The Struggle of Switching Mediums

In my last post, I told of switching between several mediums as I work on projects. Using different mediums help to keep things fresh and I also think it keeps us learning and tweaking our techniques with those mediums.

I have realized why I tend to stick with one medium for extended art making. It's because we easily forget the techniques needed for specific mediums. Since I have started the watercolour painting that I want to use to design an art quilt, I've been struggling and am not satisfied with how it is going.
It is still in the early stages but I just feel like scrapping it.

As I was working on it today, I noticed that the canoe in the foreground looked like someone was standing on the gunwales at the back so that the nose was sticking up in the air. I decided that it was because the canoe was too narrow so I took a scrubber brush and scrubbed the paint away and using watercolour pencils tried to make it wider.

I do think it looks better so I left the paper to dry in the area of the canoe and tried to punch up the colours in other areas a bit. With watercolour you do this with layers so you can see some improvement but more needs to be done. I have left some areas with very little colour and those are areas where the mist will come in. I will accomplish this by also scrubbing the paint off in the misty areas. I also have to keep in mind that the painting is only a guide for the design of my quilt and the quilt will look very different and more vibrant when it is completed. Even so, I want to know what colours and textures I will need and also what problems I will have to solve such as how will I depict mist with fabric.

Challenge is good. It makes us better.

From Acrylic to Watercolour to Fabric

I've been continually working on my latest acrylic painting of several canoes and I like where it is going. I feel the need to let it sit for a while and let me observe it to figure out what it still needs. To me there is still something not right or not complete with it so I will move on to something else for a while.

I'm itching to do another art quilt but this time I'd like to make one that I will frame like a painting. I am still in a canoe frame of mind so I went into my photo library of my canoe trips and found two photos that I liked. I put them together in an editing program on my computer to come up with a composition I liked. I took the canoe out of one photo and placed it in a setting of another photo.

I have used this particular canoe in other artworks. I have a sketch of just the canoe and I also used it in my 2017 Calendar.

For my art quilt, as is customary, I will do a watercolour painting of the scene. From the watercolour, I will use the composition and choose my fabric from the colours I used in the painting. I will also trace the painting and enlarge the tracing for my quilt pattern. I am hoping I will get this all done before I go on my quilting retreat at the end of April so I have something to work on while I am there.

This is the beginning of my watercolour for the art quilt. I sketched the composition onto watercolour paper with watercolour pencil and will now begin to paint it.

Batik Experimentation

Last year I blogged about a Batik course I was taking with the Toronto District School Board. Initially I was excited to try this wax resist dying method out and the first classes were interesting because we dyed fabric and then made wax designs on them with various implements. It was very experimental. Each week for several weeks, though, that is all we did and I was getting tired of this and not receiving any further instruction. I was getting frustrated and so, as often happens when I feel I am not learning anything in a class, I just stopped going. It was also a difficult place to get to being downtown and having to travel at the evening rush hour through all kinds of construction just was not my cup of tea.

The down side of that decision is that I didn't know how to get the wax out of the fabric once I was done. I googled and experimented with different methods. I tried to iron the wax out between newspaper. The wax was absorbed onto the newspaper but also left a mark that looked like a grease stain on the fabric. So I was given some old aluminum pots which I used to try to boil the wax off the fabric. This proved to be labour-intensive as the wax didn't totally come out each time and I had to boil it several times. I used boiled water from my kettle and poured it over the fabric to get the residue off. My mistake was doing it in my kitchen sink and of course the drain clogged.

I did finally get the fabric to a point where I could just iron the small residue wax off. After that I washed the fabric in hot water and hung it to dry. Below are the results of this experiment and I've decided that I am not going to try this method again. Too much work and not the result I expected.

Done with wooden blocks

Wire BarBQ brush

Dripping and drawing with wax

Dripping wax

This was going to be a landscape with sky, water, trees.

Done with a metal cookie press and the head of a nail

Done with a metal butterfly stamp. This is the one I tried
to iron the wax out and all the butterflies look like grease
stains.

Drizzling and dripping wax

Not all my experiments work out the way I expect them to but I still intend to use these fabrics for something in the future.

Inspired by the Canoe

As I am currently housebound with the flu and have little energy for anything today, I thought I'd blog a day early. Tomorrow, I will likely be catching up on stuff I didn't do today.

I received a book titled, Canoe Country; The Making of Canada, written by Roy MacGregor. MacGregor's family roots begin in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. He was a columnist for the Globe and Mail and has won a number of awards for his journalism. He is also an Officer of the Order of Canada.

I have read two of his other books, A Life in the Bush and Canoe Lake and I really love his story-telling which takes me to the places he writes about. It probably helps that I have been to or know of the locations in which his stories take place.

I picked up Canoe Country from the side table in the living room because having the flu and no energy, reading was something I could do in bed. As I read the entertaining introduction, I realized that I love to paint the canoe and my dad has also used the canoe as a subject in his sketches and paintings. Coincidentally, I am currently working on a painting of 4 canoes.

Due to the fact that I have also taken a yearly canoe trip for the last 6 years, this book really excited me. Here are some excerpts from the Introduction.

"who would criticize the canoe? It requires no fuel beyond human muscle. It does not pollute. It makes no noise. It takes us to and from familiar places we love the best, introduces us to magical places we would not otherwise experience. When properly conducted, its passage through these fragile, special landscapes leaves no mark."1

The quote below has been mine and I believe my fellow canoeists' experience.

"No man can define the attraction and the disadvantages of heat, thirst, flies, long hours bent on a paddle, under rain or sunshine, hard carries over rough portages, all things inherent to such a trip made through unfrequented territories. What then urges one to go, knowing well what is in store for him? Perhaps the charm lies in magnificent sunrise and sunset scenes, or in contending with the forces of nature by one's own physical power. Or is it the soothing calm of the forest, the restful horizon of silvery lakes, the alluring noise of rapids and waterfalls? The question is hard to answer! One goes in spite of it all, accepting in advance whatever may happen. He goes and returns satisfied, even if he only brings back memories of the beautiful panoramas he has had the privilege of admiring, memories of pleasant evenings spent around the camp fire, listening to the mysterious voices of the wild, memories of freedom he has enjoyed, far from the tentacles of civilization."2

 Above is one of my dad's canoe watercolour paintings

The above are early watercolours I did of canoes.

 

This watercolour is from one of my recent canoe trips.

Below is the painting I am working on currently in acrylic. I isn't finished yet but I like where it is going and I also like the square format.

1. MacGregor, Roy, Canoe Country;The Making of Canada, Pg. 6
2. MacGregor, Roy, Canoe Country; The Making of Canada, Quote by Raoul Clouthier, Pg 9

Outdoor Utility Boxes As Art

A while back I posted about the large utility boxes situated on street corners. Normally we don't even notice these boxes but they have been slowly turning into art installations. Here are a few more we've spotted around the neighbourhood. Thanks to Grace, who has also been keeping an eye out for them and has been sending me photos as well.  Enjoy!

Here is an article I found online about the program.

 Outside the Box


The Outside the Box program provides an opportunity for local artists to create works of art on traffic signal boxes across Toronto. Since 2013, over 350 boxes have been hand-painted by local artists, or wrapped featuring designs by local graphic artists, and transformed into extraordinary works of art. Artists and graphic designers applying to this program are encouraged to consider the context of the local area and the city as a whole. Art calls for hand-painted boxes, and graphic designs for wrapped boxes, are issued separately.

You can also check out this link for more on this program
http://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2016/04/15/video-utility-box-art-brightens-toronto/

Acrylic Painting Completed

Today, I did the last touches on the painting I have been working on. Because I hadn't painted with acrylic in a while, I struggled with it but I was glad to have been in a class where I could get some tips and try out other techniques. I am glad I pushed through and I am very happy with this painting. I don't have a title for it yet, so if anyone can help me with that, I would appreciate it.

Next week will be my last class and although there is another session, I don't think I'll register for it. Spring can be a busy time in our business and I think I'd feel a little guilty leaving paperwork to wait while I take a class. This past Tuesday, I did set up another painting in class. It is a square format and it is rather small. I don't think I have ever painted anything this small with acrylic so that will be a challenge for me as well. I started this one also by painting the canvas black. I rather liked painting on black instead of white. I'm not sure why. This new painting is also from one of my canoe trips and it has 4 red canoes in it. I believe the photo I'm using is from our French River trip. We did take 5 canoes on that trip but I left one out of the painting for composition's sake. Below is the painting with areas that I blocked in today.

And here is my finished painting.

Acrylic Painting Progress

I have been working on a number of different things so completing projects is slow.  Today, I was able to spend some time on the acrylic painting I've been working on for my class which is good because the last two classes were postponed due to our instructor being at an art show of her work in the States for a couple of weeks.

I worked on the water a bit and spent more time on the rock in the foreground. I find rocks difficult because I see so many different colours in the them. There is a bit of sky reflection on them but for the most part they are quite dark.

I also finally blocked in the foreground trees to help me determine the proper values for the trees and the rock. I think I will have to glaze the background trees with a bit of blue to push them into the background and differentiate them from the foreground trees. This will give the piece more depth. The openings in between the trees will also be filled in with branches. I painted the sky in there first so it will peak between the branches to also give depth.  I'm happy with the progress so far.