I did a test to see if white watercolor paint would show up on a painted surface, much to my delight it did! I’ll machine stitch this piece later this week.
Purple Coneflower
I took a little me time a week or so ago and decided to paint some timtex with watercolors and watercolor pencils, and then machine stitch the piece, and a purple coneflower was born.
4x6 inches.
I started out using watercolor pencils to draw out and color the flower, it was surprisingly easy so long as the tip of the pencil wasn’t sharp. I allowed the colors to dry between applications so that I would have crisper edges.
I then filled in the background using regular watercolors and a brush creating a mottled effect. I let the timtex dry over night.
I then machine stitched the details of the flower using Aurifil Thread. I dropped the feed dogs and used an embroidery foot to free style stitch the details.
Crow Cloth
yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, in my latest newsletter I said that I was giving up surfacing fabric… well sorta.
What I will no longer be doing, for the foreseeable future, is surface designing yardage, my body simply does not tolerate screen printing larges amount of cloth anymore. Painting small pieces of fabric at my work table is doable.
I made Time to Paint!
I found a copy of Mindy Lacefield's book Wild Surrender while cleaning my studio and decided to do a couple of the exercises in her book. It felt pretty good to be painting again.
I still have a lot of cleaning to do in my studio, and I also have about a hundred pounds of tomatoes to process, getting the mess under control has been quite freeing. I've been throwing out lots of stuff that no longer serves me, and as I grow older as an artist I doubt will ever serve me again. I mean really who needs a hundred thread/spool labels.
Could someone else have used them, sure, and then I have to deal with packing stuff up, going to the post office, etc., nope into the trash they went! Don't worry I probably have another five hundred plus spool labels still attached to spools of thread.
Hand Stitched Hands Project
Starting a new tiny hand stitched piece to work on while relaxing in the evenings.
It's a start
It's not much, but in reality I haven't done much in the way of painting since I hung my show the first week of July. I've been chomping at the bit the last couple of days to get some time in my studio, easier said than done, and then this heat... OMG the heat and the humidity are horrific right now.
This is 5x7 inch canvas painted with oil paints.
Bright and Bold!
These are 5 x7 inch samples I'm currently experimenting with, I'm thinking I'll go bright, loud, and bold with my lines, colors, etc. for my upcoming solo show at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa next month.
The first two are painted with transparent acrylic paints, and charcoal, the second images are watercolor, gesso, and charcoal.
Where have I been?
Cleaning and reorganizing my studio... and now that my bread rack is in the house I will begin the task of completing 15 16x20 inch paintings in 15 days! Yep you read that correctly. I'll try to post photos here and on my blog as I get things finished. I hang my solo show on July 1st at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa, on that date.
More coming soon... oh and the best part about cleaning my studio is 1. more floor space and 2. I found my large tripod so now I can set up my camera for creating videos while working at the easel.
Finished Not Finished
As the title says, finished but not finished. So back in the pile it went. it’s mixed media on watercolor paper 9x12 inches. If I do anything at all to this piece I’ll alter the background a bit more. It’s from a very old photo of two girls walking in a snowstorm.
Fledgling
This came up in my feed today, I had totally forgotten about creating this bird back in 2017. Looking at him instills a desire to start creating birds again.
Pushing the Surface
Before! The sepia ink was just too dark.
After!
I didn’t like the darkness of the sepia so hit it with some gesso and then went back in with charcoal, pastels, and graphite. Patrons can get a closer look over at my Patreon page.
Oil Paint and Cold Wax
Cottonwoods. Oil paint & Cold wax. 5 x 8 inches on canvas paper.
I’ve been experimenting this past week with water mixable oil paints and cold wax. Not sure what I think about this medium, yet, other than working small is not working for me so it’s time to set up the easel.
This painting evolved from memories of the cottonwood stand at my favorite marsh, Bjorkboda, in Hamilton County, Iowa. I was there last month and many of the trees have now fallen over and only a few remain. I need to go back and take some photos to share and soon.
StencilGirl Blog Post!
Check out my latest blog post over on StencilGirl Talks! I Used my stencil designs to create a unique one-of-a-kind work of art.
Day 5 Studio Clean Up.
I didn’t get much done clean up wise in my studio, the past four days due to my asthma flaring up and pretty bad. I made the mistake in going out in the extreme cold (6F with a -12F) without my Vogmask. See that 6F was a whole lot warmer than the previous day when it was -23F and that wasn’t the windchill.
So I spent the past few days enjoying my favorite magazines, let there be turquoise, and reading cookbooks.
I’m taking an online class over that the Jeanne Oliver Network studying Impressionist Berthe Morisot and I seem to have forgotten how to draw. So back to the table to practice, practice, practice.
I’m back to using my pan pastels again, love them just don’t love having them strewn out all over my work surface. I need a storage system/container for these little beasts.
Preliminary sketches. I'm creating a new series, for an upcoming show in mid-March based upon the colors and textures of local grain bins, silos, and elevators. Some of these structures are very old and are made of wood and other interesting materials.
I will be live streaming about this series this coming Saturday Evening at 7pm CST in my FB group Almost Stitched, it's free to join!
Queen Anne's Lace Study
I made this piece several years ago, when I was creating my Prairie Stitched Stories pieces. I like these enough that I'm thinking of creating more of them, only pushing the story aspect further this time.
Prairie Stitched Stories
No. 1
No. 3
No. 5
No. 7
No. 13
No. 15
No. 16
No. 2
No. 4
No. 6
No. 8
Found some time to photograph these pieces I created several years ago; each "story" is approximately 11x14 inches. Some numbers are missing, don't ask it was a SMH moment when it came to numbering.
Cleaned My Stencil
It took over an hour, but I finally got the dried spackling (Sp?) removed from my Black Birds in Tree Stencil!
I cleaned it by gently brushing it with a medium and soft stencil brush, and then use a needle awl to clean the tiny crevices. One of the things I love about StencilGirl Stencils is their durability. I have been happily using, and abusing, this stencil for over four years now!!!