Hopefully before he goes off to college

This quilt top was ready to quilt last spring.  That shadow is me taking the photo.  The quilt is for our niece Margot’s baby boy.  But he’s a little boy now, no longer a baby.  Frankly, I was afraid to quilt it.  I’ve done a lot of stitching and done some quilting but the biggest quilting task I’d ever taken on was a table runner.  I started quilting this the same way I’d done the table runner, just stitching with a regular everyday foot on my machine.  WRONG…. oh so wrong.  

So I broke down and bought a walking foot.  Did some practice on other projects but still avoided the baby quilt.  Fear of messing up had me.  This past week I was reading one of Julia Cameron’s books on Creativity and she talked about just that type of fear.  She suggested it wasn’t fear of the project not being perfect, it might be fear of the person doing the project not being perfect.  Well, I have to admit, that hit home.  Often, if I think I can’t do it perfect I don’t do it.  At least not if anyone else is going to see it. 

Well, our niece already knows I’m not perfect so let’s just dive in and get this thing done before Zepher is off to college.  So yesterday I spent the afternoon in my sewing room happily stitching away.  No, it isn’t perfect but not bad.  Now to do the binding, hmmmm.  I’ll wait a bit, practice another couple small projects and then dive in.  At least I can get it done before pre-school I hope.

A Red Challenge

I picked this image from this week’s Weekend Drawing Event challenge over at wetcanvas.  If there’s a water related image that will usually be my choice.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we lost Deano, a friend that always participated in the WDEs.  He always included a bit of red somehow into his paintings so the challenge this week was to include red into our own.  Since there was red in the lighthouse that didn’t seem to me to be in the spirit of the challenge.  Deano painted in oils and acrylics which means working dark to light.  With watercolor one works light to dark.  Red isn’t considered a light but I figured I would give it a try anyway.  This is how that dark started.

I had to do several washes of green over it to cover the red but I like the end result.  A bit of the red shows through which warms the background.  I think Deano would have liked the result too.

What Do Wine And January Have In Common?

Art Prize and Art Walk are done for 2014. The next big art event here in Grand Haven happens in January. It’s Wine About Winter and plans are underway for another good time.

More on that another day.  Today I want to share some favorites from Art Walk and Art Prize.

ArtWalk, I had two favorites, one was in C2C’s window

The other one was in Gallery Uptown’s window.  I don’t have a photo of that one but it was a large piece, a battleground of the Civil War done with his fingernail and palm prints.

There was a tribute to the DIA at the Fire Barn Gallery.  I haven’t seen it in person yet.  The day I was there it was advertised as open but it wasn’t.  I’m hopeful that it will stay up for awhile and I will get to see it.  Local artists did their interpretation of one of the works that the DIA owns.   Here’s a link to the Firebarn Gallery.

Another fun part of Art Walk was the Sunday on the Grand project.  Mine is far from done, as it is evolving it’s a totally different image than what I was seeing in my head and I think I want to back up a bit and try and go more in the direction I originally planned.  Here it is today….

And here’s a link to a bunch of the finished pieces….

And here is my entry in Art Walk this year.,,

It’s at the Tri Cities Historical Museum and work at that venue will be up through October 24 so if you haven’t seen them, there is still time;

 

Art Walk is Grand Haven’s response to Art Prize which happens in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is one of the biggest art shows in the world as far as prize money is concerned.  My favorites this  year… there was a Zoo on Fulton Street, we happened on it on the way to see Catherine McClung’s Birds of the Bible. 

The Zoo was full of animals made from recycled items.  I love when people do that.  This lion was one of my favorites.  I wish I had taken more photos there. 

Here are links to my other favorites, http://www.artprize.org/gretchyn-lauer/2014/outcry,   http://www.artprize.org/anila-quayyum-agha/2014/intersections

and finally, this mosaic…http://www.artprize.org/sandra-bryant/2014/into-the-autumn-wood

Did you visit Art Walk or Art Prize?  If so, what was your favorite.

He will be missed.

In my last post I mentioned the Weekend Drawing Event over at wetcanvas.com.  This week we learned that one of the artists that always participated has died.  None of us knew he was ill.  Not only was Deano a wonderful artist, he was a great cheerleader for all of us who participated.  His art and his presence will be missed by many.  I’ve long admired his work and had been thinking it was about time I bought one of his pieces.  I hope I can still get one.  The image above is the one I did while watching the Michigan football game.  I think not concentrating too hard on the painting is a good thing sometimes.

Meanwhile, I’ve done a few more images from the week before.  I haven’t been doing them daily but I’ve been fairly regular.  The one about is from this past weekend.  The week before there were several I liked so I saved them and will do them later.  These two are from the same photo, different crop….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is from the same area of England, it was fun remembering some of the places we saw while we were there.  Not these specific places but similar.

And then remembering that I had saved several from weeks past but hadn’t done them, I started another one.  This is one that came from Robert who is in France.  This is a French B&B that I intend to add color to one of these days.

And today is Tuesday, the day I paint with my Tuesday Morning Group.  I haven’t scanned that one yet but it’s a beautiful fall day, rainy but colorful.  I’ll get it scanned soon.

Arches Always Get Me…

 

I love wetcanvas.com.  It’s a website with all kinds of information for artists but my favorite thing is the WDE, Weekend Drawing Event.  Artists from around the world participate and share images so I can travel to places I may never see in person.  Every weekend one of the participating artists posts 15 or 16 images and the rest of us pick one and hope to get it done in two hours. 

I haven’t had an opportunity to participate as much as I like to but this weekend I did.  While watching a very good football game (in spite of the outcome) I did a drawing of Tintern Abbey ruins (13th cent.) in South Wales.  I may never get back to the UK but this image reminded me of our trip there more than 20 years ago.  At that time we visited Holy Island and the ruins there are similar. I have done several paintings and drawings with a similar theme, part of an ongoing Sacred Spaces series.  This is graphite in a 9x12 sketchbook that I think I’m going to dedicate to WDEs.  This is the first sketch in the book.

Another Medium

You already know I love to try new things.  This time it was lampwork beads.  No, I am not going to become a bead maker; however, it was fun and because it was such fun playing with my good friend GG Havens Reid who is both an inspiration and an extraordinary glass artist.

GG suffered a stroke late in 2013 and has been fighting her way back.  She gave me a lesson in bead making and because she’s fun and it’s easier for me to go to her studio than it is for her to come to mine, I’m going to go back and make a few more.  These three are for my sister.

This past month, doing a daily post inspired me to post more regularly.  I may not post daily but I do think I can commit to more than once a week.

In addition to whatever I’m working on, I’d like to introduce you to some artists whose work I admire. Some are personal friends here in my neck of the woods and some are internet friends and finds. All of them do work I admire so it will tell you a bit about my eclectic taste; however, it’s not about my taste it’s about introducing you to some really good and interesting artists.

I’ve already told you a bit about GG and earlier a bit about Catherine McClung being in the top 25 at Art Prize, as of this writing she’s still there.  You all may have seen Catherine’s work and not known it. I first saw her work many years ago, long before I knew her personally.

I was looking at Christmas dishes and fell in love with “Winter Greeting,” a set of dishes with a cardinal on it. I don’t have any of it but I got this image from Google to show you.

This is just one of Catherine’s many works that appear on Lennox China.  Her bird paintings are outstanding, you can see her work and learn a little more about her at Gallery Uptown, downtown Grand Haven, and on the gallery website