... (kicking and screaming) somewhere I never expected to go. You all know, of course, that I am wild and crazy colour-oriented, yet this past while I find myself experimenting with shades of dull brown, beige and neutrals.
Occasionally, I've gone this route before with mixed results. I really like this painting from several years ago, mostly due to the gorgeous antique nails that John scrounged from an ancient board on our previous property .
We Stand Together 2015
There's a paper bag book from the Covid years that pulls me (more for the oh-my-goodness-true and silly title, I think, than the colour 🤣).
Meals I have Murdered 2020
My recent gel printing session gave me some richly coloured prints in organic colour
and I can visualize some additional embellishment coming on these.
Everywhere I look, I can see variations of brown, beige and neutral contrast,
and I shake my head in bemusement, wondering where in heaven's name this Muse is going next.
What about you? Where's your journey taking you these days? I'd love to hear your creative stories in the comments!
I'm celebrating this week - I've had the Coptic stitch on my list of 'things to learn' for so long that it's lost in the mists of time, and this past week I finally managed to get the lead out and try it.
It's tiny (5 3/4" x 4 1/2"), and has enough flaws to qualify for "Book Fails in Canada' fame, but I've made a list, learned a ton, and look forward to trying it again.
I enjoyed making the signatures as well, using gel prints for the base, going mad with alcohol inks on white-on-white wallpaper, and generally drooling over the results.
Because this was a practice book, I paid no attention to the prints on the signatures, and then had to come up with something to tie them together colour-wise.
While it works as a prototype, it does so mostly for future possibilities. I may have to up my alcohol ink stash, perhaps!
In any event, I am gleefully celebrating the death of this particular procrastination issue...a few thousand more of these and I'll have the skill to put together that tall stack of signatures I showed you last week. That is cause for elation indeed.
... is always very steep for me when it comes to spatial relationships, and the Japanese stab-binding book @joerotella showed us in #creativejumpstart21 was a huge one. I've been working on it off and on for what seems like a year (exclusive of studio light reno time), and finally finished it.
The book holds about twenty-five pages of gel prints that are jam-packed with colour. In fact, I think the book should be called 'A Wee Bit of Colour', don't you?
I'd reached a point where the covers needed to be made, and you can just see the near-ready back one in the bottom right of this photo.
Handy-dandy Mr. Dinn did his usual masterful job of drilling the holes when it was all put together.
The stitching had me bamboozled for a while, but after three seventeen run-throughs of the video and printed instructions, I managed to wrap my head around it. I think it looks great!
And it's a perfect way to showcase some of my not-so-subtle prints.
I'm delighted it's finished, and surely if I did it once, I could do it again, right? I've got a project or two in mind for the grandchildren. 😉😍
...from fabric, and suddenly I'm back at it again. This time, I've gel-printed a lace doily onto a canvas.
I've brayered the living daylights out of a spread in my journal in the process of painting some
cheesecloth, dryer sheets and baby wipes in the same colours. As I've chopped, slashed and cut, there are a few odds and ends that will get added to the journal pages. Nothing goes to waste here.
I've created some rosettes out of the various fabrics, and shredded some of the green dryer sheets to act as part of the foliage.
The Nosegay for Alice is already starting to look presentable, even without the addition of embroidery to be added. I'm loving the organic look of the cheesecloth overlaying that gel print.
Here's a closeup of the stitched leaves (dryer sheets overlaying baby wipes) and rosettes of all sorts.
This project is going to be part of a memorial piece created by Alice Saltiel's artist friends. She was an amazing mentor to so many of us, and it will be a wonderful group memorial to be seen at her Celebration of Life next month. I've chosen colours that were an essential part of her palette and the nosegay is a nod to the hundreds of floral paintings she created throughout her life (over 900 in one series alone!).
Will I ever get back to painting? Maybe.... How about you? What are you up to? Do let me know in the comments below, and feel free to post a link!
. . . who the heck turned winter on?!!! With the snow on the ground this morning, I'm glad I've got something with a little heat to show you.
This lovely pooch belongs to my daughter, Rochelle - check out her page; you're going to love it! I've been working on towards this piece for weeks months.
Daisy
The original photo shows a wee bit less colour, as you can see.
I'm a rabid fan of Dean Russo's work and have been trying to create a stencil of Daisy for a long time. This side by side of Dean's pooch was approximately where I wanted to go.
So from the time I started up til now, I've burned nine stencils, printed around 15 of them on gel prints, and created a massive pile of no-goes! It can take dozens of hours to even get a start on a new technique, right?
So now that I have a reasonable stencil made (above, left), I can create another painting any time at all...Rochelle might be getting a new one every year for Christmas. Can you hear her cheering???
And yes, I promised you a video this week that takes the book folding a little further, so here is the process for turning the basic folded book into a wacko 'Expat Offspring'. It took ages - in my world that is - to video just one page tear, and to do the original Expat from Arcturus took that x about 150, so be warned. It is not a fast process!
You may wonder why the 'Offspring' has googly eyes and so few tentacles when the parent (is that male/female/androgynous?) is eyeless and heavily tentacled.
You may not have known that on Arcturus, only babies under 25 years have eyes - the fully matured adult sees through their third, invisible, inner eye. Each year, they grow a new tentacle and when they reach 25 they start to shed an eye per year. Aren't they are brilliant? By the time they reach 162, they are truly stunning.
Whatever planet you're from, I'd be delighted to hear what you're up to...your comments keep me on my toes and creating! Sending tentacle-y love from my planet to yours!
...doing a ton of other things, but I'm having trouble getting out of the studio. For one thing, it's really comfortable downstairs, given the high temperatures we're experiencing, and for another, it's so much fun to play.
Can you tell the heat is affecting my artwork? Celebrate - a breath, a flash - combustive, sliding heat!
Celebrate the Heat
The piece started out with a third generation gel print, that I streaked, stencilled and stamped. Once I added a thoroughly used mask and a candle, it was a done deed.
I've done a few pieces over the years entitled Love Letter to Gaia, and this became another one.
Love Letter to Gaia IV
This is one of my favourite quotes, and I was glad to have an opportunity to use it.
It started with a ghost gel print, and by the time it was knocked back with stencils, stamps and more stencils, it was (somewhat) subdued, although not to many people perhaps. 😃
I did manage to finish a darker, cooler piece (was that a 10 pm time slot?), so at least the colour palette is not totally hot, hot, HOT!
I hope you've had every opportunity this week to get your creativity on and that your locale is somewhat more moderate than what we're experiencing. I must say, though, that having the studio downstairs means I'm quite happy to be a Basement Dweller!
