Spirit Card

I needed a card for a dear family friend whose birthday I missed so decided to make a simple Spirit painting in a large postcard format to send to her.  I also wanted to try a new twist to the style by adding many rectangles and squares to one layer.  Since I wasn't sure how it would turn out I decided to just use stamp pads to "paint" the background layers rather than using my watercolors.  I think it turned out fine.  I hope she likes it!

 On a background of lavender card stock I "painted" a free color area using a small 1" teal stamp pad.

Next I added green ink in another random design.

To complete the background, hot pink stamp pad was used to "paint" the area.

Then I randomly stamped the actual stamp pads down on the paper to create an overlapping design of squares and rectangles.  This was an idea I "borrowed", with permission, from Pat Cafferty, a Canadian fiber artist and friend.  I have never used this many stamp pad prints in a piece, and it was fun to let loose.  I especially liked that some of the pads left a dark inked area while others were very faint and transparent.

Then I added a layer of white and purple acrylic paint that I put on a cardboard roller with different sized rubber bands wrapped around it.  Then I rolled the roller across the design several times.

The last step was to add the marker dots to help create a border, use white and black ink to add details and text.  

The completed piece has a focal point of a country road with a windmill and tank with a hedge row on the horizon.  It reminds me of my dad's pasture by the Arkansas River, although the "road" going through the pasture is not that straight or clean!  I used a white stamp pad to create the background for the ink drawing.  The text reads:

Spinning Love

Spinning Legacy

Spinning Memories

Spinning....

Spinning...

Spinning....

The Way Home

This is for my dear, dear friend, Janice Schmidt for her birthday.  I've known her for as long as I remember as she was a member of the church I grew up in and one of the last few to help keep our little church going, was my Mom's BEST friend, and one of the loveliest ladies I have ever known.  She has the biggest heart and i love her with all of mine!

Happy Birthday, my dear friend.  (Photo taken in April, 2002)

Home Art Room

I finally have my art room cleaned and organized, even the very back corner by my drawing table, which isn't pictured. Yes, alot of "stuff" and the walls are full....but I know where everything is and have a place to work. LOVE it!

Cards

I have been needing to make some cards...a good winter past time!  I thought I'd share these as it was something new for me.  I have seen similar cards on the internet, but these are my own designs and each card is hand cut.  It was easier than I anticipated, although, any detailed cutting like this takes some time.

the top row is a leaf design cut out of white card stock and adhered to dark green card stock.  i cut out the negative space and left the leaves and border as one piece.

The butterfly is very simple as there is no drawing on the paper at all....just the wings cut out and bent at the center.  the white card stock is adhered to a lighter green card stock.

These are for my sister so don't tell her!!!!!! :D  She just retired on Friday, january 31st, 2014.  happy retirement my dear sister!  May God bless you with sunny days surrounded by all the things you love in nature, dear friends and family, and a heart filled with joy!  I love you!

My dear sister.....Love always!

I hope this inspires you to try something different.  Please feel free to leave a comment or find me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/spiritstudio11  where you can also leave me a message.

Snow dyed fabric

It snowed this week so I got to try the snow dyed fabric technique I've been reading about. My friend and fabric artist, Pat Cafferty from Canada, has done some beautiful snow dyed fabric and has encouraged and inspired me to try this. I have much to learn yet, but the completed dyed fabric is interesting and should lend itself to being the background to some of my Spirit paintings. Here is the documentation of the steps I took to dye the fabric with snow. 

Soda Ash soak for 10 min. to help the fabric accept and hold the dye.  Make sure you wear protective goggles and mask.

The large pans I used held cookie cooling racks in the bottom.  These helped keep the cloth off of the bottom of the pan so it didn't sit in a pool of dye after the snow melted.

These two smaller pans are about shoe box size.  The cloth was placed in the bottom of the pans with no rack to hold the fabric up.

This is the cloth scrunched in the large pan lying on top of the cookie rack.

This photo shows the cloth in the small pan, with the cloth sitting on the bottom of the pan.

This is the first large pan with the snow filled to the top.  Approximately 1/2 teaspoon of powdered RIT fabric dye was randomly sprinkled over the top of the snow.  I used Royal blue, red and fuchsia dye.

This is the completed, dried and ironed full piece of course muslin fabric that I used in this first pan.   

Detail of the muslin fabric.

Second detail of the muslin fabric.

Third detail of the muslin fabric.

Fourth detail of the muslin fabric.

This is the second large pan with the snow filled to the top of the pan.  The colors used here were orange, fuchsia, and red.  The very dark areas are the red powdered dye.  I used approximately 1/2 teaspoon of each color.

This is 100% fine cotton fabric that measures approximately 36"x45".  It is completed, dried and ironed.  The texture in the dye patterns is much more subtle than the courser fabrics.

Detail of fine cotton fabric.

Detail 2 of fine cotton fabric.

Detail 3 of fine cotton fabric (this photo came out a little brighter than the actual fabric.  This piece is actually very soft colors rather than so intense.).

Detail 4 of fine cotton fabric.

Snow filled small pan with orange and fuchsia dye on top, approximately 1/2 teaspoon of each.

Full completed, dried and ironed canvas approximately 18"x36".  This piece is more vibrant than the colors appear in the photos.  The canvas seemed to accept the textured patterns better than the finer fabrics.

Detail 1 of canvas.

Detail 2 of canvas.

Detail 3 of canvas.

This is the second small pan filled with snow and approximately 1/2 teaspoon of fuchsia and royal blue dye with the second piece of canvas fabric in the bottom.

This is the full 18"x36" piece of canvas, dried and ironed.  It is my favorite piece.  It had more white in it than I thought it would, since it sat on the bottom of the small pan with no rack to keep it up out of the melted liquid dye.  I love the patterns and textures in this one, as well as the colors.  I felt this was the most successful piece.  I may just stretch and frame this piece without painting anything on top of it.  

Detail of blue canvas.

Detail 2 of blue canvas.

Detail 3 of blue canvas.

Please watch for further posts of these pieces as I use them for a base for my Spirit paintings.  I hope you enjoyed this post.  Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me on Facebook.

Wabi-sabi photos

I wanted to share some photos I took this summer, August, 2013, that, hopefully, will inspire some new paintings.  I purchased the book Wabi-sabi Art Workshop by Serena Barton this summer and the philosophy behind this book is to take time to look at our surroundings and notice the humble portions of the scene.  In other words, instead of looking at an interesting old weathered barn, look at the actual weathered wood and notice the intricate details within that small portion of the wood. 

Since one of my trips included a visit to my sister in California, I thought I would take some photos of her beautiful garden (she has 10 green fingers!) and try to zoom in on individual flowers rather than taking photos of her whole garden.  The following photos are the product of that day's journey through her special garden and retreat. When looking at the photos, try to observe the areas of color, light and shadow, patterns, textures, as well as the gorgeous blooms she is able to grow.  These photos will be used to experiment with those more abstract qualities rather than trying to paint the actual flowers.  It will be interesting to see what comes from these possibilities!  For now, I hope you enjoy the photos.  And watch for the experimental paintings that follow.

Notice the contrasts between the delicate spikes against the course texture of the ground; the spot of the hot pink dried petal against the freshness of the white bloom.  This was one of my favorite flowers.  I may use this for the first experiment.  

I like the harsh angles of the Bird of Paradise against the natural form of the dark green tree tops and bright blue sky.

The shadows look so delicate and lacy compared to the actual flower and leaves.

The large leaves, the spacing, and the color variations in the sun and shadow caught my attention.  I also like the contrast the geometry of the brick background creates against the sporadic spacing of the leaves and the wonderful pop of blue violet of the flowers.

I loved the lacy petals of this bloom.  But what really caught my attention was the colors of the dappled background!

Once I started looking more closely at individual areas, I was fascinated by the courseness of the ground texture, especially against the extremely delicate light blue flowers.  It makes the tiny flowers look so innocent and pure. 

The bougainvillea plant has always been a favorite of mine. I loved how brilliant the color was in the sunshine, how MANY colors of pink there were and the blue sky peeking through the bright green leaves.

I really like the contrast of the gorgeous petals in hot pink to white pink to DEEP dark burgundy against the dull burnt sienna bricks and the backdrop of rectangles.

The almost coral red fading to purple is wonderful and the tiny spikes just add a more magical feel to this bloom.  I also love the negative space of this bloom. 

I loved the deep purple of the leaves against the raw clay pot.  With the deep, sharp shadow of the leaves and the spot of pure white, this tiny bloom captured my heart.

The thin spiky leaves going every which way created interesting line patterns against the calmness of the simple white petals.

I love the nubbins of this plant.  The texture and subtle color variations along with the high contrast of bright light and dark shadows should make an interesting composition.

This was one of my favorite flowers in my sister's magical garden.  I was fascinated by the tiny seed pods at the end of the stems.  I just love the repetitive shapes this bloom makes.

This is a photo of the FLOWER ABOVE as it looks in January when it is in bloom (I had thought it was a bloom in photo above!).  I had my sister look up this blogsite when I published it (on Jan. 18th, 2014). When she got to the above photo, she said, "Oh, you have to see it now!"  She grabbed her laptop and ran to the garden to show me how it looked.  It was so amazing, and SO different from how it looked in August that I took a photo of my laptop screen!!!!  It worked!  Isn't it beautiful?  Who would ever guess these two photos are of the exact same flower, just 4 months difference in growth!  I just had to share this with you.  Isn't technology wonderful??!!!!  

I thought the vertical direction of the actual plant was an interesting contrast to the horizontal stripes on the leaves.  I also liked the chiaroscuro, the play of light and dark, in this photo.

I loved the delicate, tiny blue blooms against the larger, heartier succulent and both in contrast to the rough background.  I also want to play with the bright small bright green leaves against the dull blue-green/gray of the succulent.

The next few photos are of some areas or subjects that I found interesting, or spoke more personally of my sister's touch to the garden.

The contrast between the rough texture of the cement against the harsh, sharp shadow was interesting to me.

Is this crazy or WHAT!  My sister found this piece of drift wood with a rock stuck in it.  I not only loved that rarity, but found the contrast between the gentle curves of the driftwood and the geometric wood background to be very interesting.....same substance, one natural and free, one forced into submission--and the stuck rock just emphasizes that concept.

My sister and I grew up on a farm in central Kansas.  Her garden gate reminded me of our barn, for some reason.  I loved the way the "X" looks against the floppy, spiky, thin leaves and how the leaves seem to softly embrace the strong sturdy gate.

These are my sister's yellow garden boots.  I loved the color contrast against the gray cement.  The simple shapes and color seem in contrast to the utilitarian use and the image of all the hard work that goes into her magical retreat.

The last two photos were taken at the beach where we spent one glorious day.  I could have taken more wabi-sabi photos that day, but I was too enthralled with the experience of being back on the beach to spend the time taking pictures!

This is FULL of contrasts!

Loved the circles in this rock and how it was buried in the sand.  REALLY wanted to bring this rock home with me!

I hope you have enjoyed taking a walk with me through my sister's garden and a peek in to how I see the world.  I really like this concept of looking closer at the world around us.  I have always tried to do that with my compositions, but the wabi-sabi seems to take me even farther into the spirit of each subject.  I think it will be interesting and fun to see how these translate into paintings.  Please feel free to offer comments or ideas, or tell me how this has inspired you to move closer to the humble things in life.

Enjoy the POSSIBILITIES!