Somewhere a Simple Place

I've been  dabbling in Mixed Media Art. I'm not a fan of it but of all the pages I've done, this is my favorite.  I followed a journaling prompt  "Somewhere a Simple Place."    I thought about it and thought about it and decided that the most simple place for me is Matagorda on the Gulf Coast of Texas.  It's a sleepy little fishing town that hubby and I, along with other family and friends like to go to for some fishing and quiet time. Matagorda is most beautiful when the sun is setting, so I wanted to capture a sunset for this journal page.  The silhouette figures are from a photo that I took of my husband and brother.  I printed it as a digital image in Word and cut it out to collage on to my sunset page.

The quote is from a song by Kate Bush.  It says:  "Oh sing of summer and a sunset. And sing for us, so that we may remember.  The day writes the words right across the sky.  They all go all the way up to the top of the night."   On the right, on the short inclusion page, I added more sunset colors and the date I finished this page-- 01 17 14.  I try to remember to date each page when I complete it.  I then stamped the words "in memory of Brady Lee Steele at rest in Matagorda Bay."  My nephew Brady passed away suddenly in November at the age of 42.  We had his memorial in December and soon we will take his ashes to Matagorda Bay which was also his favorite simple place.

This is a close up of the sun and the sunset.  I accomplished this by first starting with several colors of Ranger Distress Ink pads and using a foam applicator to apply them to the paper.  Then I took a wet paint brush and carefully blended the colors.  I added brighter and deeper colors with Gelato Big Brush Pens and Gelato crayons.  To keep the layers from bleeding too much as I blended, I sprayed the page with Kryon Workable Fixative.  I also sprayed it on the page when I was finished to protect it.

The wood plank sign is a digital piece I collaged onto the page with Multi Matte Medium.  With a white pen I wrote on the sign:  Matagorda Pop. 710  A Sweet Simple Place.  I also outlined the silhouette of my husband and brother with a white pen.

Have wonderful and blessed day,