Week 23 - in the Studio

There is a lot happening right now - spring into summer and hit the accelerator! I did spend a couple days at the Gathering the Threads Conference and Exhibition in the Cowichan Valley - I had fun as a student taking an Advanced Gel Printing workshop with west coast artist, Jennifer Love. It was lots of learning with several new techniques and methods of working, including how to clean my brayer with Murphy's Oil Soap. It seems like there's YouTube video for everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J5fO3wj5w8

I had a shift in the local gallery and took a selfie with my art work in the background, I didn't realize that I actually matched the pieces with my glasses and a new top!

While working on my book covers I grabbed some scraps of canvas and painted circles with spare paint...I like the heaviness of this canvas (12 oz) and the combination of simplicity and interesting colours...I wonder why we are so attracted to circles as a universal symbol?

I found this quote: "The circle is an omnipresent, universal symbol with extensive meaning. Without beginning or end, without sides or corners this geometric shape tells about perfection, unity,spirituality and life like no other form." The author went even further - considering a variety of cultures and faith groups and quoting Pythagorus that "the circle is the most perfect shape - no beginning, no end, it is infinite and stands for both non-existence and eternity". The website is fascinating and worth a read: https://thoth-adan.com/blog/symbols-based-on-circles In fact, spend time exploring the website, you'll be glad you did!
Two treasures I've found this week: a pile of old sheet music ready for collage and other ideas and a walk on the beach produced a small collection of sea glass, do you see the little bit of blue pottery at the top?

My family came for a visit this past weekend and we spent a bit of time at the beach - I love the variety of textures that nature provides:

This coming week, I'll be prepping for an art show, stop by if you can!

Week 14 - in the Studio

This past week has been about finishing some work, I'm not sure why the latest in my Industrial shoreline series took so long to put the facings on...I just procrastinated too much!

It is smaller than recent work at 27" x 43", but the size seemed to work for the topic. It was a photo I had taken when we travelled to the north end of Vancouver Island and spent time around Port McNeill and Cormorant and Malcolm islands - a beautiful area I'd love to visit again. I was loving the linear aspects of a log booming area and took a few photos. 

The challenges of logging, clear cuts, forestry management and sustainable practises are part of my series - there are no right answers. I don't support clear cuts and tearing down old growth but we do need long term employment, especially for first nations in these remote areas, and properly managed, forestry can be part of this approach.

No title yet but it's 27" x 43"

I finished several collages that incorporate mark making and collage on vintage pages. I ordered packs of paper from Etsy and used them with white paint, acrylic inks, asemic text and marks...I love these! I'll be framing them soon and have them for sale - stay tuned!

Speaking of Etsy - I ordered some ultra suede labels from a vendor on Alberta - super quick service and very well made: Spotted Zebra and used them on my Art to Carry Textile Totes:

And I have a few available now HERE

I framed a little piece that my grand daughter had made a couple weeks ago:

And I took a monoprinting workshop today via Zoom, a different approach from what I have been doing but I learned several useful techniques that I can incorporate into my work. I'm taking a two day workshop on gel printing in June and looking forward to learning even more!

If you are yearning for an inperson workshop, have a look at the Gathering the Threads Conference in Cowichan Valley: https://gatheringthethreads.ecwid.com

Week 3 in My Studio

Welcome back to the studio - it was energizing to be back at work, visiting family and celebrating Christmas was so special - even with an "unusual to us" snowfall....that kept me at home for a couple days. But we kept the fire burning, hummingbirds fed and just enjoyed the rest!

I'm working on creating small vessels that combine paper and fabric with a bit of stitch - its been challenging to figure out the sizing and where to cut - lots of paper mockups were made and destroyed! I have a busy week as some of these will be going into the next exhibition at our local gallery.

I'm planning on a video tutorial on the process soon. With a bit of research I also discovered many other shapes that can be made - endless possibilities!

Last week I showed some images of painted sweeps of black across some vintage linen, I had cut them up and was playing with the arrangement. I got one that I was totally happy with and sewed it together. I am planning to "quilt" it with small x stitches across the surface rather than using more traditional machine or hand quilting.

The other pieces have not played well together and still require some work....we will see!

 I'm happy with this one, the hint of a large X in the middle is appealing and it seems well balanced.

This one is not behaving and I have already made adjustments from this image, it will end up smaller and may even be smaller still.....coasters, anyone?

I have some new Art to Carry Textile Totes set up in my Etsy Shop - they are so much fun to make, each one is different and its a great way to experiment with surface design ideas...

You can check them out here: Art to Carry

There's still time to register for my Cloth to Codex Workshop, I would love to share my ideas and inspirations with you....here's a little video that explains what you'll be learning: 

https://vimeo.com/658057548

You can sign up HERE

New Work - The Magic of Blue

 Lately, I've been leaning towards more mixed media work, incorporating/combining both paper and fabric together and using mark making with collage for a series of work that focuses on the beauty of indigo. I have found an ink that is very close in hue to natural indigo and love using it with black and white mono printing as well as text.

I have built a webpage that is dedicated to small, new works for sale and I hope to rotate small collections through the page with a reasonable price point. This first exploration I am titling The Magic of Blue!

Enjoy these few and then have a look further here: https://www.susanpm.com/the-magic-of-blue-collectors-sale/

Two Roads Diverged....

 My last blog post was about "call and response" ....mostly about seeing an opportunity for exploring further in an unexpected way....

I was painting some vintage fabric squares for a new piece I'm working on - the sky needs to have a very subtle, monochromatic with little contrast, so I was using a sponge roller with white paint.

For some reason I had black paper underneath and when I lifted the fabric square I was totally entranced with the remaining images on the paper.

Tons of texture and beautiful marks left behind...

I thought if I used the white paint on white paper and then added a wash of India ink when it was dry, that might prove interesting....not so much!

The painted squares are waiting patiently and drying, I'm excited to get sewing with these for a new Industrial Shoreline piece. 

In the meantime I started playing with the painted papers....first I trimmed the papers into 6" squares (thinking like a quilter)... and placed them on a white background separated by a narrow 'border"...

It's okay but not exciting....

So then I look closely at one square and found the texture so entrancing....

And then, along with some other painted papers I experimented with some collage...much better and perhaps worth pursuing... it's put into my sketchbook and I think I'll come back to it at some point!

In the meantime, I have a stack of painted fabrics to work with...

...and how is your art coming along?

My Call and Response....

 I was watching the interview on Fibre Arts Take Two with Dorothy Caldwell and Claire Benn,  look on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbSWEfUADOE&t=4015s

... and Claire mentioned her explorations being a "call and response" ... meaning that she will have an idea and respond to it with an exploration to see where it takes her. I think we do this as a "what if" ...

In the interview Dorothy had a grouping of tied pages that reminded me of small books and since I'm in the midst of teaching my Cloth to Codex Online Workshop which focuses on books and mark making I thought of tearing up a large sheet of marked paper into pages....

The paper started as an exercise in .... chasing shadows with India ink. It sat in my cupboard for a few months ....

then I marked the back of the paper ....

and tore it up into rectangles ... and then just laid out the pieces in a random order. First one side ...

and then the other side ....

and arranged them again....

I like how they looked in a stack ...

and took some of the photos into my iPad app and drew over top ...

and then took the photo away ...

....so that's it for now! What's next? Crop and edit? Multi-coloured strips? Not sure but this is my "call and response"

What is yours?

Inspiration from Marble...what???

While I haven't been in my studio during the last two months, I have been busy gathering inspiration with my iPhone while my husband and I toured through Portugal, Spain and Sicily. Because we were walking on the Camino and then hopping buses and trains afterwards, we didn't want to pack a lot - so my art practice was all about recording with an iPhone.
Beyond the regular scenic shots of buildings, bridges and wine I looked for interesting compositions that involved line, pattern and texture....here's a few:

I've been following a French artist, Fabienne Verdier who paints vertically in ink, standing directly on her stretchers, using giant brushes and tools of her own invention suspended from the studio ceiling. She studied calligraphy and art in China for over ten years and her art have a dynamism and flow that I find very appealing. Most of her work is in two colours, often highly contrasting and worked over several panels, sometimes vertically, other times horizontally. You might enjoy looking further: https://fabienneverdier.com/

During my time away and without having access to materials, I envisioned how my mark making might be produced on a larger scale and how I might work with developing marks on fabric and how it might evolve with the addition of stitch. 

Some of the statues had the most beautiful folds in their clothing and I was intrigued by the lines that were formed, especially when cropped or photographed at an angle.

I am not an expert at PhotoShop but I'm always willing to experiment and push a few buttons on the keyboard. And my results might be great or they might sit on the computer until I get around to deleting them....

But working with layers, cropped, over lapping and rotating has produced some positive ideas that might work into further development.

I used a filter called Threshold which have the strongest contrast.

I repeated the image four times with the same orientation

I took a slice of the previous arrangement

Then the slices were repeated and two were flipped.

More slices were taken and repeated....

 As you might guess, the design options are limitless and each time something else might appear, depending on the cut, orientation and the repeat. I'm excited and looking forward to more experimentation. Now, if I could just get used to being on a different time zone!