Small Basket

It took me awhile to finish this one--(I just put it aside a number of times)--so this one's holding dental floss--Makes me wonder, if I keep this up, will I have a basket for every single thing in my house?

The Second Life of a Paper Shade

A pieced this accordion fold, brown paper bag shade together, about 12 years ago.  The center piece is an old sketch from a figure drawing class, of a man with part of his skeleton showing.  You can see his ribs on the right.   I originally made two shades like this for my son's room--thinking he'd like the skeletons--he did, and the shades were used for years.  After not finding enough material in my stash to make a curtain, I got this paper shade out of the closet to see if it could be salvaged.  I printed my dancers and my roses in red, but now the poor half skeleton man looks like he's bleeding!  I replaced a few ribbons and taped up a few tears, and I think it just might hold up for a few more years.  It's up, and I like the way it looks in the morning light--I guess that's what counts since the rest of the day it's pulled up!

Now, you have to pay for brown paper bags.

I like that this shade lets in more light than a curtain and saves on having to use yards of material--very easy to open and close--I'm glad to be able to use this again and kind of surprised that a paper curtain could last so long!

Pepere

Armand Beauchemin or rather Pepere to his family.
November 1, 1918---February 26, 2014
A dad to 5, a pepere to 7 and a grand pepere to 9?
An awesome mechanic, he served in the Air force, maintaining WWII aircraft,
A strong man with a good heart,
We'll miss you Pepere!  I feel certain that in your travels to the next realm, you'll be driving sturdy, well maintained vehicles.
Godspeed Pepere.

Windfallen

Wind and Rain....so, I've been walking home with large fistfuls of Torrey pine needles

A few days ago,our old tree lost a huge limb---This is an Irish strawberry tree or Arbutus Unedo, but I think it was very old and in need of the winter rains.

This is what I heard and felt, last night during strong winds and thankfully, rain!

A Tough Framing Job

For some reason, my mat cutter wasn't working and at first just butchered my mat--I managed to cut the same mat board just a little larger--(to save that mat)  I then framed, nailed in the backing, glued on the back paper--put in the hanging hardware--hung it and wasn't satisfied!  Something was missing--I thought, "No--It's sealed and done!", but deep down, I knew I'd be taking it apart... Big gray roses is what it needed.  So then I went a little overboard with my rose stamp, too many! and too dark--oh no!  I rolled out some white ink and just rolled over the roses I wanted to subdue--it worked!  I almost killed the painting and almost killed the mat--so it goes!

Now I'm Done!

I wasn't okay with the lighter back ground, so I started layering colors--I believe it's called glazing--letting each layer dry before adding another--soon it was too dark!  I washed off what I could and painted on a thin layer or two of white acrylic, which I liked for the dance floor, so I teetered on the edge of ruining this painting--perhaps I did, but I won't let myself think so.  Time to move on.

Finished Watercolor

About 14"x 10"  watercolor on 140 lb stretched watercolor paper.  I think I'm done...

Back to Watercolors

Working on another dancer--a special dancer, my granddaughter of course.  I haven't painted with watercolors in a long time--I'm using them in the more traditional way, without all the layers of masking fluid that I had once relied on so heavily.  You can see my process of that layering here.  I just don't feel like doing that right now.

It's kind of fun to see some parts finished and others sketched, although I do intend to finish this.

Tissue Mache Birds

This is my latest art lesson for my granddaughter's 4th grade class.  We made tissue mache birds.  The body is crumpled newspaper, taped, a wire going down through the center has a loop on top for hanging.  Four cut pop sticks are pushed into the body and glued, for the head, tail and two wings.  The heads are foil and cut out pieces of cardboard are the wings and tails.

The underside of the armature, before the tissue mache.

After just one layer of white tissue paper--(applied using a paint brush with wheat paste), the student's were able to put on a layer of color.  I propped them up with tubes, so their wings could dry without bending.

For details we used a black marker, feathers, sequins, and a gold leaf paper.  The white cards are name tags.

This project took four lessons at about an hour each--the birds were a challenge for the student's to put together--I'd rethink the construction part before doing this lesson again, but I really like the results!

Printing

Here's my first attempt at printing a drawing of dancers--I really didn't know how I was going to cut the plate, or the soft cut.  I decided, instead of multiple prints for one image, I'd just keep it simple and use the thin outline for a mono print.  Now I want to use black paper...

This is my favorite print so far.   This is about 9"x 12", printed on Bristol paper

Framed

I used my little rose stamp on the mat and edged it with strips of an old watercolor painting.  I hope the frame isn't too overpowering, but I think it works.

Small Basket with Long Pine Needles

I had wanted to give this small basket to my granddaughter for Christmas--I've just recently picked it up again.  This is the smallest basket I've made.  I'm closing it in while building up the sides, then I'd like to make a tight fitting lid---we'll see!

Another Finished Dancer

This one is about 10"x 16", color pencils, and chalk pastels on Bristol paper.

Finished Dancer

Finished drawing--pencil and color pencils--about 8"x 12"  This is done on white Bristol paper.
Now I'm thinking about doing something different to frame this.

Unfinished Dancer

I wanted to get a photo of this drawing before I was done putting in the color.  I'm using color pencils, this figure is about 12" tall--I like parts of the drawing unfinished, but I intend to finish this.

Small Oil Painting

This small oil painting is about 8"x 6", done on panel board.  I liked the dynamics between the younger and older dancer--(the older dancer is my granddaughter).

I like the vibrancy of oils, but it is not my favorite medium to work with.  I think I'll use color pencils for my next drawing.

My Larger Soft Cut Print

When I thought of framing my drawings of ballet dancers, I wanted very large light pink roses in the background.  After printing with the small experimental roses, I felt ready for this large one.

I didn't have printing ink in white to lighten up the very intense magenta, so I used white acrylic, and it worked!  This is the first printing using the soft cut plate--I almost didn't want to cut into the plate anymore, but I'm glad I did.

Here are the prints after the second cut, I can still use the plate if I want just an outline of the rose--as seen on the left, (the white test paper)---my mat board is on the right.

This reminds me of...what?  of Old fashion adds in Mademoiselle magazines?
I'm Ready to frame.

This is very close to what I was looking for--the actual framing is another thing!  This is a thrift store frame--came with scratched up plexiglass--needed gold spray paint and new thin glass, and a way of putting it together so it wouldn't be too heavy for the delicate metal edging.

The framing took me longer than the drawings.

Printing with a Soft Cut

My first attempt at this kind of printing---Thanks to my artist sister, I had the supplies and she coached me as to the steps.  I tried a small stamp to experiment, but I have plans of doing something similar, but bigger and using the print on a mat that frames a drawing.

It's an interesting process--I'm looking forward to a larger scale, and a more subtle image, as I want the drawing to be the focus.

fun!

Drawing Dancers

Some drawings of dancers--This is small, about 5"x 7",  done with pen, watercolor and color pencils.  These will hang in my granddaughter's dance studio, along with other artist's paintings and drawings sometime in June.  I haven't done any drawing or painting for a long time--I'm starting out small and will work in a few larger studies later.

A strip of dancers--very small--the strip is 18"x 4", each dancer is about 5" or 6" tall.

I'm very impressed with with these girls dedication, talent, strength, and grace--I've watched them improve over the years--I've seen them grow from such cute little dancers to very beautiful and confidant dancers--each and every one!