More Sketching

This chair

became this in my sketchbook

It’s from last week’s weekend drawing event on wet canvas.  I am drawn to old textures and had two thoughts on doing this chair.  The first was to brighten it up with lots of new colors but I finally settled on putting it in the yard with a pot of geraniums.

When I was doing the sketching I treated it as if I were outdoors sketching though have to admit that I took more time getting the chair right than I would have had I actually been outdoors.  I’m happy with the result. 

It feels good to be putting paint on paper again.  Still feels good doing the stitching too.  Now I’m looking at ways to combine them.

More Sketching and some stitching

This one was for the April Challenge in the watermedia forum at wetcanvas.com.  April showers bring May flowers was the challenge and there were a few photos to choose from.  Sketching slowly from a photograph makes it easy to get the image; I need to practice working from life.  I’ve been doing it once a week with some friends but we end of doing more visiting that sketching and once a week isn’t enough. 

It’s time to get back to doing something every day, even if it’s a small one.  This one was done as part of a page in my 12x9 Aquabee Sketch Book.  Here is the rest of the page

These were done over the weekend, images from wetcanvas again, the weekend drawing event.. 

I also did some stitching… color!  That’s what I am wanting to bring more of into my life.  So here is a bag and pencil case to hold my larger sketchbook and palette when I’m outdoors painting. The pieces are brighter than they looks here.  We have those horrid new lightbulbs which discolor everything.  The bag and pencil case are on a white countertop, not a yellow one.  And why did the white in the bag stay white – who knows.

Finally, some sketching done ….

                  

Over at wetcanvas.com there is a weekend drawing event in one of the forums.  The link will take you over there.  These are two sketches I did this weekend, Pepsi Please is from this weekend’s hostess.  

The tile roof is an image from a friend who also happens to be one of my favorite artists, Li Newton.  Li takes wonderful photos and there is always something I’m gonna want to paint when she hosts.  The piece above is one of those…. from a long ways back.  I don’t remember when and I can’t seem to find the photo but I had done the drawing, it’s cropped from a larger street scene in one of those exotic places she visits.

The event works like this -- whoever is hosting posts 15 photos, you pick one and do whatever you’re going to do with it.  The kicker is you need to post whatever you have done at the 2  hour mark.  I usually get so involved in thinking and doing that I forget to time myself. 

It felt good… both of these are done in my 12 x 9 Aquabee sketch book and I worked like I do when I’m painting en plein air. 

In The Works

This is a piece that has been hanging in my stitching space for a very long time waiting…. It’s a mixed media piece, a combination of painting ( the sunset,) transfer (the poem…I must go down to the see again….) and stitching it all together on fabric.  Last night I decided it is time to figure out how to finish it.  That’s my project for today.

Meanwhile, a couple other WIP’s (works in process) in my stitching space…. a couple small abstract wall quilts ….

The faces were inspired by something posted on Jude’s Spirit Cloth blog.  I want to embroider something on the brown strip on the top piece, on the lower piece I used a bleach pen to discharge the word create.

Reading what I just wrote about these makes me think… I need to clarify abstract.  I call these abstract because there is something that has been abstracted, the face.  If the face weren’t on the piece it would actually be non-representational art.  However, it seems to me that most folks call all of this type of work abstract so I,’m conflicted, should I call it what it is or what most folks recognize.

On Crayons, Snow and Stitching

You may recall awhile back I wrote about wanting that big box of crayons – so many wonderful colors!  I finally bought myself an even bigger box awhile back and I hide them.  My grandson loves to color too and he has the box I wanted as a child but my big box, that’s for me and me alone – for now.  I just love looking at them.

On snow – we’ve had a lot of it this winter and I love it.  What does it say about me that I just realize how important color is and yet I love the whiteness that winter brings?  Perhaps it’s the bright that I love, not necessarily the color.  Then again, I add color to the snow scenes I paint so I must see it.

And stitching – I’m still doing it.  I signed up for another Craftsy class, this time on art quilting.  The first assignment was to use circles, squares and triangles for your design – abstract or floral.  I did a small flower – don’t like it a bit – it’s dull.

She didn’t assign but did have a pattern for Winken and Blinken, I thought about Winken Blinken and Nod and started it… a few variations to make it mine.  This one isn’t done.  It’s going to stay hanging where I can see it for awhile, until I see what needs to happen next.

And then there are all those pieces discharged fabric, two of them got some embroidery added and became mug rugs.

That may be the dull flower’s destiny too.

On working with our hands

I’ve written about stitching lately and about my search for my creative self… the one who makes art just to satisfy me.  I’ve done a lot of journaling, a lot of sketching, a lot of reading and a lot of stitching. 

This silly doll is my new muse, a Spirit Doll stitched in response to a Karen Musgraves Creativity Lesson.

The front is a very old piece of a well worn quilt top.  I doubt it would hold up for any use other than this.  The back is a piece of fabric I had been journaling on – another experiment unrelated but it works because I was journaling about stitching and life.  The legs are a combination of handmade and purchased beads.  I think she still needs wings but I’m not sure what kind so she will hang like this for now… just above the table I use for drawing, some stitching and where I’m still working my way through the “Nine Modern Day Muses” book.

Another blog I visit is “Spirit Cloth”.  I love her stitching and she helped me discover that I actually do like the quietness of hand stitching.  From her I also learned how to blind baste and I love it but that’s another subject.  Now I’m thinking about hand work and that applies to all art… painting, sculpting, stitching… it’s all handwork.

Jude’s Spirit Cloth blog also introduced me to Renate Hiller who did a short video about the importance of handwork… On Handwork is worth watching.  She made me think about growing up with both grandmothers, my mother and my aunt insisting I learn to stitch – fabric and yarn.  They all stitched.and now I feel fortunate to have grown up with them even though at the time I really would rather have been climbing trees, playing ball or doing some water sport.

Another reminder for me… Renate looks very much like my paternal grandmother.

Playtime

This is a proof, I’ve ordered a piece of fabric using my own image.  I started with this photo and obviously played a lot with the color. Can’t wait to get the fabric and I have no idea how I’ll use it yet.

I’ve taken lots of photos and have so many ideas running around in my head that I can’t seem to zero in on anything.  I should be painting, instead I’m playing with fabric.  Yesterday I spent the day playing with discharging color from fabric using Soft Scrub.  You read right, Soft Scrub, the stuff you clean your sink with.  It’s something I learned about from Jude Hill on her Spirit Cloth Blog.  I had fun cutting stencils from freezer paper, the using some scraps of brown linen did the following.

No stencil on this one, just the edge of a credit card and a pencil end.

Like the blue piece, I’m not really sure where I’m going with these but I’m leaning toward small quilts or prayer flags.

Tomorrow I’m going to start a painting.