Happy New Years!

Thanks so much to everyone who posted to me and offered encouragement this year. It meant so much to me.

At the beginning of the year, I made a resolution: Learn to use watercolor. Lots of experiments and ups and downs later, and lots of art supply purchases later, I've made a start and had a lot of fun.

So now for a new resolution: Make art every possible day, and explore new tools and techniques.

So here is my New Years offering. I was playing with some new encaustics (does anyone else out there have a dangerous addiction to flockshop.com?) and decided to just throw down some random paint with the iron. I went away and forgot about them for a few days, but tonight I was cleaning up in my studio and a New Years Pegasus and balloon bouquet appeared!

North Carolina barn

It came out a little bit cartooney, but I decided I liked it anyway.

Infinity scarf

Here is a step by step of the infinity scarf. For further details and better instructions, check the article on the Koos Loop from this month's Threads.

Fabric, right side up.....approximately 12 x 72 inches.

At the center, fold one end as shown, right sides together.
Fold the other end, as shown.
Pin an opening 5" across at the center. Sew from the pin to 3" from the end, right sides together. You will be forming a bias fold, but sewing on grain. Then sew from the other side of the opening to 3" from the oppoisite end.
Turn right side out through the opening, and pin the ends together, right sides together. Make sure you have a twist in the fabric loop. Sew the ends together. Then turn wrong sides out, and sew the long bias spiral seam together at the ends, leaving the 5" opening. Turn to the right side and whipstitch the opening shut.

easy project

I made this infinity scarf in less than an hour today, and have the silk pieces to do several more!

Nice surprise!

It has been a long, cold, barren winter in my studio. Nuthin'. I got nuthin'. Everything I set my paints to ends up a disaster. It is so painful!

And then, a happy accident today. I had been practicing my spatters and decided to reuse the sheet to practice some trees.

Figuring things out.

First of all, the photo is of a single salt cellar my sister picked out for me for my birthday last year. When I saw it, I declared it too lovely for table use and brought it into my studio, where it cheers and inspires me.

I used to today to salt some color tests that weren't working out. I recently purchased some very cheap gouache at Michaels, and was doing color charts. All I will say about that is that I'm going to buy some higher quality paint and try again. So I threw down some salt on the color charts to try to get some more interesting effects.

My sister is planning to take me with her to Germany in a few weeks, to advocate for her when she undergoes back surgery there. (The doctors there have the most experience in what she needs done.) We will be there 3-4 weeks.

So of COURSE I am thinking about what art necessities to take. What would be in your art travel bag for a trip like that? I have all kinds of colored and watercolor pencils, some peerless watercolor papers, it may be hard to edit it down satisfactorily. And it will be tempting to find an art supply store once I am there.

I'd love your comments on that question, as well as what colors are in your essential palette.

calling it good

Here are the completed paintings. (Edited to replace with proper scans now that I figured it out!)

another take on the evergreens

I'm trying with the trees, again, and here are a couple of works in progress. I think the next things I will do are to bring more grey into the side stems and branches, and to bring forward and add the lighter, brighter green to the tips of the central branches. Looking at these, I am shocked at the color distortion from the scanner-- the actual paintings are much lighter and greener. hmmmmm. I tried again with a camera and got a little more accurate colors, but it still isn't right.

Any suggestions (for the painting, the scanner/photos are hopeless!)? I am beginning to think that I need to try out some gouache, which I have never used. Not on these paintings, but as an experiment in its own right.

an experiment

I loved the trees in the Northwest. I wanted to stay forever. I did take lots of pictures, thinking about how to capture the layers and layers of color. This is a first experiment, the color is a bit distorted by the scanner. I think I will try this again with some actual watercolor paper and see what different things I can do to show layers of color. This was with inktense pencils, watercolor pencils, and a touch of watercolor crayon on a couple of spots.

Long time, no post

....but I will share what I've been up to.

I have been working this summer on a quilt for a friend. It is nearly finished, just quilting it now.


I also taught a little class in our town community center. The theme was "Urbanology" and I taught a unit on the Watts Towers. Even though we are in the Los Angeles area, the kids did not know about the towers, so I started by showing this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaIloDyhg90

Then they were given some wire sculpture tools, and here is what resulted!










I can't take credit for it, but the nonprofit that I volunteer with has now put up a mural on a big community corridor. I think it is amazing! for more info, go to thearTree.org.




We are back from two weeks' vacation in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to many Starbucks mugs, I collected some new art supplies-- stabilo pen sets in both sizes, inktense pencils, and a new flexi-sketch book. I came home to a shipment from Cheap Joe's that included paper samplers and some inks! School starts Thursday, so I will have some time in my studio again.

Drawing Lab 1A

The second part of the first exercise is to take several of your imaginary kitties and render them in different media. So I dug out a little moleskine and my charcoal sticks from my college days.....can it have been 35 years?

Drawing Lab

A huge thank you to the folks who mentioned Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab. I did some work on the first exercise today:

"sitting or lying on your bed, take cardstock and a colored extra-fine marker and draw 30 or more cats from your imagination."

I love her idea that creativity blossoms when you impose more strictures on your exercise, not fewer.

So here are a few of my imaginary kitties.

I'm still working on a quilt for a friend, and still preparing to teach a couple of one-hour classes to kids at a community center in a disadvantaged area of town next month. They will be based on the Watts Towers to go with our theme of "urbanology", our word for urban art. The first week will be a whimsical sculpture activity with wire, beads and buttons, and wooden blocks to mount the wire structures on. The second week will be a hand cranked toy using tin cans as a housing, and bent wire for the crank, and again wire and beads for a moving sculpture coming out of a hole in top of the can. I'm having a little trouble getting a prototype together of this--- I need to figure out an easy and cheap way to keep the moving sculpture in place on the hand crank while still letting it move around the crank. I am thinking maybe styrofoam peanuts on each side of the sculpture? Does that make any sense? If anybody reading understand what I am trying to say and has any ideas, I'd be grateful.

May 13

"Draw or paint a fence." I used this one as an excuse to try out watercolor crayons, which I had not used before. They were OK for quick sketching, I wanted a bigger range of colors. My back fence, as seen from my balcony, with cape honeysuckle for the hummingbirds and roses for me.

May 11

Something fresh-- two red and one yellow-- raspberries.

May 10

The kitties love for the gas fireplace to be on all winter long!

Joshua trees

These interesting trees are found only in the California, Arizona and Nevada high deserts. The California range starts at Palmdale, a bout a half hour north of where I live. I took these photographs in late December after heavy rains, at the Red Rock Canyon State Park, a little farther north.

The largest trees are thought to be hundreds of years old. They do not form rings, and are evergreen, but the old fronds cover the bark similar to the way some palm trees grow. (Some people call Joshua trees yucca palms.) Woodpeckers love them and nest in them!

This was a fiendishly difficult project for me, and took several weeks. I realized part way in that I was not seeing the color correctly-- that everything that grows in the desert is greyed-down lavender, beige, or green, and that the landscape coloring is very subtle. Layering the colors was very challenging. And then there is the issue of my normal loosey-goosey style, the looseness of watercolor as a medium, and the starkness of the subject. I think it would have been much easier to tackle in oils, which would have allowed me to layer on color and texture. Maybe I should consider trying that.

EDIM 8 and 9

I think I need to switch genres, but here are my lightbulb and clock. I realized we have only digital clocks in the house. This one is satellite-correcting, but has the wrong dates for daylight savings time, so there are a few weeks every year when we are confused. as this is our alarm clock. The lightbulb-- we have been replacing everything possible with CFL bulbs, and through that and other methods have cut our electric bill in half.

May 7

Not happy with this!

something sour for May 6

I almost skipped today. But I didn't.

Cinco de Mayo

Having fun with the resists and yupo.