Wild Arts Festival, Portland, November 17-18, 2018

This is the final year for the 6x6 Artist Open at the Wild Arts Festival. I made two works of art this year using watercolor, collage and topped by encaustic.

Harry Heron - before the encaustic top layer

Harry after the encaustic layer - photo enhanced.

A side view of the 1.5 inch cradled panel. A better depiction of the final colors.

Autumn Crow - before the encaustic top layer

Crow after the encaustic layer

The encaustic wax does dull the colors, but you can touch the surface! It soaks into the paper layers and changes them somewhat.  The work can be shined with a soft cloth every couple of months.  

More information about the festival is here:

http://wildartsfestival.org/

They will put up a slideshow of all of the 6x6 works for this year before the festival.

Fall Post Card Swap 2016 - my cards

For this swap I decided to try the Etegami as described by Diana Trout on her blog:http://dianatrout.com/  It's the entry from 10/15/2016.

I wrote fewer words and mostly used letter stamps for the words. I ordered a custom chop, but it didn't arrive in time.  Most of the cards are using the paper rated "full blur." You can see how the paint spreads in the Nasturtium card below. The stamps are from Spain in the 1980's.  I found a stack of letters written by friends I met there in college.  I need to read through the letters again, but I'll save that for a nostalgia day. In the meantime I grabbed some of the stamps for the art project.

I'm obviously inspired by my surroundings: my dog, my cat, a mini pumpkin my husband has on his desk, an owl from the Audubon Society of Portland, indoor flowers we had from the market, nasturtiums and asters from our yard.

Speaking of the Audubon society, I just could not decide on a design for the 6x6 project this year. I gave up, but we did go to the show this weekend. We picked up a couple of steel ravens for the yard and notecards.

I've received about 5 post cards so far. I'll post those next time.

Nina Johansson drawing year

http://bogglemymind.tumblr.com/

If anyone has not had a chance to look at Nina's tumblr where she drew every day in a 2015 calendar book, check it out at the link above.

 

Also, I don't know how to link to this particular question/answer page in her tumblr, so I'll post the screen shot:

Great advice, right?

 

Here's my attempt to capture some flowers I bought for the new year.  I like the top part - the looseness and variety of color in the Freesia.  The composition could be better, for sure.

 

Stonehenge notebook

2015 Autumn Post Card Swap

First, apologies for the blurry photos.  Apparently my camera was on some strange setting, and I didn't notice until now.  But, since I've already sent these out, they're the best I've got.

These post cards are for iHanna's Postcard swap: http://www.ihanna.nu/postcard-swap/

I used acrylic paint mixed with water in a spray bottle with a stencil. I painted the rest with water color.  Then I threw on a few stamps.  I've been wanting to get better at painting trees, so it was good practice.

 

Plus, one gourd:

 

I'll post the cards I received next time - I've gotten 7 so far!

Sketches, play and rest

The paint is flowing a bit more nowadays.  The first painting I tried to do of this fading poinsettia had everything wrong - overpainting, muddy, stiff.

Then I loosened up a bit and managed to bring in a bit of light with this sketch painting.

This next one was done free-hand with a size 36 round brush (BIG brush).

Using Charles Reid's "Painting Flowers in Watercolor" (I have a copy for my Kindle Fire - which is very exciting), I practiced some of his techniques.  He paints alla prima (get it down the first time). The rule is no re-stating of darks.  If you don't get it right the first time, too bad!

I used a lot of water and paint, so I didn't have a lot of control, but I had a lot of fun!

Daniel Smith paints on rough India-made paper. Khadi brand.


My progress on Martha Beck's A Wild New World so far.  Well, I've been trying to Play and Rest.  It's quite easy to play, rest, play, rest.  I don't seem to have any issues with this part of the plan.  However, of course, there are lots of other things to do during the day.  If the tax receipts need to be finished, does she mean mark up the bank statements with a fat, purple marker (tried it - it was fun for 5 minutes,) or does she mean just send it all out and have someone else deal with it?

Dishes?  OK, if I'm chilly, playing in the sudsy water can be a joy, but only for a short time, then it's drudgery.. 

Work, as in job work.  Hmm - how to make this one follow the rules?  I'll tell you one way - I slept Friday afternoon. I slept Saturday afternoon.  Sunday, I slept in later in the morning, and then passed out for about an hour around 7 pm. I didn't get any "work" done.  However, by Tuesday, I felt much less resistent to the work I had to do.  Last night, late, I was preparing for a meeting.  I took a 20 minute break, realized that I didn't need to pull an all nighter as long as I had an outline, finished and was in bed by 1 am.  Today the meeting went well.

So, I think 3 days of napping are a good pre-requisite to a few days of working!

I haven't researched the elephant situation, but it's still on my list.

A couple of visual blogs

Photo by Margaret Oomen, ResurrectionFern (Click to enlarge and see the snails)

While it is fun to read blogs, sometimes I just want to relax with a few words and some beautiful photos.

Margaret Oomen, in the Toronto area, takes gorgeous photos of the natural area around her home and the east coast of Canada. She also creates various beautiful hand-made items. Her blog is called ResurrectionFern.

Another blog containing lots of homey photos and snippets of homelife is called Habit and has several contributers.

Both of these blogs are updated often and are a quick stop to reflect and enjoy the beauty of the world.

As for my own photos, I think I lost my digital point and shoot camera. Plus, the preview pane was broken, so it was a little awkward to change menu settings. In the meantime, I'll have to make do with my Windows phone camera.

Sketch of Honey the dog.

House of Dreams for Kitty Cats

On November 12, 2011, House of Dreams cat shelter is having a Pretty Kitty Craft Bazaar at Tabor Space, 5441 SE Belmont Ave in Portland, Oregon. They will have all sorts of fun gifts to buy which will help the shelter continue to help kitties with no homes, including a room of Feline Leukemia positive cats.

I won't be able to attend, but I did donate some of my Speedy cards:



Speaking of Speedy, this poor kitty is really feeling the weather. He's very wobbly on his feet right now.  At 18 years old, this Age Chart says he is around 88 in human years.  We visited Bob's sweet grandma Reggie to celebrate her 89th birthday last night, and she would agree that she's been unsteady on her feet lately too!

If you can't make it to the Bazaar, I'll be listing cards on Etsy soon - the one above and a close-up in a vertical format.

iHannah's Postcard Swap 2011

Hannah's postcard swap ( www.ihanna.nu/ ) was in April this year. I thought I would just make "what I felt like." The first thing I wanted to do was paint skies in water color. So I did.  What next?  I'm still crazy about yarn.  I'd been wanting to experiment with some "motifs" which are small shapes in crochet. Of course, that meant that my postcards now needed envelopes.

I enjoyed playing with the color combos and yarn varieties.  Still a little plain.  What about some words?  We spent time on vacation at a place that had signs everywhere which read: "Deer have right of way."  We saw several herds of deer and came within 15 feet of a herd while on a hike. (Eagle Crest near Redmond, Oregon)

I added the words "Deer have right of way" to the cards on pieces of decorative tape.

As I was preparing the cards for mailing, I realized that I had 4 recipients who don't live in the USA. They are in Canada and The Netherlands.  Uh oh - that requires customs forms.  What am I doing?  This is supposed to be a simple post card swap.  If I send a package, will they have to go to the post office to pick it up? Fill out forms on their end?  That doesn't seem right.  So, I took off the crochet and added a free form deer head created from washi tape. 

I've been thinking about stencils lately and how you can suggest a figure with a minimum of shapes.

Anyway, it was an interesting experiment.  All of the postcards were mailed late and I apologize!  I've been receiving lots of fun ones.  I'll show photos in the next post.

Latest Commissions

Oh - doesn't that sound nice: "Latest Commissions". My friend asked for a few more of the "Pear Mail" series. I made a few as gifts as well. (Jenny? Raegan?)


Of course, once I received a request and a deadline, I went into resistance mode. I put it off as long as I could.



The story of my life.

The same thing happened with crochet. My niece asked for a scarf made from yarn she chose. I had to make her a hat, scarf and gloves from yarn I picked out before I could get around to making the one she wanted. Of course, don't even get me started with my regular work.

The scarf and hat colors I chose.

The scarf and hat colors she chose

They're both nice. Both easy.

My sister Rachael's scarf.

I can't be the only person who has resistance issues. Anyone else have any stories? Remedies?

Dee Dee in the window on a sleepy January day in Portland.

This and that...

Art Journaling: Last year I tried to make cohesive pages surrounding the daily word prompt. It was a helpful exercise, but a bit stressful. This year I'm making sketches and seeing if they match any of the prompts. It's more relaxing.

Glass coaster and three glass candle holders

Douglas fir and cones

Last Friday, I took advantage of the sunshine and tried out Nature Printing Paper, which uses photographic technology. Place objects on the paper, expose to sun for 2 or 3 minutes, then soak in water for a minute and let dry.

As it is November and we're just above 45 degrees North Latitude, the sun was quite low in the sky at noon. You can see the elongated shadows in the photos. I don't know what I'm going to do with the pictures yet, but they sure were fun and easy to make. Nature Print Paper.


Yarn! Resistance is futile. I've been trying to avoid yarn stores for at least 5 years, but Yarnia opened up a few blocks away. Once I found out they make custom yarn, well, it was over. I'm resisting knitting, but I don't mind doing a little crocheting. It's a very relaxing and non-messy activity to do while watching TV with Bob. No ink or paint on my clothes!

I walked into Knit/Purl in downtown Portland for the first time today and found this pink-fuscia sock yarn to make a scarf for my niece. The color is called "Light of Love." I've always wondered how they've stayed in business. Well, their yarn is gorgeous and priced to match! It's a great treat to hang out in a place like this.

The internet reaches out...

"All the paintings in this exhibition have Norrbyskär as a theme, an island south of Umeå in Northern Sweden"

For months, I've been anxiously awaiting the posting of an exhibit of paintings by one of my favorite watercolor artists, Nina Johansson. http://www.ninajohansson.se/

She uses found objects in her work to apply paint to part of her paintings or to stencil. She is particularly good at getting the values correct and unifying her paintings. Most of her paintings seem to feature a building and its surrounding area. Sometimes she'll include a bit of trompe-l'oeil finery such as including a black and white photo "taped" to the painting.

I certainly don't have the means to travel to a remote Swedish island to see the exhibit right now so I'm glad she is sharing. She's posting a painting a day through July.

Journaling Update

The journaling has been going OK. I feel like I probably won't continue as much with words and pictures together. For writing, I prefer to write a lot and very fast. For art, I'd rather concentrate on the picture by itself and perhaps add a title. It is fun to be part of a group and to see what others come up with for the prompts. I am already rebelling against the prompts: "I don't need no stinking prompts." Famous last words - I'll probably be crying about not having any ideas next time. I'm just making the prompts fit with what I want to do.

People in Water Color

Here are Bob's nephews - Morgan and Colin. Perhaps too much contrast, but fun to do. I'm anxious to try painting my sister Rachael and her daughter, and Bob's cousin and his wife.

I'd like to paint my sister Roxanne. She passed away 15 years ago today. Maybe another day.

Water color

Here are some exercises I painted. The first two use Koi pan water colors, the second two use the colors from my palette, mostly Daniel Smith and M. Graham paints.
They're painted on Khadi Rough paper from India, about 5x7.

First try - clematis and roses from our garden. I thought I didn't quite get it all integrated enough - not enough lost edges.

More lost edges.

Drawn using a grey Pitt pen and painted using my palette colors.

Drawn in pencil, painted, then ink added with a calligraphy pen. I have to admit, I like the high contrast. Next time, I might try to remember to vary the type of lines.

I sold an art piece!

"Arranging a Sunny Day" was sold, and as far as I know, it was not purchased by a relative or friend. Now, Bob's annoyed because he wanted it! Oh well.

Here's an iPhone photo of Bob looking at the piece at the show. We were not actually allowed to take photos, so I covered up the other work. However, there was plenty of great work to enjoy. It was a lot of fun to participate.

Tuesday night I'm taking a Mixing Your Own Encaustic Medium & Paint class from Linda Womack. I'm very excited to play with the pigments. Not to worry - we are wearing respirators!

Otherwise, I've been doing lots of painting exercises, but I don't really have any finished pictures at the moment.

Encaustic works in progress

The Lake Oswego Art Festival takes place June 26 - June 28, 2009. They have an Open Show that is, well, open to anyone who wants to enter. There is a small fee of $25 per three pieces, the items have to be for sale, and the festival keeps 40% of the sale price.

I set a goal to have something ready for the show this year as a challenge to myself. It's a way to get started interacting with other artists, learn about art shows, learn about readying a piece of art (hanging, framing, matting correctly), and see how my works compare.

The submission date is June 21. Here are two of the pieces I'm working on:



"Vaux Swifts at Chapman" - 12x12 on birch board, encaustic with tissue paper transfers, in progress.


"Vaux Swifts at Chapman" - completed in a frame. Sorry about the parallax in the photo.



"My Blue Ocean" - 11x14 on Aquabord with water color and 2 coats of clear encaustic medium (beeswax and damar resin), in progress.



"My Blue Ocean" - still in progress. I added encaustic paint and ground glass for the sand. This is on a 2 inch cradled board, so I'm collaging the edges. I'll show that when I post the finished piece.

I have one more to display. It's called "Arranging a Sunny Day."