dj pettitt

class sample

2009-07-05T01:57:00.001-07:00

I'm working on a class sample for my class in July 2010 at An Altered Journey here. I'm really excited about teaching at Cindy's retreat because not only is the venue perfect, but it's a 3 day class. It will be heavenly to have 3 days to delve deeper into each technique without so much rush.

This variation on monoprinting is something I just came up with, and will be one of the techniques we will cover in class. It involves hand printing from photos. Remember momma killdeer that I photographed a while back?

I used her for this print:

I'm really excited about this technique since it is another way to use the boatloads of photos that I have!

cleaning out give-away WINNERS!!

2009-07-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Just finished drawing names for the 3 flat rate boxes and 3 envelopes with color copies of my older images. Enjoy!! I'll mail the goodies as soon as I receive your mailing info!

3 boxes with tons of images, a book or two, bits and pieces, and paper scraps go to:

Susie LaFond
Mrs Spotts
Angie in AZ

and the 3 fat envelopes filled with color copies go to:

Joyfulploys
Sandra in AZ
Pocket Full of Prettys

Thanks everyone! Now that my room is finished, I'll be working on getting an online class up and running. I need to learn how to use my new camcorder, and edit the videos, but it's at the top of the list. I'll post progress reports as soon as I have more details!

cleaning out give-away

2009-07-01T16:23:00.002-07:00

-photo taken by my friend Marilyn

This photo of the white peacock expresses exactly the way I feel about my new art room :-)

Forgot to mention in my earlier post, that it's not too late to sign up for the give-away! I'm going through things now, and will draw names Friday. Will ship out of the country. I have lots of stuff, so will be drawing a few names and sending flat rate boxes.

Finished the art room!

2009-07-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

WHEW!!!

What a job this was. Totally worth it, but it took much longer than I anticipated. I still have lots of Good Will and Give Away goodies in the guest room that I'll organize and package up next, but other than painting the walls and putting up art and decorations, it's finished.

I feel like I woke up from the best dream and realized it was all true.

This bank of drawers is 47 inches wide...

Threads and sewing goodies within reach of the sewing machine...

Small vintage laces and ribbon pieces:

Here are the cupboards opened up. I'm in love with having a place for everything, and everything in it's place.

All my vintage cutter quilts at home in the pie safe ....

I can't get back far enough in this corner to photograph the fabric shelves well, but this entire unit is fabric. Still need to fold and stack it all pretty....

Mailing center ....

I'm so thankful and amazed that I have a place like this to work in now. If you saw it before.... you would be equally amazed. It was dark and cluttered with no place to put things away and no way to organize. I spent so much of my time looking for things and frustrated at the mess. It got where I had to force myself to work. Now I walk in here with a bounce to my step, and am instantly inspired and can't wait to begin working.

still working on my art room....

2009-06-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

The installers have finished (they did a fabulous job!), and I'm putting it all back together. Whew! What a job. Worth it of course, but it's slow going. My friend Laveda has come over yesterday and today to help, or I wouldn't be as far as I am.

Here's my painting area:

Yummmmy drawers next to painting area filled with pretty much everything I will need while painting:

On the other side of the painting area is a standing work area where I can iron and prepare things for putting in the heat press:
I'm hoping to be finished by Monday, and will choose names for the cleaning out give away a couple days later. I'll keep you updated, and if you haven't signed up yet, you still can!

continuing art room progress report

2009-06-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

It just keeps getting better. I'm so impressed and pleased with the workmanship and attention to detail that has been given every inch. I think they will finish tomorrow. The counters, handles, grommets for power cords, and a bank of drawers that I had them change from shelves are all that's left now!

This first one shows my painting area in the center island:

Cutting table and more work area in the center island and large storage unit in the background. The old pie safe will be for displaying art work:

There is an odd shaped space back by the fuse box, that I had a 7 foot tall, 12" deep storage unit built for fabric. I wanted the fabric to be accessible without digging:

The other side of the center island with sewing area, and a standing work area with a bank of 6" deep drawers for paper, and small things. You can also see the computer area near the smaller window. There are pull out shelves for printers and scanner on each side of the computer area:

I went to the dollar store today and picked up dividers to fit in the drawers. Great for buttons, wire etc:

Someone asked what kind of system this is. I went to http://www.closetmaid.com and then clicked on installers in my area. I'm very happy with everything... quality, price, installers etc. I would definitely recommend them... they came out for several hours and helped me design the space, which was wonderful because I couldn't visualize it all. I knew what I wanted, but needed help with details and how to make the most of every inch.

art room progress

2009-06-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

Yipppppeeee.....the art room progress is so exciting I can barely take it in.... 2-3 more days and it will be installed and I can begin organizing and putting it back together.

Here is how far they got today:

things found

2009-06-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

I found some unfinished paintings while cleaning out. This one I am considering leaving as is, or almost as is.... She needs to be warmed up a bit, but I think I'll leave her mostly monochromatic.

art room progress

2009-06-20T20:06:00.001-07:00

Had I realized how much STUFF was in this art room I'm not sure I would have tackled removing absolutely everything in here! OK yes I would when the prize is a new studio. It's still amazing how many art supplies we accumulate. I'm sure I'm not the only one laughing at how many art supplies we have!

Below is a photo of what WAS a tidy guest room with a bed, desk, dresser and a rocking chair.... NOW it's filled with art supplies and fabric. I hired a guy to help, plus my friends, Laveda and Mark came over and helped take large furniture out of the art room and pack all the supplies in the guest room.

Below is what is left in this room to be taken out tomorrow. I can't believe along with the supplies, we took out 3 tables, 2 kitchen cabinet units, an 8 foot long counter, a huge storage unit, and a bunch of shelves. The photo shows about 3/4 of the space and will be filled with wall to wall storage and counters on Monday. All white counters and shelves with doors (48 red handles!). Yummmm I can't wait. I'll be without computer for a day or two, but will post as soon as I get things set back up.

Thank you everyone for commenting and signing up for the give-away! I have a box started and will continue adding things as I put the room back together. If you haven't signed up yet... please do! It will be about a week before I draw the winners.

And more joy to leave you with... remember the baby tree swallow I posted a few days ago? I took a walk a couple evenings ago to see if the baby was still in the nest, and was lucky enough to get a shot of the momma feeding her baby. Sooooo beautiful....

cleaning out give-away

2009-06-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'm cleaning out and emptying this room to get ready for installation of my new art room on Monday. Yay, I can't wait... but, I have a ton of stuff to organize, so I thought I would do another cleaning out give-away. Not sure what it will be yet.... lots of printed and scrap stuff. I know I have a bunch of printed seconds (color not perfect enough to sell) and boatloads of scraps/odds and ends. If you would like to be in the drawing, just leave me a comment here or email me privately, and I'll draw a couple winners after I get my new studio put back together in a week or so (number of winners will be determined when I see how much stuff ends up in the give-away pile).

And ....
Tulla was ONE YEAR OLD yesterday!!!

I could just cry looking at her baby photos.

And now she's all grown up....

So... I'm going to have a big birthday bash on my blog as soon as the new art room is installed and put back together. So stay tuned for details and more give-aways. I hope to do an art collaboration with Tulla and give away a print of it, but not sure yet what all the party favors will be. Definitely a fun birthday party and you are all invited :-)

Somerset article

2009-06-18T15:21:00.000-07:00

In my effort to condense and choose only four steps that would show the painting technique for my article in Somerset this month, I originally sent the wrong first and third step images to them. I sent the correction but have realized that it didn't get put in the article, so I'll post all the steps here.

Hope you enjoy the article and that these corrected images will help:

Home from Birmingham

2009-06-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

What a great time in Birmingham, Alabama! Teaching with Deryn was fabulous as always, and we had a terrific time during our 4 days there.

I was able to see a tiny bit of Birmingham during a few photo walks around the area we stayed.

After class one day, several of us braved the incredible heat and humidity, and explored and shared our crazy love for taking photos just for the fun of taking them..... with no idea how they would be used, but knowing that it didn't matter. What matters is the fun and inspiration of finding interest and beauty in your surroundings, no matter where you are...

...really looking at the details instead of just walking by.

Joyce Vance organized the workshops, working hard during her busy schedule, bringing friends together to create art and have a great time. Thank you Joyce!

Here are more student shots from the second day of the workshop while everyone is learning from Deryn, and embellishing their paintings with wire (I apologize for a few missed students). As I travel and teach, I am continually inspired, and filled with a love for sharing and teaching. It's hard to juggle it all sometimes, meeting deadlines and long hours, but when I see results like these, it makes it all worth it.

My 32 hour flight home was long, and I learned that you definitely don't want to land a plane during a microburst.

Yikes, that was bumpy, but I'm thankful for the technology to detect them, and even though I missed my connecting flight and there were no more flights home that day, I am thankful that we were able to circle for half an hour over Denver, CO till the danger was over. It turned out fabulous though, because instead of trying to get a taxi and find a hotel in Denver, I ended up flying in to San Jose and staying the night with Cindy for an unexpected 12 hour surprise layover/visit. We had a blast, stayed up chatting till 3AM and then she took me to the airport in the morning.

Whew! Very long post... hope you made it through it.... One more thing I thought I would mention. The Somerset that just came out has an article on one of my painting techniques that turned out pretty good!

Off to Birmingham, Alabama

2009-06-10T21:54:00.001-07:00

I'm off! My plane leaves at 6 AM so I need to be out of her by 4:30 tomorrow morning. I'm all packed and can't wait to get there!

Have a wonderful week, I'll be back late on the 16th, and then the excitement of installing my new art room begins on the 22nd. I'm beyond excited....

new book

2009-06-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

This is for my book class. It actually has two signatures, but the second one isn't bound yet, so there will be a second row of beads when finished. I'll bind it as one of my demos in class.

We'll be painting the pages.

I'm so in love with vintage millinery flowers. Love this mother of pearl butterfly too.

Fabric image is similar to the ones available on my etsy site.

More painted pages.

Cover technique is very leather-like and soft.

a wonderful surprise

2009-06-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

I took a break yesterday, and went outside with my camera and my puppy for a half hour mini vacation. As I walked by the nesting boxes, this little guy stuck his or her head out to say hello. The sun was setting and shining on the baby tree swallow's blue head making it even prettier.

She let me get close enough to zoom in, but it was a recipe for blurry photos.... the wind was blowing, I was holding the camera above my head with it fully zoomed while trying to lean on the garden fence and not breathe, and Tulla was whacking my legs with her toy to try and get my attention. You can imagine my excitement when I downloaded the shots and they weren't blurry.

class demo

2009-06-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

I've painted this sketch before, but thought it would work well for the technique that I'm teaching in my book class this coming weekend. It's mainly acrylic washes on fabric and will become a book cover.

generosity and art

2009-06-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a wonderful post from KC Willis. KC is donating half of all the money she earns from KC Willis Collage Camp and half of all retail sales at Lipstick Ranch from now until June 15th, to Joanna and Ron Pierotti to help them deal with hospital costs from Ron's recent brain tumor surgery. See KC's blog to read the story, and check out the art on both KC's site, and Joanna's site. Awesome stuff!

I'm working long hours prepping for my class in Alabama so haven't posted much lately.... here's a sample for my book class. It will be a book cover:

new image sheet up on etsy

2009-06-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

I formatted another full page of images that are available on my etsy site. There are 25 small images on the 8.5 X 11" cotton sheet. A few of these are repeats that are on the other sheets, but they are smaller, averaging around 1.5" X 2" each. I'm hoping to get one more up before I leave for Alabama. It will have some of my nature photos on it.

another image sheet on etsy

2009-06-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

My butterfly friends were loving the Sweet William today!

I added another collage image sheet on etsy. Lots of small images filling this 8.5 X 11 fabric sheet. As I get time, I plan on doing some collage sheets using my bird and butterfly photos as well.

new fabric images on etsy

2009-06-01T00:13:00.000-07:00

Just finished adding a few new fabric prints on my etsy site:

This is something new that I'm trying. I'll be adding more as I have time. It's a full 8 X 10 sheet of fabric images to cut apart and use in projects where smaller images are needed. I use these in all my books now, and am liking them better than paper images.

finished the painting

2009-05-31T16:12:00.001-07:00

6X 6 canvas

Break time

2009-05-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

It was time for a break, so I went outside to see what Tulla and Poppa were up to. LOL just in time to see Tulla 'helping' Poppa with the watering. What a TomBoy she is.

"Let me help.... I'll just move this hose over here... these bushes need watering don't they?"

"Oh ya.... that's better... right where it should be now."

getting closer to finishing the painting

2009-05-31T08:03:00.001-07:00

new painting

2009-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

I've started a new painting on a 6X6 canvas. It's blocked in and ready to finish tomorrow.

It was 102 degrees here today. Yikes... Hot for May. Even Tulla didn't play much and preferred to stay in the shade and in her pool. There's not much that slows her down...

Then tonight thunder clouds rolled in and we're having a major thunder and lightning storm. More like weather in the midwest than southern Oregon. I'm thankful Tulla isn't afraid of it. Life is good.. she used to be afraid of every noise, real and imagined. It's wonderful watching her grow up.

I think summer is coming at last.
The Iris are winding down and I noticed our first roses beginning to bloom today.

another class sample finished

2009-05-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Lots of pictures tonight .... this was such a fun book.

this is a pocket: