Visual Diary

My maternal grandfather, who was a more disciplined person than you'll ever meet among his offspring, kept a diary / datebook that he wrote in every day.

(Were he here today, I am quite sure he would not approve of blogging as a substitute.)

Every year my mom would buy him the datebook, and every year he'd fill them up. I need to see if someone still has them. I'd love to read them. I'm quite certain there were no cat pictures in there, and not just because he didn't have a cat.

My paternal grandmother was a prolific painter. She'd paint on ANYTHING - pieces of wood - pieces of cardboard - any inanimate object.

I realized, after I started my most recent diversion, that there's a chance that I'm not a genius or an inventor, but in fact, quite perfectly settled between a few widely varied chromosomes.

My friend & co-worker Lori inspired me with this pin to embark on this project, which I ADORE.

It's the perfect mix of discipline and artistic chaos. I love it so, so much.

Here's what I did.

After my class last Saturday, I went to Staples and bought this calendar, after touching every calendar in the store - sooo many are wrong for this project. Lines in the squares, squares too small - words everywhere. This one was perfect. It has a very soft, leatherish cover that I like and I like the minimalist design on the front. Now that I found this on Amazon, I am pretty peeved that my Staples didn't have this gorgeous aqua one, but I'll get over it.

Now mind you, I didn't do this until the 17th, after my stamping class, so I was already part of the way through January. But never you mind. Better late than never.

I took my fave gesso - American Journey Gesso (it's my fave because you can watercolor on it - most gesso is made to prime for acrylic) and 1/5th of an old Amazon gift card that I use like a palette knife, and carefully spread gesso onto the square for January 19th - the day I started.

Then I just did a quick little painting on top with Golden Fluid Acrylics. It took me all of about three minutes. And I squealed. And I did it the next day. And I did it today. SO fun.

For the second day, I used the Indescribable Gift Stamp set, and stamped it in So Saffron on top of the gesso and then just did no-line watercolor over that with Strawberry Slush and Mellow Moss Ink. Again, just a few minutes.

It's so fun and so quick. If I keep it up, won't this be a cool visual diary at the end of the year?

Today, it rained, and so today's little painting is grey - I'll show you that soon.

If you want to do this - be sure and have some freezer paper on hand. Put that between the pages while you're working so that nothing bleeds through the pages before the gesso is dry. Also, on the second day, I taped off my square with 3M tape before starting and it made it easier and cleaner.

I like having the dates show, but you can certainly gesso over those.


I don't have a plan for this other than to take a break each day and do something in it. It's just minutes to do a square. I think I will just let each day dictate what I put there and not overthink it.

I'd definitely recommend a calendar that opens flat like this one.

I'd also recommend not leaving watercolor water on your desk for your cat to knock off, but that's a tale for another day.

Loveyameanitbye.