Last weekend I was blessed to be chauffeured by my Hon- to Valerie Sjodin’s amazing art studio in Oregon for a grand weekend of painting. How fun to walk into the studio and be warmly greeted by a sister in Christ who I have only seen in photos on her blog, VisualBlessings.blogspot.com. What a wonderful delight to see and touch her art and take in all the bright colors that depict the glory of our Awesome God in such a wonderful way! She is truly a beautiful artist inside and out.
Of course we all got to work right away making our art journals. I have continued to work on mine at home and have changed it several times, but have finally settled on my inside pages with the theme of “My sheep”.
We learned how to stitch our binding on our journal and she showed us many of her fancy ideas that she uses in her own journals such as making swirlies out of paper (these are so fun, you won’t want to stop and get back to painting), making marbled prints on watercolor paper and tissue paper, making spray paint, making stripes for the edges of our pages, highlighting the edges with paint and so much more! It truly was the best time I have spent making art on a weekend retreat.
Here is a close-up of “My sheep” that I decided to keep as my theme in this journal as well.
The spray paints were super easy to make and added so many more possibilities for our personal journals. We also used stencils of all shapes and sizes and the marbled paper that we made was fun to create using shaving cream! Yep, I said shaving cream 🙂
We even designed our own tissue paper!
If you ever get a chance to take an art class, especially one of Valerie Sjodin’s, I highly recommend it. It was soooo worth the personal investment. Here is a picture of one of our many fun workshop moments:
Blessings for a wonderful and safe 4th of July. Father, thank You for the freedom You have bestowed upon us to worship you in Spirit and in Truth. “Come Lord Jesus, Come.”
Constance
You can find more info on Valerie’s Workshops by clicking here.
