Monday, April 27, 2009

Fun with Watercolors

I have always loved playing with watercolors. At one point I even enjoyed weaving tapestries of some of my watercolor paintings, including this one.

secretmessageblog


I took a workshop with Marcel Marois, and he suggested that I should include a very thin strand of white silk in the weft to give the illusion of the white paper showing through the transparent watercolor. The other thing I learned from Marcel was to consider every single dot of color as I weave.

The painting was completely abstract, and after I wove it, I could not think of a good name for it, so I consulted an expert: my daughter, who was about 10 years old. My kids were always good at thinking of names for pets, so I figured “pets, tapestries, same general idea right?” I told her that although it looked like it meant something, I had no idea what it was about, so she titled it “Secret Message."

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Last week I was doing some cleaning at my Mom’s summer cottage, and I noticed that 2 of my old watercolors had gotten a little moldy over the years.


This happens in the humid climate here when buildings are unheated. Both paintings are at least 20 years old. So although they are headed for the trash can, I decided to preserve them digitally.


I don’t care about the grid, because I made lots of those and they are really easy, almost mechanical. But I am sad about the still life; it’s one of my favorites and would be impossible to reproduce.

watercolorshells

Monday, April 13, 2009

SPRING:Time for Progress

Spring is here, kind of. scillasmall

It was only 41 yesterday, but today it’s sunny, and flowers are popping up all over the yard.

I love these Scilla.

I was delighted to find them in the backyard, and knew them from the Flower Fairies book I had when I was a kid.

tulipsmall

This is a detail from a tapestry called “Flora,” which I wove in 1999. It is based on a pastel drawing from about 1978. florasmall

Why am I posting about old tapestries? Because I’m not making much progress on the new ones.

I have not been working in the studio much recently.

Here is a photo of the “large” tapestry I started a while ago.

(“Large,” because at 24” wide it’s about the same size as one of Kathy Spoering’s “small” tapestries!)

It’s the latest in my Chaos series, and will have faint text around the border. The text will say “On the edge of chaos on the edge of chaos on the edge.”

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Now I have 3 Chaos tapestries started on 3 different looms.

Enough! I need to start finishing them. IMG_1824I am setting aside Wednesday nights for weaving, now that the library is going to be closed that night. The new mayor does not seem to like us, and has cut our budget radically. Besides cutting our hours, we’ve had to give up buying any books, movies or music Cd’s. I felt terrible on Friday when I had to tell a patron that we did not have the book she was looking for, and that we would not be getting it. The silver lining is that I now have 4 extra free hours a week. Rather than fritter them away, I am marking a studio date on my calendar. Now I hope to be able to report regular progress.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Kreativ Blogger Award

Finding the Real Me has nominated me for the Kreativ Blog Award. That’s exciting! Accepting this award means following some rules:

1. Copy the Kreativ Blogger Award to your blog
2. Put a link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate 8 other blogs and
4. Link to them
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated

1. Desert Song Studio - The first tapestry blog I ever saw, inspired me to start my own. Always a nice change to read about desert life!

2. Bhakti Ziek - Jacquard weaving and life in an old house in Vermont.

3. Meab Warburton - Irish tapestry weaver living in France. Designs with paper collage. Includes an extensive list of links to British fiber artists.

4. Laura Foster Nicholson - Gorgeous brocaded tapestries, which I’ve loved since seeing the vegetable garden series in Fiberarts years ago.

5. Three Little Cameras - Croatian artist Asja Boros’wonderful whimsical drawings.

6. Spirit Cloth…Quilting a Story - Fabric, stitching, texture, stories. Delicious.

7. Works by Tracy Helgerson - Powerful figurative paintings, using the “underpainting” technique. Makes me want to get out my oil paints.

8. Sojourner Design - Sheep, wool, lovely stitched felted fiber art.