Jan's Art Journal

The first picture, ANCIENT WOMAN, is a picture within a picture. I used sand from my backyard! I did the background first which turned out to have a timeless feel. I put a statue in the ruins.

The second picture, A DAY AT THE BEACH, was a three step process. The nude drawing was traced on an abstract painting. This seemed like a beach pose, so I put her at the beach and then put in the background.

A lot of thinking/non-thinking goes into this process. I'm not putting what I see with my eyes on the paper. If I want to have a picture of something, I can take a photo. To increase my ability to visualize creatively, I am using Mary Todd Beam's book, CELEBRATE YOUR CREATIVE SELF. It has 25 specific projects to help the artist stretch in new directions.