Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

Art Journaling. My style

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This title might make me sound all sure of my art journaling self and my style within that.  I am not, but I am getting there slowly but hopefully surely.  I see many artists who have such a distinct style that I can tell their work from 50 feet.  It is not always the same medium or colour or subject, not by a long way, they just have a style which makes them, well, them. I want this, and I hope that in time I will achieve the same. The thing is, I am not sure I am much of an art ‘journaler’ and sometimes I feel like a fraud. My pages can end up tortured looking because I have tried to do all the things all at once! Adding all the layers, then the magazine cuttings (I really don’t like to use magazine cuttings, there I said it), then the journaling. What in the world am I to write about?  I am not spilling my inner thoughts all over a journal page, not for …

Mishaps come in Threes (or Fours)!

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Blimey, today started as a drag and a chore and a moan. I intended to have a little lie in and go to the gym to run for an hour while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, most likely This American Life or Radio Lab.  Not a bad start to the day. I have decided that running inside is ok when it is humid and super hot outside. I am not a hot weather runner, no matter how much water I drink and how many hats I wear (usually one), I still end up with a head ache all day from being too hot whilst running first thing in the morning. So the treadmill it is then. Yes treadmills are boring, but to be honest I find running so boring anyway it really doesn’t matter to me, the inside of the YMCA is no less interesting than local sidewalks, roads and houses.  If I have something to listen to, I am usually ok, music for shorter jaunts and podcast or a book for longer running …

Weekly Photos 24/52.

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1. I planted a mixed seed pack from Seedgeeks in the Spring and they are growing very nicely.  This bright red poppy is a fabulous thing! 2. I keep spotting these pretty flowers when I am out walking the dog, there is a tree full along the trail and they are all over the ground under the tree. 3. When I take the dog for a walk at 7am to try and beat the heat, I always take my mug of tea with me.  On Friday when I had finished my drink, I gathered various natural bits and bobs.  Flowers, leaves, seed pods, bark and a small branch of bamboo!  Once I got home I laid it all out to take a photo or two and do some sketches and painting.  A productive morning was had. 4-7. At the weekend we visited our friends who lives out in the sticks and I enjoyed having a poke around in their garden.  The boys got to ride on the old tractor and we made a bonfire to …

Get Messy Art Journal. Season of Introspection. Week 2.

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This week’s art journal pages are full of ink blots (I couldn’t stop!), colour, gelli plate prints, textured gesso and a little self reflection. I am getting along well with my altered book, I am finding it a good size and the pages hold up to lots of media without too much objection. Each of these pages pretty much made itself, in that I had no idea what I was going to do with them until I picked up my journal and got cracking. The bottom ‘owl’ page started as a bright inkblot I made over a week ago and didn’t know what to add at the time, so I left it.  Today I added the owl, black gesso ink blots and some gold paint to mute the whole page. The top page by contrast was never going to be an ink blot, I gessoed and added the lady, then a few days later made the black gesso ink blots.  After watching a tutorial from Carla Sonheim, I made the white gesso swirls, then I …

Do one thing a day which cheers you.

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I know I am going against the daily quote toting grain here, but every time I see the phrase ‘Do one thing a day which scares you’  I want to yell ‘No No No, Why on earth would you want to do that?’ Tackle the stuff you don’t want to do. Yes, do those things and do them first to get them all done and over with. Be brave when you have to. Of course, but be scared?  Erm, why? I can get very apprehensive about things which bother me and often about things which shouldn’t.  I worry about getting to appointments on time, or meeting someone new or going somewhere new.  I am not going to book a daily appointment or chat to a stranger every day. I don’t think that scary things should stop you getting on with your life but there are ways of going about it and I am not at all convinced that doing one thing every day which might scare you is the most positive way to go.  However, …

100 Days of Altered Cards by CatsEatDogs, Days 31-50.

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I have made it to over half way in The 100 Day Project!  Yay! I am really enjoying altering my little box of vintage playing cards, little artworks with no pressure. Well apart from the ‘one a day’ pressure of course! The first 30 cards in the project are here  and here. If you want to follow my project daily over at Instagram, my hashtag is #100daysofalteredcardsbycatseatdogs.  Happy Tuesday x        

Weekly Photos 23/52

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1.Wood End lighthouse in Provincetown, MA. 2. Herring Cove Beach sculpture, Provincetown, MA. Apparantly if you touch this sculpture, you will be cursed.  Yikes, hands off! 3.Sunshine Beer at The Knack restaurant in Orleans, MA. 4.Horseshoe crab rescue on a morning beach walk. 5. I loved the look of this thrift shop, unfortunately they didn’t have anything I couldn’t live without. 6. Lifeguard stands at Corporation Beach, Dennis, MA. 7. The Atlantis research vessel at Woods Hole in Cape Cod. 8. Grumpy (toad) fish at Woods Hole Science Aquarium. 9. The ever growing beach shack at Chatham South beach. 10. The Chatham Inn had the DeLorean from Back to the Future for a week’s fundraiser.  Pretty cool. 11. The lovely fairy castle at Cape Cod Lavender Farm. 12. Godfrey’s Windmill and the Chatham Labyrinth with perfect blue skies. That wraps up my holiday snaps from our time in Cape Cod, now we are back in St Louis where it is a million degrees with skin bubbling sun and pea soup humidity! It is still good to be …

Taking stock June 2016

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I am taking stock while in Cape Cod on holiday, so let’s see what is going on. Making : Art journal pages. Cooking : Butternut squash curry and puppodums for dinner. Drinking : White wine. Reading: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman Wanting: The sun to come out for our last day at Cape Cod. Looking: At the salt marsh and the sea beyond it. Playing: Mancala which we picked up from a thrift shop for 50 cents. Deciding: Whether to take home the giant tub of rainbow sprinkles home? We have rated some but there are lots left… Wishing: There was a magical way to travel effortlessly without the packing and flying and messing about in airports! Enjoying: The sea breeze. Waiting: For the rice to cook. Liking: Cape Cod, we have had a lovely two weeks here. Wondering: How gosh-darn hot it is in St Louis. Loving: How cool it is here. Pondering: The rest of the summer and how we shall fill it. Considering: Another glass …

Get Messy Art Journal and sketchbook pages.

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I brought my sketchbooks on holidays and am happy that I did because I have enjoyed doodling some patterns which I am sure I will use in the future. I often plan with all good intentions and end up doing nothing I thought I would. This time I have enjoyed having my sketchbook to stick old pages in and practice my buoy sketches.  For this season of Get Messy we are using a book as a sketchbook/art journal which is something I like to do anyway, so I am happy with that. I did have a false start though. The original book I was going to use had very thin pages and I knew I wouldn’t be sticking any together to work around this so I picked a new book.  This one is the ‘avocado’ book which I picked up from a yard sale here on the Cape. There is a picture of the front cover in my last post.  For the above page I used three different flower stamps and gave them a painted …

My Thrifted Finds on Cape Cod 2016

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Thrifting on Cape Cod is great because most of the various churches here have a thrift shop. These vary in size to teeny tiny to a few rooms big. They are not to be judged by the size either, one of my favourite finds is from the smallest shop I have been to. At the weekend there are yard sales and flea markets too which in my opinion is where you get the best finds. These are some of the thrifting treasures I have found so far. 1. A party recipe book from the 1950’s and a how to draw animal book. The recipes are classic and bizarre like ‘meat loaf’ and then over the page is ‘rice with avocado sauce’. 2. Along with th animal and party books I also found a book from 1965 on how to grow and avocado from a pit. Very specialist this one! 3. At a yard sale I picked up this coffee mug and at another yard sale I spotted the brushes. They are not Van Gogh standard …