Evolution of a Page: The Evolution of a Page: Under the Influence of Van Gogh: An Artist's Study

 

This is what the page looked like on March 17, 2018. Shortly after that, I decided to add a Van Gogh painting and the pink line.

 

On January 11th, when I sat down again and looked at the page, it wasn't what I wanted it to be. I wanted a mesh of Van Gogh's work and my own. Using a palette knife and colors I rarely use, I started to rework a good portion of the page. I ended up creating a lush field. I decided to keep the pink line. I also had the word, pilgrimage in my head and decided to write it on the page using a paint marker.

My next step was to borrow from Matisse and try what he called an "audition" using another image (read the object is an actor found here.) I thought that the field needed a tree so I carefully cut out one from a Van Gogh painting and moved it around the page.

 Using various water based paint markers, an aquarellable water soluble pencil and a water brush, I decided to add my own marks to the page. I drew the Van Gogh inspired tree (based on a tree in a vase on one of his paintings) as well as spent some time coloring in the blossoms on the collaged tree, adding the blossoms on the drawn tree and teeny tiny repetitive dots.

I embraced my inner zen and spent some time with a paint marker drawing lots of dashes in the sky. At one point, I decided to add something else that didn't quite turn out to be what I wanted it to be so I wiped it off with a baby wipe. I walked away, came back and decided to add the clouds. Lots of smooshing with paint markers, paint and water soluble pencils to create the clouds in the sky.

I had something else in mind when I began this book. It's now part memoir, part travel journal, with a dash of planning and scheming about my upcoming trip to Europe. It's becoming exactly what I hoped it would be.