Collage Card

I've been experimenting with Collage a little bit and also was interested in recycling things to make art.
I found an old Agatha Christie novel that I had two of in my book case and used the pages as the base of my Collage card.

I tore the pages from the book and using acrylic matt medium I glued four pages together and then painted gesso on the front and back lightly to seal them so they would be able to take painting and gluing. You can still see some of the print through the gesso.

Then I put a light layer of paint on the front and the back using an old credit card instead of a brush to apply it. The paint has taken on the texture of the gesso layer.
Now I begin to collage using ribbon fabric stencils and anything I can find. I even tried used tea bags which I emptied and rinsed and dried and then painted with watercolour inks.



tea bags

 This is a fun activity and enables you to use those scraps you've been saving because you might need them some day.

Blessed New Year and Back in the Studio

Wishing all my blog followers a Blessed New Year and a positive start to 2013 with many resolutions that are realistic but will also help you to grow and be a positive influence to those around you.

December as it turned out became a busy, busy month for me. As I finished off Christmas gifts, hosted two family Christmas Dinners and spent time with out-of-town family, I neglected the blog.......and the studio. Well, today was spent back among my fabric, paints, papers, paint brushes and studio clutter. I enjoyed it immensely.

 I was able to spend some time on my Algonquin Park painting adding more colour and detail to the foreground, giving weight and substance to the rocks, giving the canoes some form. Slowly it is developing into a true likeness although I am taking some artistic license and adding some rocks and such for a better balanced composition. The canoes were actually white but I plan to change their colour to make them more interesting. I also still plan to darken the water and do some work on the sky.

I have not made resolutions but perhaps I will sit down and make a list of what I wish to complete art-wise in this year. I do know that I will continue to make art that I will give away and use to brighten someone's day. Perhaps I will post that list on my blog in the future.

Trash or Treasure

When my son was young he often arrived home from school with his pockets loaded with what I would call "trash" and I would admonish him about picking things up off the ground because they were dirty and germ laden or they could be dangerous. To him they were "treasures".

I was thinking about this and chuckling to myself as I was walking home from the grocery store one day after having picked up the milk that I had forgotten to purchase earlier in the day when I was grocery shopping. Instead of looking at the neighbourhood yards and landscape and enjoying the change of the seasons as I would normally do, my eyes were glued to the pavement beneath my feet. Why? I was searching for "treasures" or more correctly "trash". I've come to see the value in my son's homebound pastime. I've been using found items in my art recently. Found items are interesting things like rusty metal washers, flattened bottle tops, pop can tabs, or interesting seed pods, small stones etc. I've even added these things to my Christmas list of wants.

I no longer see these things as "trash" but I see the potential for them to liven up a piece of art. Now I am kicking myself for having made my son get rid of his "treasures".



Some of my "treasures"

 I had the opportunity to work on my Algonquin Park painting again and have filled in the foreground and continued work on the water and the reflections. Reflections always appear darker in the water than the actual thing they are reflecting. I will also have to darken the water slightly.

Inspiration in a Southern Locale

I have been away from my blog for a few weeks due to the fact that there are a lot of things to prepare for Christmas and I was away on a week's vacation. Our vacation, which was booked last minute found us on the island of Jamaica a week after the super storm Sandy blew through. We had been in Jamaica 30 years ago and found it to be wealthier than when we were there last. There is still poverty but there seemed to be more of a middle class presently and the airport and roads have improved drastically. Ocho Rios, which is where we were headed, sustained the most damage from the hurricane but the damage was mostly to trees. Staff were everywhere cleaning things up to make resorts and golf courses look pristine again. While in Jamaica we golfed several very nice golf courses but also enjoyed the ocean and the beach. As I have mentioned before, I rarely go anywhere without some art equipment with me. When I fly, I usually have a sketch book, pencils, watercolour pencils and a pencil sharpener with me. I also take a small paintbrush with me but had forgotten one. Fortunately I found a makeup brush in my makeup bag and I used that to complete my sketches. So while I am sitting relaxing, I make small colour sketches of my surroundings. Below, I share them with you.

I've also included an update on my Algonquin Park painting. I've strengthened some of the colours and tweeked some things that I thought didn't look right.

This One's for Me

I have completed most of the artwork that I had planned for others. The wedding gifts are done and shower gifts as well. Ever since arriving back from my canoe trip this summer I have been percolating ideas in my brain for a painting of Algonquin Park. I recently went back to my photographs and picked out a subject, did some sketches and decided that I wanted to do a rather large painting in acrylic. I bought a canvas that was 3 feet by 2 feet.  You saw these sketches in my last blog and at first I thought I'd use the bottom one -- and I did for the most part -- but as I was drawing it out on the canvas, I felt it needed the little tree on the bottom right of the top sketch, so I added it.

I drew the basic plan on my canvas with an ochre coloured watercolour pencil. As I paint the pencil will disolve into the acrylic paint without staining the canvas. Eventually the acrylic paint will cover the drawing completely.

Detail of the canoes. You may think that canoes are easy to draw but to get the proportions right and the foreshortening looking realistic, I had to adjust things quite a bit.

Above is the very beginning of paint. I am planning on making this an early morning scene with some pinks in the sky reflecting into the water and perhaps also showing some mist coming off the water. There is not much colour here yet but I've blocked in the areas that will be the darkest and grayest due to their distance.

Stay posted for updates on the progress.

The Value of the Sketch

I love to start right into my art, that is to say that I want to start right into the final product. However, most times I have to plan what I want to do. I use the sketch to do that. It would be a shame to start right into the final product with expensive materials and find that it doesn't work. A sketch will tell me where to position things, what my focal point will be, how to enhance my focal point, what values will look like. It will generally tell me if my plan will work and if it will be pleasing to the eye, a good composition.

I take a small sketch book along with me to most of the places I visit. I have several sketch books that document places I have been and I often leaf through these books seeking inspiration for paintings or other artwork. Many of my fabric cards were inspired by some of these sketches.



A colour sketch of the Humber River Valley near my house.
This sketch was done in a 5"X7" book.



I will also sketch ordinary everyday things.



I also sketch to keep up my drawing skills. If you want to draw well, you need to practice and the sketch is good for that. A sketch helps me to observe my subject and observation tells me things about how something is put together, about the colour, about the values. It helps me to draw the illusion of 3-dimensions on a 2-dimensional piece of paper.

Sketches can be very quick and linear with very little detail or they can be very detailed depending on what your goal is. I have sketched with pencil primarily but I also use fine point permanent ink pens if my goal is to record value or watercolour pencils if I want to record the colours I am observing.



A quick pencil sketch to determine composition.



A sketch of a rural Ontario farm, many of which are slowly
disappearing from the countryside.



A more detailed sketch of the Northern wilderness.



This sketch was one of many, each was a different
view of this house that I later painted with watercolour for the owners.



This sketch was done by combining two photographs
I had taken. The final product ended up a little different
than the sketch due to the fact that as I was painting it,
I felt the left side drew my eye right out of the picture. So
I added a dark tree to that side to keep the attention inside
the painting.



These last two sketches were done in permanent ink pen
so I could determine the values of the overal work and the placing of the canoes.



They are slightly different but I get a different feel from
each of them. The top sketch makes me feel like getting
into a canoe and exploring the large expanse of lake
behind them and this second one gives me the feeling
that someone has just returned from a paddle and is now
resting by the fire overlooking the beautiful and quiet
scenery.



Sketches are not meant to be finished pieces of art but I love the look of sketches and feel that they could be framed and displayed. The fact that they are done quickly gives them a spontaneous feel that appeals to me.

Thread Painting

In past blogs I've used the term "thread painting" a few times. What is thread painting? Well, it is exactly what it sounds like. Painting with thread. Thread painting is done with various colours of thread and can be used to outline an image or fill an image in with colour. It is done with a regular sewing machine but instead of using a regular presser foot, I use a darning foot. With the darning foot, I can free-motion stitch which means I can move my fabric in any direction under the needle. I use the thread to show value or I'll mix threads to make other colours or tones.

I have a full pallette of thread colours and types. I have some embroidery threads, regular threads, varigated threads as well as some metalic threads to give a bit of glitter.



Closeup of a thread painted tulip. Here I filled in the entire flower with colour that goes from burgundy to red to orange with a tinge of yellow on the tips.





In this Peony I outlined the petals and then thread painted only sections of the petals with yellow, pink and rose.





In this Pansy I layered a dark fabric over some of the petals for the deep purple heart and then thread painted most of the rest of the flower leaving the edges of the petals without stitching.



Thread painting takes more time than actually painting but I find it adds interest to my quilts and fabric cards and so the time spend is well worth it for me.