When thinking about houseplants, are memories of giant ferns in your grandmother’s living room sparked? Do you think about your various trials and tribulations with houseplants over past the years? The point of this art journal prompt is to explore memories, make plans, or play around with anything you would like surrounding the topic of houseplants.
Materials:
- Art journal
- Glue stick (one or more)
- Gardening magazines (several)
- Photocopies from plant books (several)
- Empty seed packets (at least one for each page)
- Acrylic paints, various colors
- Paintbrushes (or sponge brushes)
- Small containers of water
- Black sharpie (fine tipped)
- Pressed leaves (at least three for each page)
- Scissors
- Newspapers (to cover your work surface with)
Instructions:
- Spread out all of your materials in front of you in order to start planning and imagining how to assemble your first page spread.
- Open your art journal to the first blank page spread, and then create a color wash. Create thick layers of paint to give the pages movement and texture. Choose colors that stand out to you at this very moment.
- While the pages dry, cut pictures from the magazines and photocopies. Experiment on your work surface with placement.
- Collage all of your elements and embellishments on the painted pages, including the pressed leaves and empty seed packets.
- Use the black sharpie to write your thoughts, memories, song lyrics, or quotations related to how you are feeling while creating this page spread.
Variations:
- Add drawings of plants you would like to incorporate into your home’s design scheme.
- Write about plants that you used to grow when you were a child in school.
- Reminisce about how you and a family member or friend used to take cuttings from other houseplants to create new container gardens.
- Dream about how many plants you would have if you had the time and money to care for them all.
Houseplants seem to have an unspoken importance in our day-to-day lives, consciously or unconsciously. This art journal prompt is meant to pay homage to that fact. Repeat this art journal prompt as often as needed to fully express your feelings, thoughts, and memories about houseplants.
Conversely, if you do not like houseplants, then this art journal prompt can take on a completely different meaning. Using the same materials and suggestions above, write about what you don’t like about houseplants and create collages expressing these thoughts. Try not to be too negative, but still create pages that manage to get your point across. Repeat this art journal prompt until you have fully expressed your viewpoint through art.
