And of course I took my art kit with me - papers, gelli plate, roller, acrylic paints, watercolours, washi tape, brads, glue, double sided sticky tape and my book making equipment including needles. My project during my trip was to complete my usual travel diary, with a focus on nature.
At the end of each day, I recorded the day's events. I set up my 'art studio' on the RV dining table for an hour or two each evening - writing, printing, drawing, painting and assembling my book.
Early in my trip, I joined the Whistler Public Library as a temporary non-resident member, so I could borrow some books on local plants and animals. I find that taking the time to identify local flora and fauna gives me a stronger connection to the place I'm visiting, and provides me with a snapshot of the biodiversity of the area. And its a great pleasure to know what I'm looking at, and the books provided some additional information about habitat and how that animal or plant fit into the local environment. It provides a much richer experience.
I sewed up my book using a coptic stitch on the last few days of my holiday, and then when I got home, I printed photographs and inserted them into the blank pages that I had purposely left in between my writings.
I've been doing travel diaries for many years, and its exciting to feel them developing more into visual diaries with a nature focus.
Below are a few photos of my RV art studio and the resulting journal.
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| RV Art Studio in action |
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| Prints onto a postcard to send home, using the Gelli Plate and Paper Birch leaves. Due to Australian quarantine laws I can't bring natural materials like leaves back with me, so printing them with my gelli plate gives me a permanent record for my journal. |
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| During my trip I used my travelling watercolour set to record local flora for my journal, my library reference books are on the left. I'm no watercolour expert but I enjoyed myself anyway! |
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| I'm 'hard at work' printing in the RV...note the smile on my face! |
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| I'm relaxing at our camp at Nairn Falls doing some sketching of a local plant I collected. My view from here was a beautiful boulder-strewn river and snow capped mountains. Heaven! |
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| The RV we hired, our home on wheels for 2 weeks, plus we had mountain bicycles to get out into the forest. |
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| My finished journal, a couple of inches thick, with the coptic binding on the spine. The covers are gelli prints of local flora, including my favourite bracken fern and maple leaves. |
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| A sample from my journal, showing a photograph, gelli prints on vellum and paper, then my daily diary writings on the left. |
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| This journal spread features a gelli print on a postcard, a brochure, and a page with a photograph and sticker (just for a bit of bling!) |
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| This journal spread features photos and a watercolour painting, supplemented by photocopies from my library books giving information on birds and plants I identified during my trip. |