Bright Blossoms and Recent Paintings

The woods have bloomed in earnest the past week under the influence of long sunny days.  These salmon berry flowers behind our house caught my camera eye.

 

I think we can expect a good crop of berries later this summer.  I like to eat salmon berries with shortcake and whipped cream.  They also make a workmanlike jelly if mixed with a stronger flavored juice like apple or raspberry.

Now I want to give you a glimpse of two new paintings: 

'City on the Hill' (working title) acrylic and paper on canvas, approx. 18"x24"

'Fan' (working title) acrylic and paper on watercolor paper, approx. 22"x34"

The spring weather has put these efforts on the back burner as it is now warm enough to dye in my studio!  

I mixed up Procion colors on Monday, after drawing and printing with thickened black dye on dry, soda-soaked cotton for three days.

A big panel, covered with plastic to cure until my next studio day tomorrow.

  I can't wait to get back there tomorrow, but for now Flossy and I are off to the Mighty Mighty Day Job.  Happy day to all!

Drawing Challenge - Dnah Tnanimodnon

The challenge evoked a memory of drawing class at University with one of my favorite and most demanding professors who often gave us this type of assignment.

non-dominant hand in 8x6 'gamma' sketchbook

Also, this week: much new work flying up on the old design wall.  I washed out the procion dye paintings started last week.  (The best was to do this: soak the cured paintings in ice water for half an hour or so, followed by washing them in the machine with cold water and synthrapol detergent followed by a hot water machine washing).

The three on the right below are textile paint on low-water immersion dyed cotton. These paintings and the ones above will all be machine stitched and who know what else on the way to completion.

Lots of miles to go on the way to hanging my show in September, but I feel very fired up about the journey!  Where are you headed next?

Make sure you go have a look at the other non-dominant links over at Norma's!

Dye Painting Process - Condensed Version

I promised to put together a little explanation of dye painting for Zom.  I hesitate to call this a tutorial, because the process is rather complex (lots of recipes, more than one way to do things, health and safety considerations).  The aim here is to show how I do things in my studio.  Everything I know I learned from Ann Johnston and Jane Dunnewold (oh, and experience).  I urge those interested in pursuing dye painting to read the excellent books available from these two artists, or better yet, take their workshops.

I work on cotton which has been pre-soaked in a soda ash solution.  The soda ash functions as the binding agent, fixing the dye molecules to the fabric. 

Procion MX dye comes as a powder and its dust is toxic to breathe, so use a good filter mask when mixing dye with water to make concentrates.  

I like to make my dye up in squeeze bottles, 1/2 cup at a time.  Dye concentrate lasts months in cool temps, but does loose strength over time.  Once the dye is exposed to soda ash however, it exhausts rapidly – 15 minutes.  I work with small amounts of dye at a time so my brushes which are contaminated with soda ash from the cloth don’t exhaust my dye too fast.  I use little water color palettes to paint out of.

Dye can be thickened for applying with stamps, and to control the flow of color on the cloth.  Prochem makes a dandy print paste which lasts a very long time once you mix it up with water.  Follow the directions on the package.  

Once you have good, thick print paste mixed up, you add dye concentrate at a 50/50 ratio or more.  A plastic fork is the best tool to blend paste with dye.  A consistency like honey is perfect for applying to rubber stamps.  I use a foam brush to pat the thickened dye onto the stamp.

In order to produce good strong color, the dye must be allowed to cure for 24 hours.  The moisture has to be held in the cloth and the room temperature must be above 65 degrees during curing.  To help the water be ‘wetter’, urea is used.  Urea mixed with water is used to thin the dye paste and to lighten values when using un-thickened dye.

Brushes for applying dye should be synthetic only because of the soda ash tends to destroy natural bristle brushes over time.  The best surface to work on is a work table covered with two layers of felt and an old sheet over that.  Plastic is a nuisance underneath your work but you will need it to cover your paintings while they cure.

I hope this is helpful to readers and sparks interest in trying this endlessly fascinating medium.