Daily Drawing/Devil's Club

 Daily Drawing: 9x12 sketchbook page, prismacolor and pigma pen

devil's club up over my head high

Chinese Lanterns #1

Next Thursday I will be teaching a little painting workshop for 8-years-and-up people at our nice library as part of their summer Art Camp program.  We will be decorating Chinese Lanterns, nylon ones from Dharma, with acrylic paints.  I spent part of my day starting mine so I had an example to show the group.  Very FUN!  My theme is the Moon's face in four seasons.

This is summer.

Autumn

 Winter Moon

These are 10" diameter lanterns.  It seems to work best to not draw on the lantern blank with pencil but just plunge in with the paint brush.  I think I will encourage the kids to do some preliminary sketching on paper to develop a design prior to working on their lanterns.

I saved the Spring moon to demonstrate in class.

Look for a post of the workshop end of next week, and enjoy your Saturday!

Solstice Florals

New Projects Emerging

Years ago (mid-2000's) a bulletin cover from a Sunday worship service caught my imagination's eye.  

Bulletin cover on the left, my sketch on the right, from 2006.

After five years of percolating on the edges of my consciousness, the inspiration began its journey into reality this past week.  

I stretched an 84"by 48" piece of Strathmore drawing paper on the wall and got busy with pencil and eraser.  No overhead projector - this was done free-hand referring to my original color drawing.  Next step will be dyeing the fabrics.  I'll keep you updated.

The little sketches stacked near my sewing machine from the end of the winter got attention at last, too.  Working back and forth between stitching and painting with textile paints, Prismacolors, and oil sticks was mesmerizing.  

Procion on cotton with untrimmed flannel batting showing, these are works in progress.

The bird image near the center was made with oil stick and stencil.

This piece is now resting, as I make decisions about how I want to finish the edges.

This one is about 6 inches tall, Procion on cotton with a kitchen sink's worth of other media including both machine and hand stitching.  No title yet... heck, it may not even be in its final state!

Thanks so much for visiting!  Have an amazing Saturday.

Scene Recently #11

Small Experiment with Textile Paints

After the intense work getting the Flames project installed, I had time to open the jars of Stewart Gill and Lumiere texitle paints acquired while in Denver.  (The Stewart Gill's were a generous donation to SAQA and were included in our goodie bags at the Visioning Conference last month).  How wonderful to paint away with not an expectation in the world, just comparing paint and reveling in the buttery smooth feel of my brushes on the cotton.

 I drew first on the 100% cotton with a very fine point Sharpie marker and my trusty Pigma .01 pen.

Here's a detail  of 'Moonmask'.  This is pretty small, about 8"x10" I think.

Wishing you a creative week!

Installation

Yesterday was finishing day for the flames project.

First thing, I painted the wooden hoops the silk hangs on with acrylic paint. The diameters are 12, 14 and 16 inches.

 I did some experiments to figure out how to best finish the lower edges of the silk forms.  Angelina fibers adhered with a clear  fusible product called Trans-web was the way I chose to go.  (I remembered to take notes for a change)! 

 This morning my good friend S helped me hang the finished piece at our church.  This is looking from the rear of the church toward the alter.

This view is from our balcony.

Looking toward the rear of the church, we enter through the double doors, and walk under the sculpture.  Pentecost Sunday is this weekend, and we are ready!

Silk Organza Flame Project, Continuing

I want to show you the progress made on my Pentecost flames.  Last week I posted the silk resting in dye pots. 

The organza on the ironing board, with tissue lame adhered with fusible webbing.

Detail of hanging layers #1

Detail of hanging layers #2

Detail of hanging layers #3

Right now I have all three sections pinned on a clothes hanger.  Tomorrow I will attach them to circular frames at their tops and finish the assembly.  I hope to get it hung in the church by Friday.

Screaming Green

My friend C has rightly termed June and July the season of Screaming Green here in southeast Alaska.

rice flower (black lily)

I have been feeling very fragile since getting back here to the island, vulnerable and prone to tears at the least provocation...

beach grass and buttercups (ranunculous)

After being absorbed in the anonymity of big urban places for a long month with my family the only familiar faces, it's been overwhelming to return to this place where every person is someone I know, if only by sight.

salmon berry blossom

I'm sure I'll get over this brittle mood, but until i do, I am grateful to live out the road, deep in the screaming green where I can have solitude in which to hide my fears and tears away.

devil's club and hemlock

 My mother always says that things will look brighter in the morning...

devil's club blossom

...and they always do.

Dyeing Organza

Huzzah and hurray, I was back in my studio at last today!  After putting away detritus from the workshop last month, I got to it with the silk organza for my flame project. 

36 inches of yellow first,

then 48 inches of orange,

and finally 84 inches of red.   The width is 54 inches on all.  I have to piece the yellow and orange to have wide enough swaths to get around the hoops I intend to use when it comes to building the sculpture.

Being back to work made me feel happy like this inside my heart!

Scene Recently #10