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Thursday 27 December 2018

Goals for 2019

I am a creature of habit. So when my routine is disrupted, I feel very lost and unsettled. That's what's happening to me today. It's Thursday...Art Day...but because we are in the Christmas week, the days have been anything but routine. That's not a bad thing or a negative thing; it just messes me up. I awoke at 3:30 am and just couldn't fall back to sleep. Running through my mind were, "What art am I going to do today?, What will I blog about?, No, I need to tidy up my house after all our partying., Oh, I have library items that are due back today"...and on and on. I finally got up and just started my day.

Maybe I should have begun the day with my usual walk. That always gets my creativity going and inspires me. Being who I am, if the house is a mess, I can't settle down and do art so I began by tidying and cleaning. I felt very satisfied when the house was back to normal but it did nothing for my creativity. Eventually, I went down to my studio to see if just being in that space would inspire me...... Nothing! I took out a few things I had been working on but one of them bombed and that's a real inspiration sapper. Yes, not everything I do, turns out the way I want it to. Bah!

Well, Ok, then. Figure out what your goals will be for 2019. That's what I did and now at least I have a plan and I won't be aimlessly trying to figure out what to do. Here are my goals for 2019.

1. Do more "on location" sketching and include people. Uh, huh, I've been leaving people out of my sketches because I don't do them well. So if I never try them, I'll never do them well. Here's a sketch I did from a magazine this past week, WITH people. Not too bad; there's hope.



2. Paint fabric to use in art quilts. I'm not sure that I will actually use this hand painted fabric because I really love the colours I can get with commercial fabrics. However, I will try the paint and see how vibrant I can make my fabrics.

3. Create a Perpetual Birthday/Anniversary Calendar. I made one of these many years ago so it is time for an update. I'm not sure what the theme will be so if you have an idea for me, please let me know.

4. Create 3 small art quilts. This could be a stretch for me because my goal last year was 2 art quilts and I only produced 1. I think the operative word is "small'.

5. Do one art activity that is "outside my comfort zone". Risky! But how will you know you can do it if you don't try. I have a few ideas so you'll have to keep up with my blog to find out what that would be.


Wishing all my blog supporters a very Blessed 2019 and hope you also have some interesting goals.

Thursday 20 December 2018

Artwork Goals

As the year draws to a close, I am thinking about the goals I set in 2017 for this year. I have them hanging in my studio as a reminder and I didn't do too badly this year.

1. Make less fabric cards - I did make less 4" X 6" greeting cards. I produced only 35 this year. This goal was so that I could devote more time to other types of art. However, I also made 58 2"X 3" fabric cards.












2. Do more watercolour or drawn cards. I ended up making 52 watercolour greeting cards which I have posted here in the past and 10 watercolour 4" X 6" paintings of our kayak trip this summer which you have also seen on this blog in the past.

3. Do at least 2 fabric art quilts. Well, this goal was not met. I did get one art quilt done which took me from April until December to complete. I thought if I made them smaller they would be done quicker but the opposite seems to be true. The smaller the the completed size, the smaller the fabric pieces, the more time it takes. I am happy I got one done.

4. Do at least 2 acrylic paintings. I met this goal with the painting of "The Calm of the Day" which hangs in our pastor's office and "Four Canoes" which I still have.





5. Take an art course. I actually took 2 art courses. One was Portrait painting and the other was Acrylic painting.

6. Experiment with dying my own fabric. I did experiment with rust dying which I will have to revisit since I didn't think it was as successful as it could have been. I also experimented with painting fabric as well as dying it. So I may have to keep this goal on my list for next year to become more confident in this technique.

7. Keep a garden sketch book. I have also met this goal although the sketch book is not yet complete. I'll keep it going next year as well.

In conclusion, my goals were achievable and helped me to focus this year so I'll try to challenge myself a little more for 2019.

Besides what I have listed above, I also completed four baby portraits with one unfinished as yet.








Thursday 13 December 2018

Watercolour Cards

While I work on other art projects, I am always still making cards and recording the seasons in them. Below are some of my recent watercolour cards.












Wednesday 5 December 2018

Calm Morning Paddle Completed

Yes, I did a lot of procrastinating when it came to quilting my latest art quilt. Because I wanted to finish it before the end of the year, I had to tackle the quilting. My procrastination had everything to do with the new quilting machine I purchased in the Spring. I had figured out how to set it up and wind bobbins, thread the machine, work the regulated stitching but there were still things that were not working like I thought they should. I decided, I had to do some more practicing so out came the scrap quilt sections and I tried all kinds of things. I finally felt like I could place my precious quilt underneath the needle and give dimension to it.



As a recap of my process, I used two photos taken on one of my canoe trips and did a watercolour painting. This painting guides the composition, value and colour to help me choose the fabric.

A pattern is made from this painting as well which is enlarged to the exact size I would like the finished piece to be.




I began with the canoe and as below, I built

the rest of the image around that.



 Before I began this art quilt, I had decided to have it framed like a painting. I have done a few of my fabric pieces that way and I really like the look. I think it elevates the piece a bit to be more like fine art than a quilt. I haven't received it back from the framers yet so I don't have a photo I can share,