And again.

Two more little pictures from last week.  My younger son was helping me sort through some of my 'stuff' (of which I have plenty) but I decided I couldn't part with the pepper shaker.  Such a fun thing to draw.  It is amazing what a little bit of looking will do.  How did I miss all this before?

This is a little rudbekia (I think) from the garden.  I'm having trouble getting the darker lines on the petals.  I am using just one brush for all these watercolours (the one with the handy little water reservoir, perfect for travelling) but it's a bit shaky on the lines (isn't that fun how I blame the brush!!!  I'll persevere...it's vaguely possible that the fault is mine!!!)  The lines show up beautifully on the flower in the photo, so perhaps I'll give it another go using the photo as a reference.
I'm also trying to pick out a background for my collaged milk pitchers.

This background was painted with black gesso (matte) onto which I stamped black acrylic (shiny).  It means that in some lights the diamonds don't show, which I kind of like.  Anyway, still pondering.  I have another lighter background, prepared with various mediums, which may work.  More on the final decision later.  I may wait until I go down to gail's to get a final decision.
Check out gail's new location and the classes that she offers.  http://www.gailcreativestudies.com/

Two more little pictures

Two more little watercolours.  I'm having fun playing with the new box of paints; it is interesting developing colours by dropping in bits of other colours.  I can't wait to try this with procion and seeing what I can develop on fabric.   And with thickened dyes.  And maybe printing these wee pics onto fabric and then stitching on them.  Oh, so much to try!!!

Daniel, here's the pic

So, my first attempt at a watercolour.  Not quite spot on with the colour of the apple, but faithful to my love of fuchsia!!  I got a little watercolour palette (Cotman's) at Island Blue to use as a travel palette.  It's got 12 different colours and quite a bit of room for spreading water around.  These aren't artist grade colours, but I believe one can fill up the trays with tube colour once they're are done.  I also got a couple of travel watercolour brushes, the kind that have their own water reservoir.  They're fun and easy to use.  And to clean: just squeeze out the water until the 'brush' is clean and off you go again.  Perfect.  A fun exercise. I think it needs a bit more colour in the background box, though.  I'll ponder.

Another possibility but not quite there yet I feel.

Another possible for the exhibition and a reincarnation of a collage I had created earlier.  I'm not sure about the purple and yellow pieces on the outside but I feel it needs more than the ochre and gessoed surround.  And I suppose that the carpet background really doesn't do much for it either!! Ah, decisions, decisions. I rotated it in my photo programme and it seems to have elongated it somewhat and narrowed it at the same time.  (I wonder if I can get myself into that programme!)

Getting ready for the exhibition.

This vase pic is almost ready for the exhibition next month.  I've added a variety of painted and monoprinted  papers: mulberry, unryu, cartridge and rice.  Now I have to prepare a background paper for it to sit on.   And I have more machine embroidery to do because I scooped one of my flowers from another piece to put into this one.  I like the way it looks like a fallen blossom.
Check out Gail's site for more information on her Center and classes offered there.  http://www.gailcreativestudies.com/

and even more

Here's one I did a couple of months ago. It is stamped onto clear acetate on the top layer, which is on top of a second collaged layer.  Fun all around.  total finished size is about 8 1/2 x 11.

This second isn't shown in its entirety since it is a wee bit larger than the scanner bed.  It is many layered:  the bottom layer, which you can only see part of off to the right, is roller printed with printer inks;  next comes a piece of hand-dyed silk organza; then a layer of watercolour paper with procion dye washed on it and then stamped with my own stamps with discharge paste; on top of that is a layer of stamped and painted molding paste and two layers of a stenciled rose (my own stencil), both layers..silk organza and silk gauze...coloured with shiva paint sticks.  I sewed on the paste layer and the silk layers because I felt that glue might compromise the procion-dyed paper layer.  Again, I seem to really enjoy these colours.  Whyever not, I ask?!

cruciform studies

Trying out the cruciform.  I seem to really like these colours!  (I am posting these as a way of keeping track of work I have done, so that even if I lose them in a pile somewhere I will have these little pictures as a reminder!  Losing my mind as well as my pictures is a bit more than I can handle at the moment).  These were done by collaging magazine and hand-painted papers and then stamping over with texture making items, such as bubble wrap.  I still need to work with using more tonal values.  But it's fun trying!  The first one is 9 x 12. The second one is 9 x 6 and wasn't meant to be crooked.  sigh. The third one is cut down from 9 x 9, so I'm not sure what size it ended up.  The fourth is a rerun of the third, but cropped slightly differently.  Well, not cropped well at all since it took on a mind of its own once it hit the scanner bed, but the idea is there. I can't decide if I prefer the third or the fourth.  Fun to have options though.