bookpage1 ©Louise Gale

When Tracy invited me to host a couple of creative sessions at the ‘Sacred Marks” retreat in Bali, I just knew that creating a journal to record all the inspiration around us would be perfect. Initially, I thought we could create a hand-made book (similar to the ones I create for my rainbow joy journal class) however, this idea morphed into us creating a beautiful altered book. So today, I wanted to show you some of the pages of mine in progress so far.

We asked each of the students to bring a book that spoke to them or resonated with them which we would then alter with inks, paint, sewing, sketches, collage and lots more.

I chose “A Guide for Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupry” which I love. It is full of quotes from all of his books and space on each page to add colour and sketches. It was so lovely to revisit this book as I layered gesso on as a base and read each quote as I traveled through, page by page.

bookpage orange people ©Louise Gale

Above is the contents page of the book where I added orange ink and sprayed with a water spray bottle. As the ink moved about the pages, I started to see figures emerge so decided to keep these pages just so. I love to open the book and see these ‘friends’.

I really love the old creamy colour of the book pages and thought about keeping these as they were, but to make them a little more robust for the layers of inks, water and more paint, it was definitely a good call to gesso them first!

Some of the pages, I have saturated with vibrant colour, like the one below. I love the energy of turquoise and marine blue together. I also used a wax crayon to act as a resist to show the white lotus sketch. These pages also have little ‘potholes’ where I have torn holes to reveal what is on the previous and next pages.

book_deep blue ©Louise Gale

Then in constrast, other pages have just one colour covering some of the page to give them a light and textured look. Below you can also see where I have glued a little flower sketch from my sketchbook and sewn around that to add another little piece of detail.

book_green pages © Louise Gale

As a nature lover, I just had to use some of the Bali nature studies from my sketchbook to include. So much inspiration and beautiful patterns around us.

book_nature pages @Louise Gale

Some of the pages have the contrast on the double page spread and below I have torn the edges of the pages to reveal the colours of pages behind. I love the mix of colours and textures.

book_spring colour pages ©Louise Gale

I’ll be continuing on with these pages over the next ten days as we welcome another lovely group of creative women for our second retreat here in Bali. I look forward to sharing more about my Bali adventures and inspiration and you can find all the related blog posts here (under the category “Bali retreat“)

book pages together ©Louise Gale

Thanks again for visiting and it is so wonderful to share this journey with you.

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Would you like to join me on one of my upcoming online classes?

STARTS: Monday 1 September 2014

Registration for my popular “Color Energy Class” is open and class starts on Monday 1 September 2014.

Creative Colour Energy WorkshopWould you like to embark on a colour adventure, play with mixed media, and learn about the 7 levels of energy?

We will explore and play through:

  • colour vision journaling/colour stories
  • mixed media,
  • painting and
  • photography

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STARTS: Monday 20 October 2014

Mixed Media Mandalas online classWould you like to explore the sacred circle and mixed media mandalas further? I would love for you to join me to dive deeply in the 4 week “Mixed Media Mandalas” online class.

By the end of class, you will have a journal full of sacred circles and at least one finished mixed media piece of artwork to hang on your wall.