I said there’d be more about my Aotearoa NZ sojourn. And lo.

Kiaora!
Sally Swain’s mini artelogue journal

Smiley face snow-streaked mountain on a hot summer’s day. Can you spot the friendly mountain appearing in journal page above?

A Smiley Face Snow-Streaked Mountain

watched over the place I fell in love with,

which was C Wise Cottage, Glenorchy as mentioned in last week’s post. Twas hard to say farewell to said Mountain.

Art journalling ensued. Post-Smiley Face, I sat for two hours in

Sandfly Café, Te Anau, making a page for each day thus far of my Aotearoa NZ holiday.

It’s in a wee little sketchbook – pretty basic – but I was immersed in delight.

Much of the holiday was skirting around Queenstown, home of extreme sports, such as parking your car. Dreadfully challenging.

Lake Wakatipu. See Smiley Mountain over there on the right?

Extreme-Sport-Sal
Swimming in Lake Wakatipu (said to be 10 degrees) on a summer Sunday at seven pm. Usually my most extreme sport is stepping onto an escalator in a shopping mall. Well hey! Escalators are scary.

Do you keep any kind of art journal?

One minute there was the visual diary. Next minute there’s a world of art journalling out there. Very cool. It seems to be an entire art form involving a range of processes, particularly mixed media. I get a sense of possibility from looking at layered, textured art journals.

Here’s Goodreads link to a bunch of Art Journalling books.

What’s not to like about a vehicle of creativity that’s so accessible, portable and non-hierarchical? And doesn’t rely on a fancy schmancy commercial gallery saying you’re fashionable.

Art journalling has been adopted and adapted in the art therapy zone too. See Cathy Malchiodi’s info-rich piece about its recent history.
And a link to Lucia Capacchione’s Creative Journal book.

Sydney’s inner city. Another smiley face greets me in a back lane. Graffitti Grunge.

Smiley Face Graffitti, Newtown

From natural splendour to city funk takes a bit of getting used to. I wish to keep my beauty-seeking eyes on though.

How to continue that spacious holiday feeling?
Sally Swain mini artelogue journal

How do YOU keep that holiday feeling alive? How do YOU keep your heart and senses wide open in the Big Smoke? Do you find you need to filter out a lot of input to stay moderately sane?

PS Those automated revolving doors in large office blocks would have to be another extreme sport. They’re SO FAST. A useful strategy for excluding over 55s from your building.