studio notes

2009-07-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

More Monterey Watercolors

Monterey #3
6" x 6"
SOLD

Monterey #4
6" x 6"
SOLD

Two more watercolor studies, painting the waves at Asilomar/Monterey, California. I am getting better at working with the white space to capture the crests of the waves and the foam.

2009-07-08T04:34:00.000-07:00

Monterey Watercolor #1

6" x 6"

This is the first of a series of studies that I am working on, trying to learn how to paint water effectively. Initially I thought the waves would be easier to paint than still water. Now I'm not so sure. The brown areas are rock outcroppings in the water. This watercolor was inspired by my photos of the coastline in Monterey, California.

2009-07-07T11:56:00.000-07:00

Garden Bounty

I don't know where all the hours in the day go during the summer! By the time I am done watering, weeding, and picking in the gardens, it is noon. This afternoon I ground up vegetables for zucchini relish, and now they are soaking until tomorrow. Then I will need to cook and can the relish. This relish is so delicious that I can't imagine eating a burger without it!

Zucchini Relish:
2-3 medium zucchini
4 medium onions
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
4 carrots
3 TB pickling salt (non-iodized)
Grind up and mix and let stand overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, drain well, add to syrup & cook 35 minutes. Then put in jars and seal.
Syrup:
2 cups cider vinegar
4 cups sugar (I usually cut back on this)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp celery seed
1 rounded TB cornstarch

2009-07-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

A New Book Artist is Born

Yesterday I showed my mom how to make book covers and signatures, then bind it all together with coptic binding. Below are photos of her first book. I think it is fabulous!

the front cover

side view of the coptic binding

detail of the binding and signatures

2009-07-03T02:33:00.000-07:00

Shadow Play

This photo was taken in our rock garden, and I love the sharp shadows of the grasses on the rocks!

2009-07-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

Travel Journal

Once again this book's pages are made from brown paper bags. The cover is 3 different layers of hand painted cloth. This is the little journal that I made to hold my notes and photos from my recent art spree in Missouri and Kansas. Much more fun than a store-bought photo album!

2009-06-30T05:21:00.000-07:00

Fun Accident

I started this painting of a tulip bloom, and before I got very far, I managed to spill India ink in the center of the bloom. It's been sitting off to the side of my work table for a while, as I hated to throw it away, and I didn't really know what to do with it. The other day I got out a can of black spray paint and started spraying on it. I actually love this look and plan to work on trying to duplicate it!

2009-06-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

Coptic Stitch

I have had these signatures made for some time, but I didn't want to bind them into a book until I figured out exactly what I wanted. The pages are made from recycled brown paper bags, and the cover is mat board covered with handmade paper.

Recently I read about coptic binding, and inspiration struck. The thing that intrigued me the most about coptic binding is that the book opens flat when it is used. I also liked that the edges of the signatures showed.

Here is the book opened out, so you can see how the pages look. I love the texture and irregularities in the paper bag pages!

2009-06-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

Watercolor Shell Fragments

SOLD

Another watercolor painting --- this one is of some shell fragments that were on the beach at Asilomar. I enjoy painting close ups of objects, rather than entire scenes. It is amazing to me that I enjoy realistic watercolor painting, when most of my other art is very abstract. I guess this is the medium that provides my balance.

2009-06-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

New Collage Series

Vestiges #5

I have been working on a new series of 18 collages titled "Vestiges". It is a series that incorporates my photos from the Old Market district in Omaha, the Plaza district in Kansas City, and the shoreline in Monterey. It is turning out to be quite an interesting series, and I am enjoying the juxtaposition of the hard architectural lines with the soft lines of the shore. Above is one of the finished collages from this series.

2009-06-25T05:06:00.000-07:00

The Fine Print

6/22/09

This collage practically made itself on Monday morning. The background is a photo of a stone wall that another workshop participant gave me (sorry I don't remember who), and the strips of color are actually torn from a photo of women's dresses, then turned sideways. Collage operates under the same theory as fabric painting --- you don't have to like or use the whole piece; cut it into pieces or strips, and you will start to see endless possibilities. Once I decided to use "The Fine Print:" lettering, I had to go back in and add some small text to the background.

P.S. Go Tigers! Congratulations to the LSU Tigers on becoming the 2009 National Champions at last night's final game of this year's College World Series!

2009-06-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

New Work

Rural Remnants #1
13" x 28"
$500

Yesterday I added 3 new textile pieces to my website, the Rural Remnants series. These pieces were created from photographs that I took on my husband's family farm. The farm has been in his family for over 100 years, so there is a lot of history on the property. There are photos of oil barrels, latches and handles from outbuildings, windmills, trees, grain bin numbers, rusty equipment, etc. Click here to see the entire series.

2009-06-23T04:42:00.000-07:00

Back in the Studio

6/21/09

Yesterday I finally spent the day in the studio --- seems like forever since I was in there. As you can see from the morning collage above, I am a bit rusty. However, I did manage to get some paint accents added to a new series of collages (18 pieces) and a hanging sleeve sewn on a fiber piece. Today I hope to get the collages mounted and put into protective sleeves.

2009-06-22T05:32:00.000-07:00

Photoshop Curves

The two images above were both created from the same original photo in the previous post. This time I opened the photo in Photoshop, then used Image Adjustments Curves. In the Curves window, you add points to the curve (by clicking your mouse on the curved line) and drag those points around to change the colors in the photo. I love using this option to print out variations of photos to use in making collages!

P.S. If you try this out, I would love to see your finished efforts!

2009-06-21T02:55:00.000-07:00

Photoshop "Cutout" Filter

An artist friend recently showed me a fun filter in Photoshop that can be used to simplify your photographs to basic design shapes and colors. The photo above was taken in my rock garden and is PJM rhododendron buds about to open. This is the photo that I will use to show you the possibilities of the "cutout" filter.

In Photoshop, choose Filter Artistic Cutout. I usually have the Edge Simplicity set to 1, and the Edge Fidelity set to 2. The image above shows the photo with the Number of Levels set to 4.

This is the same photo with the Number of Levels set to 8. Be sure to experiment with different numbers of levels with each of your photos. Depending on your needs, the optimum number can vary with each photograph. Feel free to email me with questions, and stay tuned for another fun Photoshop option tomorrow!

2009-06-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Oscar

About a month ago, baby squirrels were everywhere in our neighborhood. One afternoon I counted 6 little ones in just our backyard. Since then, most of them have learned that we have a terrier, and that he loves to chase them up the trees and out of the yard, so they steer clear of our yard. One of them is either dumb or brave though, as he continues to try to sneak into our yard without Zeke seeing him. He does this often enough that we have named him Oscar. I think he is drawn in by the smell of the black walnuts in my dye bucket.

2009-06-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

New Work

Peach Street
20"h x 11.5"w
$300

Thanks to all of you that have emailed and called to see if everything was ok, because of my lack of blog posts. A family member was admitted to ICU last week, then had open heart surgery this week. So I have spent most of my days at the hospital. All is fine now --- he is back home and ornery as ever, so I hope to be back in my studio soon.

The piece above is the last piece I finished before all this happened. The screen print of the house in the center is taken from a photo of my great-grandparents' house on Peach Street. I remember the iris in the gardens at this house vividly.

2009-06-08T03:25:00.000-07:00

Patrick Dougherty

These are photos of the sculpture that Patrick Dougherty created on the grounds of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas in Lawrence during the month of May. I was thrilled to get the chance to explore and photograph this structure. This particular sculpture is approximately two stories tall, and all of the saplings used in the sculpture were harvested locally from renewable sources. In September, Patrick will be coming to Omaha, creating a sculpture on the grounds of the Joslyn Art Museum, so I will get another chance to watch him create.

2009-06-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

Collage Workshop

On the last two days of my journey, I was in Lawrence KS for a collage workshop. The photo above is from the first exercise. The instructor gave us a stack of 5 of her photos plus a word from a magazine, and we were given 15 minutes to complete a collage using all of those elements and a specified design layout. My layout was symmetry.

For the rest of the workshop, we were instructed to bring 4-5 original photos in 3 different sizes. The idea of the workshop was to create 3 collages, using only our photos; then translate those collages into a cloth wallhanging. Instead of bringing a few photos in different sizes, I brought 20 photos in one size. Well, you know me, I started creating collages and never made it to the cloth part of the workshop!

2009-06-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

SDA Gallery Exhibitions

The next day of my journey was spent in Kansas City, MO. The Surface Design Association conference was in full swing, and numerous galleries in the Crossroads District were featuring fiber exhibitions in conjunction with the conference. Below are photos from some of my favorites.

On The Curve: New Dimensional Works From Nature's Studio
Regina Benson
Byron C. Cohen Gallery for Contemporary Art
www.reginabenson.com

El Anatsui
El Anatsui
Belger Arts Center
www.elanatsui.com

A Pause in the Rhythm of Time
Alice Kettle
Belger Arts Center
www.alicekettle.com

2009-06-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

Handmade Paper

iris, wild garlic, giant reed, abaca w/mimosa leaves, pineapple tops

daffodil, sanseveria, canna, chives, hosta

After spending a day in Columbia, MO exploring the galleries, I spent two days at Leandra Spangler's studio making sheets of homemade paper. For those of you that don't know Leandra, she is a papermaker extraordinaire, and her website is Bear Creek Paperworks. A few years ago I was lucky enough to take a couple of papermaking classes and a bookbinding class from Leandra, and we have since become friends. Now I travel to her studio once or twice a year to create sheets of homemade paper. Leandra always has a great variety of natural plant pulps ready for experimentation. The first photo is the variety of papers from day one, and the second photo is from day two.

2009-06-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

Aberration Exhibition

Rosemary Claus-Gray in front of her textile piece, Inca Impressions, at Montminy Gallery

I have been travelling for the last week, enjoying inspirational days filled with creating art, exploring galleries, and visiting with other artists. It has been a great week, and I hope to share some of it with you in the next few days.

My first stop was Columbia, Missouri. While I was there, I checked out some of the fiber art exhibitions and jotted down the names of several new-to-me regional fiber artists. Some of the work was amazing! One of my stops was the Aberration exhibit at Montminy Gallery, which featured fiber art from the Missouri Fiber Artists. I had two pieces in this exhibition, and I was thrilled to be included with such fabulous work. It is the first time that I have truly seen a "fiber" exhibit that included the full breadth of what fiber art can encompass. There were sculptural pieces and an installation made from handmade paper, weavings, wearable art, textile wall pieces, baskets, and on and on. It was inspiring and challenging to see this exhibition!

2009-05-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

A New Sketchbook

I know a lot of artists are intimidated when it is time to start a new sketchbook. All those empty white pages overwhelm them. But not me --- I actually look forward to it. One reason is that I don't buy sketchbooks with white pages; I usually buy the ones with beige recycled paper pages. Another reason is that I always jazz up the covers of my sketchbooks --- and once the cover is adorned with bold colors, I can't wait to open the sketchbook and start writing and drawing. The cover above is the one that I created this morning on a new sketchbook. I love the happy pop of color that the orange cloth in the background adds!

2009-05-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

Aberration Exhibition

The Aberration exhibition opened at Walters-Boone County Museum, Columbia MO on May 12th. The exhibition runs until July 9th, and the reception is June 7th from 1-3pm. This exhibition is a group show from the Missouri Fiber Artists, and I had two pieces juried into it. I'm anxious to see the exhibition since I have heard great comments about it. If you're in the area, check it out!

2009-05-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

Daily Collage

5/15/09

The photograph above is this morning's collage. I think I am still inspired by the browns from yesterday's mushrooms, and I love the "old" feeling that the fan and torn papers give to this collage.