There is a Neon exhibition at a local art gallery, so we went along to have a look and saw some wonderful works. I’m pleased to be able to join Valerie over at Art Journal Journey for this month’s theme “Light & Darkness” with my Neon Light interpretation.
I started by colouring three strips of paper from a Design Pad that I had in my craft stash and coloured them neon yellow, pink and blue using different coloured highlighter pens. Then I stuck them diagonally onto the page using a UHU Stic, which I actually used throughout the page to stick things down. I had some post-it notes in the same neon colours so I cut a rectangle of each and stuck them around the edges of the page, so they look like light boxes. Then I cut the art exhibition flyer into strips and used them to add a light tube in each box. I fussy cut a black and white patterned napkin and stuck the pieces onto the page with a UHU Stic. When the glue had dried I added the same neon pink, yellow and blue to the centre bauble shapes so they looked like lights hanging vertically down the page. I added more strips of flyer and then used a green highlighter pen along one of the edges so they looked like they were glowing with light. I cut squares of post-it note then stuck them down and used different highlighter pens along one of the edges. The name of the gallery, neon sign and art picture are also from the flyer. I edged them all with highlighter pen and stuck them to the page using double-sided foam tape. To finish I outlined some of the elements with a black Uni Pin marker.
The The Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool holds a series of Art Exhibitions throughout the year, at the moment it’s “NEON: The Charged Line”. The building is Victorian and with its large rooms, white walls and high ceilings it’s a wonderful space to exhibit an interesting mix of wall and free standing art.
The first room was filled with words made from neon, which were fairly hard to photograph as they were so bright and you couldn’t get any distance away from them. I thought this sign was so clever, it is referring to “Neon” which is “an object that is self-defined”.
In another room, sat in one of the corners was this sack barrow, the glow of the light really lit the space beautifully. I really like the tile floor in this room too, which I think is original.
In the next room, we were greeted with this explosion of colour!
This piece made me smile – I’ll never see a cement mixer in the same light again (excuse the pun!). On the left of the photo is a lovely original antique radiator, which was warming the room wonderfully.
To commemorate our visit, we set up the camera to capture me and hubby standing by one of the signs. We had such a fun time and really enjoyed the exhibition.
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:
- Stabilo Boss Original Highlighter Pen (Yellow, Pink, Blue, Green)
- Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
- Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
- Lyreco Sticky Notes (6 Pack Multi Colours)
- American Crafts DIY Shop (48 Papers 366665)
- Alio Napkins
- Flyer
- UHU Stic
- The Range double-sided foam tape
A very cool and funky page! That exhibition looks amazing too!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Alison xx
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Thank you Alison! I’m looking forward to the weekend as we are away visiting family :-). Have a wonderful weekend too! J 🙂
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I love your clever journal page, with those wonderful neon colours Thanks for joining us again at AJJ! I like the pictures of the exhibition, too, and especially the photo of you two together. Neon lighting is hard to photograph, I tried recently at the museum here with neon and TV installations, and it is difficult to get them right – you did very well. Hugs, Valerie
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Thanks so much Valerie! The neon was a bit tricky to capture and some of the photos didn’t make the grade … lol :-). Happy Friday and start to the weekend! J 🙂
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What a fantastic exhibition! Thank you very much for taking me with you to see this ! Your page is brilliant! Great that you used so many different things and got such a unique page to visualise that fab exhibition!
Thank you for playing again with us over at Art Journal Journey!
I wish you a happy weekend Jo!
hugs
Susi
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Thanks very much Susi! It was such a fun exhibition that I had to create a page, which meant I had to think outside my normal craft stash for materials and experiment to get the neon look – which was great fun! Wishing you a Happy Weekend too! J 🙂
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Interesting art exhibit, and I love your piece. Those bright colors are really happy and cheery. perfect for this bitterly cold morning in my world. Happy weekend. Hugs-Erika
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Glad I was able to bring some happiness and cheer to your world :-). Thanks a lot Erica and wishing you a Happy Weekend too! J 🙂
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Once again I’m in awe of your art journal imitating life. I was especially in awe of your use of highlighter pens. Mine are so big and thick, I’d never be able to stay within the lines.
I also really enjoyed seeing the museum. When I first say the word on your spread, I misread it, thinking it was GRUNGY. A second look (because I thought your journal page looked NOTHING like grunge) and I laughed at my mistake. This is a lovely post.
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Your are too kind, thank you! The highlighters I used were square tipped so for the fine work I used one of the tips on the corner :-). Happy Weekend! J 🙂
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Wonderful neon colours on your fantastic page. I like the way [to me] it looks a bit abstract and bright.. The exhibition looks great, especially the cement mixer, someone had a right sense of humour creating that piece.
Yvonne xx
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Great, it was a change from my normal pieces and such fun to create! Thank you and wishing you a Happy Weekend! J 🙂
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Cool how you brought the neon look into your art page! Very interesting photos of the museum – I like the cement mixer most! I worked with it when my parents built more rooms into our house, and really – for me it was a “light”-machine, so we had not to mix the cement with our arms!
Happy weekend! Rike x
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Happy Weekend Rike! It sounds like you have fond memories of building those extra rooms with your family, thanks for sharing and for your lovely comments! J 🙂
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The neon colors add a cool and funky touch to the collage. Lots of visually interesting details. Great exhibition photos too.
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Thanks so much! Great to meet you and wishing you a Happy Weekend! J 🙂
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Wow! Your page is fabulous – I can see how you would be inspired by that brilliant(see what i did there?) exhibition!
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So funny Chris … :-). Thanks a lot! J 🙂
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Very cool are creative page – it depicts light in such a wonderful way! And I love your photos, too . . . what an amazing exhibition!!!
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Many thanks! It was a wonderful exhibition and so nice to explore each room to see the different artwork :-). Have a great week! J 🙂
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Your own art is absolutely wonderful (brilliant (!) even), it would have been perfectly at home on a wall in this marvellous exhibition which you have photographed so well.
I always read (fascinated by) every word on your process, and your artwork with its own neon strips, high-lighted squares and long striped baubles which offset the straight lines, is really tremendous.
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Thanks so much Sheila! I experimented quite a bit on this page and had loads of fun creating something different, glad you like it :-). Have a great week! J 🙂
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