Contemplative Creativity

I've been in a quiet, contemplative mood over the past couple weeks, and my journal pages have certainly been a reflection of that mood.  As a side effect of my drawing class, I've taken to journaling in the evening after dinner using my new favorite pen, the Pilot VBall fine point, and colored pencils.  I've still been using glazes as well as some collage.

I've worked on this mandala over the last few weeks.  It's colored pencil and pen.  It was a soothing, contemplative exercise and I thought about a lot of different things as I worked on it.

This spread began with glazes and I finished with craft acrylic and colored pencils.  I've been obsessed with birds lately, maybe because of my delight at their return as a sign of spring and warmer weather.

This spread is an illustration of my struggle between the physical and spiritual world, the search for inner knowing, and the path to Spirit.

This spread began with doodles.  I had two scraps of paper with leftover, predominantly yellow glaze and I wanted to see how my pen would write on them (worked great!).  I put them aside and began sketching with the pen.  When I don't have a specific direction for my journaling (which I didn't with this), I almost always began with organic shapes.  I ended up sketching these flowers that I later filled in with colored pencil.  The four strips of orange/turquoise paper are paint saturated paper towel that I save for re-purposing.  This spread is about life being a matter of perspective.


I hope that you'll find some time this weekend for personal reflection and observation.  I also hope that as always, you'll make time to "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"