Week 16, 17 & 18 - in the Studio

 Time got away from me, as it often does, some good weather prompted me outside and into the garden...

But studio time has been a bit weird...I am moving forward into unknown territory and that can be frightening - in an art-kind-of-way! My series, the Industrial Shoreline, is evolving and I am on my (possibly last) piece of textile wall art. I enjoy creating these but they have become an easy place to be...pick a photo, change it around a bit, make the work. Interesting and appealing but not mind blowing, exciting stuff. 

I have some ideas for new ways forward with 3D work, collage and some smaller mixed media but the next steps are experimenting, trialing and foundational work - stuff that seems if it fails - then I fail. Realistically I know thats not true, but it's hard to push on through into new work - what if it falls flat and is terrible? At least I know I'm not alone - and I've been in a safe place too long.

So here's a bit of a start on that last piece, the long strips will be cut up as sky:

Speaking of sky...I just posted a YouTube video "Paint the Sky" on how I create the sky pieces...dyeing and painting a variety of fabrics: https://youtu.be/eIK3_fniC7I

So I mentioned some more collage pieces that I'm working on, using elements that I created in my Scan n Cut. I painted soft greys and blues on water colour paper and am auditioning different ideas that I could incorporate into the work. Still very much exploration and play - something I need to remind myself over and over again...it doesn't have to be "finished" - it's about the journey, not the destination...yada, yada, yada!

On a totally unrelated note, some of our family gathered for Easter and we had a Lego contest. We made up bags of random Lego bits and had to create something using every piece! It was a fun activity!

Be Creative, everyone!

Week 15 - in the Studio

Ups and downs this past week! The grandsons were visiting during March Break so it wasn't too easy finding time alone....

So we did a couple art projects together and had fun learning about "spinner art" - now I need a new salad spinner! After a couple YouTube videos, it was easy to tackle.

We needed:

• card stock cut into circles to fit the inside of the basket - white and black paper
• inexpensive craft/acrylic paints - we didn't use my Golden paints!
• salad spinner, I have a cheap Ikea one so didn't feel bad about using it

Put the paper inside the spinner and dribble a few colours - just a little, we used too much!

Put the cover on top, make sure it's secure.

Turn the spinner handle one way a few times and then in the opposite way.

So simple...

And so much fun! We dyed T-shirts as well but no photos!

I did get some canvas painted for sketchbooks and totes - happy, spring colours! I'll be putting them together next week - an easy but repetitive job.

I spent this afternoon learning about WaterColour Grids with Wendy Welch, online with the Vancouver Island School of Art https://www.vancouverislandschoolart.com

Nothing fabulous was created but I did learn a lot and saw some possibilities for collage and maybe cutting some of them with my Scan n Cut - particularly this one, no redeeming qualities otherwise!

I quite enjoyed this one - one colour and then lightening and darkening and using analogous colours:

Wendy mentioned other artists who used grids in their work: Paul Klee, Ralph Lemon, Agnes Martin and Gunta Stoltz - a weaver during time of the Bau Haus whose work I find particularly intriguing!

You can see more of her designs here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=Gunta+Stölzl&sortBy=Relevance&pageSize=0

Here is a couple more I made:

And that's about it! How was your week?