them as well.  It is really a fun process and I am fairly happy with what I came up with.

She sent us prompts for one of the exercises.  My prompts were: "bubblegum pink, lines and dots, seaside and joy."  What a nice collection of things, right?  And what I generated from those prompts is something that I'm relatively happy with.  The only thing that is missing is a photograph that lives in an album at my parents house.

Growing up in Illinois, our "seaside" was the sandy creek that ran through the farm.  We spent hours there splashing in the water, building sand castles and collecting tiny fossils and what we referred to as "jellybean rocks" ... super smooth in pastel colors. We used to fill Noni's (my grandmother) flower garden with them. Here is my sketchbook spread:

Full page sketchbook spread.

And the photo that I would have added to the sketchbook, had I been able to get my hands on it prior to posting my photo for the class was this one:

Summer Sunday afternoon - 1985

It was taken in the summer of 1985, on a Sunday afternoon.  One of those days that Mom piled all the girls from Sunday school into the car and we headed home to enjoy a quick lunch and an afternoon spent playing in the creek.  The creek at the crossing was (and is still) wide and sandy. And the spring-fed creek was always clean and clear and full of minnows and water bugs.  We weren't squeamish girls growing up.

It must have been a rainy spring for all those trees and logs to have been deposited in our "beach".  It's funny that I notice that now.  I'm sure I didn't think a thing of it at the time.  We were probably just glad for the bridge and the jumping platform.  That's me in the purple suit, probably planning to join my sister in the plunge.  She's the one in mid jump holding her nose, in preparation for a depth of surely no more than two feet or so.  I laugh at this now.  Those were some really good times and made some really nice memories.

And it's a nice surprise to find that this online art workshop helped me dig this up.  Enjoy!