Travel Journaling

Travel Journaling

After a couple of joyful weeks caring for my three month old grandson, I'm home slipping back into some art diversions.  I was invited to share the art of travel journaling to a group of artists in St. Louis.  It's always fun to share my passion of painting "plein air" vignettes travel scenes.  There is nothing like carrying my little bag with me as I travel with an eye for something to paint along the way.  Once I find a spot that grabs me, I'll sit on a rock, a step, a park bench, a tree stump, a chair in an open air cafe or even the ground to paint for an hour or two what's in front of me. 

Some artists use their journals as reference materials for future paintings.  I have done that from time to time, but I paint in my travel journals just for the joy of capturing the scene for myself.  Anyone who knows me, knows I take hundreds of photos, but when I look at my little paintings I'm inserted back to the time and place surrounded by the sites, smells and sounds in a way a photo cannot do.


During the recent art journal demo I had a chance to add one final little painting to the series of scenes I'd painted from a 2010 trip I organized for 10 artists to travel to France.  In Paris we were walking up the steep hill to Montmartre and one of my friends was doing the "leche vitrines" as the French say, or window shopping.  She looked like she belonged to the shop - she blended in with the manekins sporting her bright colors and bohemian style.  The photo I took of Loris that day, is one that makes me smile every time I look at it.  The name of the shop is now my nicname for my friend - "Tcha Tcha!" 

I began my first travel journal in 1999 and have filled up four of them.  The journal comes from France with the trade name "Vang."  The paper is lovely.  It's not something I've been able to find in the states, so I pick them up when I'm in France. These are a few photos from some of my journals, the last entry, "Tcha Tcah"  is from my last one.