New Work

Parallel to Vertical
6x6
Encaustic Mixed Media

It's amazing how much can be accomplished in tiny snippets of time. I had been trying to get back into my studio more since the school year started again and I really didn't think I had been very successful. Then I just suddenly realized that I felt this was done.

After looking at it for a couple of days though I think I might need to lighten the rectangle in the center. It was my favorite area and then I put a transfer over it. I don't mind the transfer but I think it's way too dark to be in the very middle of the picture plane.

 I did a big no-no with this project too. The little birds were drawn on with a regular felt tipped pen. I was hoping that when I fused it that it would become protected from the wax. But it still comes off with water even after fusing and I am too chicken to put a layer of medium over it for fear that it will ruin the drawing. I really should've done a transfer but I got that image in my head and wanted it on the wax immediately. I can always fix it later.

And those are apple seeds embedded in the wax. You can also see a leaf from one of the trees in my yard and I honestly cannot remember the name of the tree.

I have found myself increasingly captivated by the textures produced by the wax. Layer by layer building up colors and depth. It reminds me of working with jewelry in a way. There is so much hidden detail in the tiniest little places. I keep thinking that I need to work larger but it's the small spaces that I obsess over. Adding little gems of color and visual details packed into little corners.

I'm sure it probably looks like a mess to you but I love that old worn layered look. Knowing that there's more beneath the surface.

Alpacas!

 

The art department at our school district received a grant this year to experience fiber art at it's best! We went to the Waldron Alpaca Farm in a nearby town where the students learned all about making felted wool tapestries.

 First we got to meet the alpacas. They are so cute! The photos really do not do them justice. They have such personality...and bangs. Such awesome bangs.

My students were completely smitten. It's hard to tell who's looking at who.

 After learning about the alpacas we all got to make our own felted wool tapestries. Susan Waldron who owns the farm sheers the alpacas every spring, cleans the wool and dyes it all herself to use in her own fiber art. She has piles of the softest wool in an amazing array of colors She makes gorgeous colorful tapestries and even some beautiful ponchos and jackets.

The wool we used started off all soft and fluffy.We used a barbed needle to poke through the wool so it would stay attached to the felt backing. 

 So here are my very first attempts at felting. The koi fish is small at about 8x10. All the students made one in preparation for the big 16x20 project.

My robin tapestry isn't quite finished yet. I need some more berries but over all not too shabby for a brand new medium. All the students created such wonderful artwork and it was a great experience for all of them. I know they were all exhausted by the end of the day because most of them napped on the bus ride home!

Thanks so much Susan!

Just a sketch

So I figured out that if the weather is nice I do not like staying inside and doing artwork! Therefore I've had nothing really blogworthy to post.

School has started again and for the past three to four weeks I have been busy with that. But now I seem to have hit my stride so it's time to give myself a kick in the pants to get creative again!

Since fall is coming I have felt like drawing crows. Not really sure why they remind me of fall but I didn't feel like drawing cute sparrows and fluffy robin chicks anymore. Crows are more moody and mysterious don't you think?

I do have other projects started but not finished yet so I will have more to post soon. I'm still a little scattered.

But today is another gorgeous day out so I am going to go enjoy it while I can.

Enjoy!

Oregano??

I do apologize for being gone so long again. I have been busy preparing for back to school which starts Monday. Yikes! Still so much to do.

 I do need your help with something though.

My grandmother brought back some oregano from her village in Greece many, many years ago. It spreads like a weed but it's not invasive. And everyone in my family has patches of it growing all over their yards. The problem is that we've always referred to it as oregano but it doesn't look like any type of oregano I've seen anywhere else.

Can you identify it?

 It gets these cute little pinkish purple flowers scattered along the stem that produce an abundance of seeds which is why it shows up in the most surprising places each summer!

 The leaves are long and thin which is not like an oregano leaf at all. So I am curious if this is really oregano. It sure smells like oregano. My yiayia called it oregano so everyone in my family refers to it as oregano too.

 And it really will grow anywhere. You can see it growing in the cracks between the bricks in my patio. It also showed up a good 15 feet away by the stairs on my patio too.

 A small patch showed up right next to my hydrangea...

and all the way around my house in the front yard growing out from between the cracks in the flagstone wall.

It's just such a cute plant that I never yank them out. That way I'm always surprised where it will show up next year!

But if anyone knows the identity of this herb I'd love to know. I am wondering if Liane from Prairie Garden can help at all with this one?

Last Workshop

 Last week was my last summer art workshop for the kids whose school district eliminated all art, music and gym classes. There were only three girls in this last class and they are all good friends. They were so sweet, and I had a good time with them too. They got a kick out of watching the goats out the back window.

 We did a grid drawing for our last project. I had them bring in food wrappers because the bold graphics and images are easier to draw and look nice when they are all colored in. Grid drawing is a great way to draw images accurately and proportionately.

 

 Drawing out the grid can take a long time if you've never done it before but the extra preparation is worth it if you have trouble drawing from a photo without it looking distorted.

One grid is drawn over the photo and one is drawn very lightly on your paper. Then, instead of drawing the whole picture all at once, all you have to do is draw what you see inside each little square. Just make sure you draw it in the exact same square on the drawing paper. That's why I always have my students number the grids across the top and down the left side to make sure they are drawing inside the correct box.

 We ran out of time before they had a chance to start coloring but they are a smart group of kids and I'm sure they can color them in on their own.

 Besides we had to leave some time for them to run outside to see if they could scare the goats and watch them fall over. It was so funny to see the girls all trying to hide behind one tiny little shrub and jump out screaming .

 My daughter May decided to do her own thing and gave herself a purple marker henna style tatoo.

And I just had to share this cute little grasshopper with you too. I found him hiding perfectly camouflaged (almost) in my spirea.

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Well, I'm back to work this week unofficially to start doing inventory of the art supplies before school begins. I can't believe that summer vacation is over so soon! But I think I am ready for a change.....I think.

New Work




Nature Nurture
Encaustic Mixed Media
8x10



 So sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately. Honestly I just keep forgetting to take photos of things if they don't involve my artwork.

 I did get some more work into the 4th Friday's show for July but I completely forgot to take pictures!

I also made another new encaustic this weekend. My kids have been busy with friends so I've been going into my art room whenever I can! It's been pretty nice I must say!
When I showed my daughter May this piece she asked me "what are those round things?" I explained to her that I got them from my mom's garden from her old house before she moved and they are seeds from a money plant. May looked at me and said "so money really does grow on trees." Yeah, I  had a good laugh!

I also went to the art store and got some new things to try out. I experimented with some pan pastels on the encaustics and I love them. Bridgette also told me about using alcohol inks too. My experiments with them didn't turn out as well ,however, so I didn't use them here in this piece.

I realize this is a terrible photo but I wanted to show the small crater like holes I got when I sprayed water on the warm wax. I remember talking to an encaustic artist about a year ago, before I began working with wax, and she did this all over her large paintings. I thought it was so cool looking. I am going to have to try this out more in the future with a better sprayer.

We've also been having some crazy storms around here lately. I read a report that said the first storm had 75 mph winds. That's hurricane speed! There was a lot of damage and power outages. The next round of storms brought lots of lightening, wind and lots of rain in a very short period of time. So this time there were a lot of flooded basements. Luckily we only had some damaged patio furniture.

In the mean time I did get a couple of good photos of a thunderhead. It was so humid outside that the lens kept fogging up though so they are kind of blurry.

But today is beautiful and I'm off to the beach! Enjoy your day too!

Mid-Summer Bliss

 Hello everyone! We've recently returned from our trip "up north" and it was a wonderful trip as always. I thought I'd share a few pictures with you because it is such a gorgeous unspoiled place. My camera takes awful pictures but the place is so beautiful there's no way you can take a bad photo.

The kids and adults swam, hiked, canoed, fished, tubed down a river, had camp fires, made s'mores and got eaten alive by mosquitoes! Totally worth it.

If you haven't already noticed, I love summer!

I love the heat, the color of the sunlight, how green everything looks outside, the chirping birds, the cool air in the mornings and evenings, open windows....I could go on and on.

 My garden is in full bloom right now. All my favorite blue flowers are blossoming too. The absolutely bluest of them all are the chinese forget-me-nots in the top photo. The next one is flax which popped up spontaneously last summer. I must've scattered some seeds that I forgot about. And the last is my favorite...hydrangeas.

So of course I had to cut some to display in my window. I just picked up this cute bucket yesterday too and it was just screaming for some hydrangeas.

In the mean time I am just trying to soak up the last few weeks of summer before school starts again.

Enjoy!

xo