pamgarrison

beautiful Orvieto, Italy

When I last shared Italy photos, we had gotten on the train in Florence and were heading to Orvieto. The graffiti in Europe always takes me by surprise, there is a lot of it. A little more than an hour and we arrived at our stop, Orvieto!

Orvieto is between Rome and Florence:

To get up "the Rock" as they call it, you ride the adorable funicular. That's Susan and Amy waiting for our take off. 

Taking in the sights while we waited for the bus to the center of town...

And then we were there, in front of the insanely gorgeous and amazing Duomo. The sides alone took my breath away.

Spectacular would be a fitting word. We snapped some quick shots and started walking to our destination. I'll save you the painful details of that, suffice it to say that I learned the lesson-on more than one occasion on this trip-that I brought too much. I'll share photos of Orvieto in this post and talk about the class etc. on my next Italy installment post. Orvieto, the people, architecture, views and more as I saw it:

 

Can you tell how much I loved it there? I hope my photos gave you an idea of what a special place it is. Next time we visit Italy it will be all about class, the whole reason we found ourselves there! 

 

feeling like i'm onto something

It's happened again...I have a creative crush. This time it's the experiments in watercolor painting. (I see the practices of art journaling, sketching, and watercolor painting all different, although of course, they can overlap.) I'm still in the hazy young love stage with these new watercolor explorations. I've been challenging myself to approach watercoloring more like how I approach abstract painting. Sort of. Who cares why though, it's just fun!

This one above and the one below were painted in this book that Minnie told me about. She found them at Aaron Brothers on a buy one/get one sale, I went and did the same, (the one I gave Mary Ann that she refers to in her recent post), If Aaron Bros isn't having the sale, Amazon has them priced better and you don't have to leave your house. (2 different links to the book for 2 different sizes I have)

I want to take a minute to make sure you are aware I have become an Amazon affiliate. That means if I link to something on Amazon, it will have a code that will tell Amazon that I sent you, and sometimes will qualify for a small percentage commission on that sale. Of course, you don't get charged anything different than the usual. Also of course, I don't care if you buy it there, or at your local store, or anywhere at all. I will never link to anything that I haven't bought or want myself. I do a lot of shopping on Amazon because it's easy (I love not leaving my house, the free shipping, that usually the price is lower than in person shopping, to name a few reasons. My closest independent art store is 45 minutes away, bookstore even farther, and I am lazy about errands, I want to make things!), but Amazon has it's issues, and makes plenty of money, so I think it's fair that they compensate all the bloggers and websites of the world that link to them as a resource for readers. I mention all this just to be really clear that I see nothing wrong with people being affiliates, and to be sure you know (I assume you know me well enough by now, but in case you don't,) that I am not trying to make a buck off pushing things on you...no way, never! I have always linked sources when possible, and will continue to whether in an affiliate program or not. I love art supplies and have no shame about being an "enabler" of them, because for me, encouraging the pursuit of creativity has and will always be one of the main reason I blog. Okay...now that I've beaten that into the ground, let's get back to discussing creative pursuits! 

Mmmmm...experimenting is so fun...

And then, just ink too. I've been exploring a little with ink (this one shown here) while watercoloring:

Did you see that bird there? It wasn't drawn as a bird, just saw it from what resulted after drawing the flowers and ink drops. Good Lord, birds when I'm not even trying...birds birds birds.

Birds on the brain? Bird brain?

Don't answer that!

Sometimes experiments don't work out as hoped (which is how I feel about the above). No matter to me! Doesn't change the fun while experimenting one bit! 

All three of the pages/spread above were done in this book I have and love. Unlike the books mentioned above, it's pages are not coldpress, just a smooth, heavier "art paper" as they call it. Seeing how watercolors react to different papers has been one of my favorite discoveries so far. I have always been a hot press girl, and here is a spread of my journal made of hot press paper:

This is actually this goauche here on top of acrylic and watercolor background. Anyway, after recent experiments, I just ordered this coldpress paper. I am enjoying the way the watercolor reacts to cold press. (Is it one word or two?) 

Mary Ann jokingly said that she was copying me on her recent blog post; nonsense! we all know that inspiration goes round and round and I wouldn't have fallen down this lovely watercolor rabbit hole if she hadn't done her recent Sketchbookery class where I picked up lots of tips and tricks and favorite new supplies. Seeing her gorgeous pages makes all kinds of bells and whistles go off in my brain. And when I hear that siren song, I always turn my sails that way...

p.s. if you are wondering, I do see my art journals, sketchbooks, and travel journals all differently and number my art journals and sketchbooks separately and my travel journals are just the place I traveled, no numerical order recorded. I'm currently working in art journal number 34, sketchbook number 3, and the books I've shown above, the ones where I'm watercoloring freely (not sketching) aren't numbered at all -ha! whatever floats your boat ;)

 

hey, thanks!

 

art print over on my etsy: www.pamg.etsy.com

The internet can be so fun sometimes. I recieved an email from my friend Paige, that the Novogratz had posted a piece of my artwork over on their facebook page yesterday. You can see it by scrolling down here. I watched every single episode of 9byDesign with my daughter, and we ate it up. We've been fans of the Novogratz family and style ever since, so it was very fun to see that, thanks for the head's up Paige! 

 

On their post, someone asked who the artist was, (I assume they found it on someone's tumblr or similar account that doesn't link back to original source like pinterest does) and Wendy Brightbill left a comment with my name and link to my blog. Thank you very much Wendy! (I tried to leave you a comment, but since I only have a facebook business page and not a personal page, I am not able to leave comments on personal pages, can't like them or repost either, or follow ...all I can do is like a business as my business. I rarely have any conversation about Facebook that doesn't include me stating that I am not a fan. I only have one because some readers asked me to, because I guess it is their way of following blogs? Or??? Really, I don't know. I just get frustrated by it 95% of the time. Facebook and I are like oil and water.) Anyway...if I could leave a comment on Wendy's, it would say thank you and also that I'm loving her new card collection...super cute! 

 

I've restocked what I've got left of the prints in my etsy shop. Like I said, the internet can be fun...never know if some of the Novogratz followers might want to see more of my corner of the world-wide-web, right?!? 

And thanks again Paige and Wendy for letting me know/giving me credit...guess I should learn how to add metadata to my photos one of these days...;) 

 

a tangential path

Inspired by both the flowers I picked, and my visit to Moss Cottage last weekend, I felt a very strong urge to get out the watercolors and some inks and play at painting flowers the other day.

You know I'm not one to say no to my creative yearnings...

the table near the end of my playtime before motherhood duties rang the time's-up! bell

 

It was extremely satisfying. As a matter of fact, I'm back at it a little today...

Although I know it must seem like I go off in a thousand different tangets, I feel strangely like it's all sort of coming together, my creative interests. I'm seeing a unifying thread in color and freedom and envisioning ways that the many different pursuits could all become part of a larger whole that obviously belongs together and doesn't look so scattered. Maybe...I get glimpses of it and then they vanish...but I feel it solidifying into some bigger picture that might just stick around...

fun things to ponder while I paint on this sunny Saturday in SoCal. 

What are you pondering, hmmm???? 

 

friday friday friday

Ah...Friday, so thankful you are here. For some reason I've been super tired this week, which makes getting to Friday afternoon feel like a little victory. Just got home from school pickup and seriously wish I could get my pajamas on and ride out the evening. We have a commitment tonight, so that's not gonna happen, but I'll be looking forward to it when we get back for sure.

The roses pictured were picked Wednesday. Like Fridays, roses are happy making in my book. (What is it about orange and pink that makes it so hard to accurately photograph? Likely the answer is just a google search away...) I'm going to try to sketch or paint them this weekend I think. Grand plans. 

Anyway, I'm rambling...sending some cyber roses to you. Hope you are enjoying your Friday, (or weekend, depending on where you live) and going into it doing exactly what you want to. Have a good one! xo

 

sunday at moss cottage

putting my half pans of paint back into the metal paint palette after moving some to a plastic holder for Italy trip

I took a little jaunt up to LA this past weekend. Well, it was supposed to be a quick little jaunt...Apparently, I fell into a trance listening to Serial (man, are you listening? I wish I had started later in, the waiting week by week is hard!), and suddenly realized I had driven way way way past my freeway interchange. Almost doubled drive time there. Crazy. But finally, I arrived at Moss Cottage. Always a lovely place to be, but especially on a sunny Sunday. 

We usually start with a garden tour and house tour of any new changes. I'm a big fan of progress and progress updates. This time, because I'd already wasted an hour and a half of our fun time, we pretty much got down to the business of checking out the other's recent journaling and sketching and any other art making show and tell items. I'm loving her littlest sketchbook (seen above).

Mmmmm...what's not to love, right?!? 

Ha! We weren't really doing a class room style show and tell like it looks here. I am sure I said, "hold this for me right here in the light so I can take a picture!!!" in my nicest bossy pants voice. I had to try to capture them for my viewing pleasure later. After all, one can only take in and retain so much splendor at a time.

And then we could resist making no more... the best part of any play date with creative friends. 

Are you kidding me?!?! I am plum crazy about this page she made in her art journal. 

We often intentional take on the same "assignment"...here's my version of same toile paper:

I like it fine, but I lurveeee hers...and then after our hatching/crosshatching study, she did those flowers (left top side of her art journal above) and I had to flat out copy those in my art journal:

Think I'll be throwing some more color on these as soon as I finish this post! 

I also did this page in my art journal, loosely based on another piece of wallpaper that Ingrid shared in Italy. 

Not nearly enough time creating before I had to head home.

I feel a lot more sketching and journaling coming on.....love it so. 

 

Florence in photos part 2

Hello and happy Monday to you out there! Hope you had a nice weekend.

I'm back with a few more photos from Florence to share...

Above...gelato, of course gelato... it's just so pretty, I can't resist taking photos. After sharing this one on facebook, Carolyn commented teaching us a lot about what to look for before choosing to eat any. You can read it here, but the cliff notes are that the gelato that makes for the prettiest pictures is likely not what you want to eat. 

I found Florence to be beautiful, full of sights I wanted to remember. It's always fun to see what shows up on the camera card after a trip. The fact that that beautiful moon showed up as I saw it delights me to no end. The sunsets...the people, the normal life, the food...well, no words needed, the photos say enough for me. 

And then we were on the train, saying buongiorno to Firenze. Next stop, Orvieto!

Florence in photos part 1

Following the lead of some of my classmates (Amy, Robin, Ingrid anyone else secretly blogging?let me know!), I'm beginging to go through my photos (so many photos!) and group them to share. Here are some from Florence, where Amy and I went before going to Orvieto for class. I figured I should start with my favorite Florence photo above. I got lucky with a simple iphone pic taken at just the right moment, capturing the beautiful sunset and so much of Italy's romance and magic. I was standing near Ponte Vecchio looking toward Ponte alle Grazie. I could have stood there for the entire show, and we did linger, but our stomachs were growling, so after a bit we pressed on in search of dinner. 

Anyway, there is so much to love about Florence, but the Duomo has to be a highlight for any who see it. I could not get a photo of it, other than a panoramic, but that didn't stop me from trying over and over again. Truly unbelievable. 

Amy and I have been in Europe once before together, and a few times with our families each, and both love to walk and walk and walk in European cities. We walk, take photos, look at the map, see tourist sights, eat, drink, shop, sit, stare,write etc. at pretty much the same pace, which made for an easy adventure exploring the unfamiliar. It's so interesting to see how the same things are done in another country, to notice both the similarites and differences, to try take it all in. Walking around is super conducive to that for us. 

So, here's some of what I saw and wanted to remember, the beautiful architecture, the history evident everywhere you look, the light, the food, the people, the signs, the stores etc:

More Firenze photos to come....

 

these are a few of my favorite finds

A favorite part of coming home from a trip is the unpacking of the souvenirs bought along the way. I tend to shy away from the typical souvenirs and look for some one of a kind items found usually in an antique shop or the occasional flea market, if I am lucky enough to stumble upon one. This trip didn't have much room (in time or suitcase) for much, but of course, that's not going to stop me from trying. 

I found that red bordered religious paper under glass item at an antique bookstore in Rome. It was full of treasures galore. I also bought a few gifts there that I can't post here until they are given. I think I showed great restraint when I left with only the glass item (which I think would be pretty on the top of a travel journal) and the gifts. I was very tempted by a very old, small bird book that had one page illustrated by hand:

My phone photos taken in the light of the shop don't do the page justice. The shop owner was so gracious and interesting and full of antique paper loving information. Here's a photo of the shop, 

Antica Libreria Cascianelli:

A few vintage trims and bits from these antique stalls, part of the Mercato delle Pulci in Florence that our friend Carolyn told us about. The small book and vintage keychain in the top photo were both found in these stalls too:

Amy and I both love a good dig. 

Some inks from Orvieto. 

And a "limited edition" salmon colored Lamy pen, refill inks for a different Lamy pen I bought in Paris years ago, a new nib, a fancy waterbrush and pink colored brush pen all from the Fabriano store in Florence. And a mini stapler, white mechanical pencil and some Coccoina glue (thank you Michelle and Paige) from an office supply in Orvieto. Love foreign office supplies. 

 

We stumbled upon a fun little handcrafted boutique in Rome called Mercato Monti Urban Market. I bought the little vintage hairclips and bag from a darling seller, who happens to sell on etsy too. Her etsy shop. You know I wanted some of her vintage wallpaper, but it was heavy. 

From a different vendor I bought the ring you see above. 

Isn't it sweet? And doesn't it look like a countryside scene or something? It's not, if you really look at it, it's just the stone. I can't remember the name of the stone anymore. Does anyone know? The jewelry artist showed it to me on her phone, and I thought I remember it as ludite, but a google search doesn't bring up any photos and hers did. I tried luddite too, but the closest I can find is agate that looks like it. Wish I would have written it down! I'm going to see if I can find her card...

and that was it for souvenir shopping...not too bad, eh? Personally, I think I showed a good deal of self control, with all that I saw. ;)

 

 

Italy travel journals in progress

Last night I got out the two travel journals I'm working on for my Italy trip, and started trying to assess the situation. I couldn't resist taking a photo today of my growing pile of travel journals, each one representing a trip to another country. I have two for this past trip because Amy and I decided we wanted to have one to use as an example; ideas and different techniques used, and one we'd make alongside the class, using the exact supplies in their kit. One would include the days before and after class, and one for the week of class. 

As always, I have succeeded in making a good mess, if nothing else. It's one of my gifts. ;) Unfortunately. I brought out all I had gathered on the trip and started to sort which book it belonged in. This trip was no different than others I have taken in that I hardly got to work in the books. I wanted to get back to them before the pictures and stories I wanted to add left my noggin for good. 

This is the cover of my Orvieto journal, the one made during the week of class. Amy gifted each of us with an Orvieto shield she made. So love it Am, thank you! 

The first journal I picked up again was the one for our days in Florence before class, and Rome after class. 

I truly can not believe that it has come and gone!

Time plays tricks with my mind on the regular. 

Since I haven't uploaded the thousands of photos I took (hard drive storage issues), I just used post-its to mark what I was thinking. 

Of course, time flew last night too, but as least I've re-started, often the hardest part for me. I had to cut some pages out of my signatures already, I didn't leave enough room for fodder collected to be added. 

I'll be sharing the finds brought home soon. the Fabriano Boutique in Florence was a favorite for sure. 

Can't wait to get to the week in Orvieto. Here's the book I made in that class, with marble papers bought while there used on the edges. 

Off to either press on or move my mess...;)

 

 

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helllloooooo!

Well, howdy strangers! How's it going?!? I've missed you and checking in here!

 

I'm back from 2 wonderful weeks in Italy. Oh Italy...you are so awesome. I got back late Tuesday night and have been a bit off (read:exhausted, jet lagged, in a travel coma...whatever explanation you prefer.) This picture (thanks Susan for the photo!) shows most of the gang in Orvieto where we met for the Adventures in Italy class Amy and I taught. Kristin and Bill were our amazing hosts and I have a million more pictures and stories to share, but wanted to thank Michelle, Robin, Leah, Ingrid, Franscesca, Alisa, Paige, and Susan for joining us on the journey. What a truly great group to spend a week of wonder with! 

And more thanks to my partner in crime, Amy! We spent most of the minutes of the entire 2 weeks away together, sharing hotel rooms, classroom, meals, experiences, etc. etc. and really, there aren't many people one can do that with and have as much fun and as little conflict as we did along the way! Wouldn't have been the same without you Am! (again, thank you Susan for the photo)

I really will get my photos off my camera and share some here soon. Just wanted to say hi and tell you that no matter how great the journey, there really is no place like home! The first thought as I lay in a stupor on the couch and picked up my art journal. 

I told you I've been in a ditsy place...I didn't even notice my spelling error until after I'd posted it on instagram. It cracks me up and sums up my state of mind when doing it perfectly ;).

No matter how many times you say it, it holds true. Happy to have adventures made all the sweeter by loving to be home. Hope you've been well and happy happy Friday!