Out of the Journal: Week Three

Dina Wakely and Samantha Kira are two very accomplished art journalers living in Arizona.  And they have hatched a wonderful challenge.

You can read all about it here.  Essentially, they are challenging you to get out of your art journal and start playing on canvas!  The challenge is to complete two canvases (larger than 8x10) each week.  Click here to see what I did for week one and here for week two. 

This week I'm in Maine.  We're right on the water and I brought some canvases with me thinking that the ocean might provide some unique inspiration.

Meh.

I mean, the ocean is totally spectacular!  Look at this killer view:

But when I sat down to paint the rocks or the waves or even the pool...nothing happened.  I got total creative block.  But rather than spend my precious creative time kicking myself for not being able to get inspired, I did exactly what I do when I get stuck in my art journal: I worked on backgrounds!

Backgrounds are easy because they don't require you to do any thinking or planning.  You just do what feels and looks good without any thought about the story or composition.  Love that!

So here are two backgrounds. 

I have to decide what to put in the foreground now.  I'm thinking some collage.  I'd like to do something ocean-beachy, but I'm not sure what.  I need some time to percolate.

Thanks for stopping by!