Moodling into delight and collage fodder

Being a collector of "Everyday Delights"

Here’s card number 36 from the pack of 50

The card art

Every so often, I have a frenzy of making #collagefodder. One way of doing this that I really enjoy, is making beautiful watercolour washes on good watercolour paper, using all the colours in the Caran D'Ache Neocolour Crayons box. I love watching how the colours and water pool together in unexpected ways - it's so gratifying and calming.

Once the colour is dry, I look for shapes in the colour and use marker pens to define them. One of my go-to shapes is a leaf. Then I cut them out when I'm watching telly. And end up with a satisfying pile of bits I can use for collage.

Before I started making the cards for this project, I did a few of these #collagefodder sessions, so that I would have plenty to work with. The three "leaves" in this collage are the result of one of those sessions.  If you look closely at the pics below, you might be able to spot a few of the green leaves.

Making collage fodder

The practice

In 2014, I began taking a photo every day as part of a 365 project.
And continued doing that for another 3 years.
This become a practice - a practice of collecting moments of delight, every day through my photography.
Joyfully, thanks to the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic, this has now extended into having and experiencing moments of delight through art making and doodling.

What this means is that

“I am a collector of Everyday Delights. By collecting my small, daily observations and the random individual moments of my life, I have unexpectedly and miraculously woven together a rich narrative for my life.” [Me, in 2020]

And in a way, I live my life expecting to be delighted.
It doesn't always work, mind you (especially when trying to buy a property in England and dealing with solicitors and other parties!) and I don’t manage to collect a moment or even have a moment for myself.
But I try my best.

Quintessence

"The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention" - Anne Wilson Schaef

If you want to find out a bit more about the project and a little bit of backstory, head to the About page.