Persistance in Beautiful Surroundings

Flossy and I have been enjoying exploring our new studio 'hood on the north shore of Lake Union during our lunchtime walks.  Yesterday we found a tiny park right across the street with some really beautiful views.  Have a wander with us:

Yes, that is the Space Needle, center right.

The Freeway bridge arches overhead (kinda noisy in a white-noise way).

The University bridge is the view to the east.

Indoors, progress was made - I began working on prototype models for some books I have in mind after being inspired by the 'Word Play' book arts exhibit over at the UW which we visited late Wednesday afternoon.

About 4 inches high x 22 inches, folded Arches cover with watercolor, graphite and pigma pen.

I ended up with something completely different than I was heading for, but the process was delightful, and it was only intended as a draft anyway.

This is a detail of the inside.  The text is a memory of driving in the dark.

Later, I had a painting session that started out horrible and ended up flying happily along.  I am still getting my sea legs after my long time away from the brushes.  The struggle with my mind telling me 'oh, you can't really paint' is best overcome by just keeping on pushing the paint around until something starts to emerge.

detail, acrylic on paper

'Buoy Bag' (about 9"x6")

Wishing you a good weekend.  Persist at what ever it is that makes you smile!

Searching for Rythm

Visiting the Sailor last Friday, we took a walk at Point Defiance State Park as the day ended.  Mt. Rainer was looming wonderfully.

Driving back to Seattle, I took Highway 509 rather than the so-called freeway, I-5, and was rewarded with a nice sunset along the waterway.

This road parallels the canal where his ship was tied up, loading cargo for Anchorage - that's it, behind the pleasure fleet.

I am still a woman without a country in some ways, not in my studio yet, trying to get a rhythm going in this exciting new place.  Each day is an adventure of discovery.  

Hope you are enjoying the week.  

See you over at Patrice's place this weekend for the Drawing Challenge.

New Studio - Before

I rented my new studio last week, and am waiting anxiously to move in.  Here is a shot of the space facing the east wall.

The current tenants will be out shortly.  I really like my turquoise floor.

Waiting to move in is hard.  I feel starved to paint - it has been a long hiatus, and although drawing and photography have kept my visual eye amused, I long for the feel of deep immersion that studio hours provide.

We found a great trail yesterday afternoon, and walked along the ship canal for a mile or two.

Daughter, Instagramming along the way...

I am treasuring these last days of winter, making the most of these waiting moments.

Wearable Art Extravaganza No. 1

Hard to concentrate on creative work in the studio recently.  Most of the energy has been poured into sorting out 15 plus years of accumulation and redistributing my possessions back into the community.  Art-making has been confined to drawing in my sketchbooks and working on my project for the Wearable Art Extravaganza.

 

I will give no hints of the meaning of my piece yet beyond saying that it is both fun and funny.  My rule to myself is to buy no materials and use only what I have scavenged or already have on hand.

Hope you are having creative times this week. 

Kristen LInk in Petersburg

As a part of the Rain Forest Festival each year, an artist is often invited to teach workshops for adults and children over the course of the week.  This year we were lucky to welcome Kristen Link, a young science illustrator from McCarthy, Alaska.  I participated in her botanical illustration workshop Saturday afternoon, and her field sketching class today.

Kristen, standing in blue and braids, with a few of my fellow students.

Yesterday's class was an intensely rewarding experience for me.  Although I am committed to drawing and make it a daily practice, my days of drawing from life pretty much ended with grad school.  I re-discovered the power and magic of drawing what's in front of me in Kristen's workshop.

We drew first on tracing paper, later transferring that to watercolor paper by adding graphite to the back of the tracing paper under our drawn lines.

I chose a favorite plant, cottonwood, and used a branch of it as my model.  This is my up-close detail of a bud, still on the tracing paper.

The cottonwood branch rendered on 11"x17" watercolor paper.  I ran out of time to add color, alas.  The bud detail will go in the lower right part of the page.

Today we were graced with yet another lovely fall afternoon out at Sandy Beach in which to enjoy Kristen's field sketching workshop.

After we did some close-up studies, I chose to paint this scene looking across Frederick Sound at Horn Cliffs.

This is the rest of my scene.

Working on an accordian-folded sheet of watercolor paper was very effective.

I did not have time to finish my painting...

...but feel it is complete.  Two hours just wasn't enough time!

 

Rediscovering the enchantment of drawing from life was a great gift.  I believe I'll continue to practice this magic regularly.  Thanks, Kristen, for coming to Petersburg and sharing your gift! 

Post script: Flossy wants Readers to know she roamed at large on the Beach all afternoon without giving in to the temptation to roll in dead salmon.

An Extra Day

Monday was a holiday here in the United States, and so, a break from the Mighty Mighty Day Job.  I worked on my silk project at the studio instead. 

My calculations and notes from the prototype design stitched last week, hand-dyed silk organza panels on the left.

The panels dyed up really beautifully.

I drew the cutting line on freezer paper, and traced it onto the silk with pencil.

At mid-afternoon, one third of the panels were edge-finished, and the beauty of the early autumn afternoon drew Flossy and I outdoors.

Mushroom season is upon us.

My friend had a camp set up out the road, and we stayed for a hot dog picnic after walking the Dogs.

A Forest Spirit we met in the beach fringe.

I am beginning to get ready to travel a week from tomorrow.  

Lots of things on the list of things to do.  

Happy mid-week to all!

Resolution: Elizabeth Murray

I have been looking a lot at the work of one of my favorite painters again recently.  Elizabeth Murray's (1940-2007) use of humor, color and form endlessly inspire me.  Here is a video clip of Elizabeth talking about resolving a painting.

I am so excited to get back to work at the studio tomorrow.  Hope you are working well this week and finding resolution.  See you over the weekend for the Drawing Challenge, presented this week to us by BarbaraBee.

(Artistic) Nature - DC

Although I do enjoy being in close proximity to the Forest and beach and am mostly grateful that I live in splendid isolation here on this Alaskan Island, I feel like I tend to inundate you, Gentle Reader, with scenes of Nature.  Therefore, in response to Tiny Woolf’s Drawing Challenge this week I want to talk about a region of the soul’s landscape – artistic nature. 

'The Nature of Love' 8x6 pigma pen and prismacolor pencil

Artistic nature is a quality all people possess in varying degrees.  It’s the place from which comes our impulse to stop in jaw-dropped awe at a sunset, a rainbow, a rock formation.  Some people, artists, are lucky (and/or tortured) enough to spend much of their time translating such feelings and experiences into tangible form.  

study for large painting, 8x6 pigma pen and inktense pencils

My artistic nature follows a pattern as regular as the seasons.  The first couple of sessions on any new painting or body of work are inevitably torture as I lay down chaos on canvas and endure a barrage of relentlessly negative self-talk to the effect that I have forgotten how to paint, am never going to make anything ‘good’ again, am wasting my time… but then just as surely as the tide rises, something happens in the action of working and I get a glimmer of form, an idea of where this thing I am slashing away at with my animal-hairs-on-a-stick is heading.  Magic!  Soon I am dancing in the creative moonlight, all angst replaced by excitement and pure joy of the making.

 

28 yards of silk organza ready to be cut down to size for my library commission

The past two weeks have been exactly like that at the studio as I began work on a couple of new projects including a big (for me) acrylic collage on an approximately 60”x44” canvas for my museum show in November.  Here is a little glimpse of where I left things yesterday at the end of week two.  Still a long way to go, but I am dancing now!

work in progress, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, about 44" x 60"

 Thank you to the extraordinary Nadine for this week's always-stimulating drawing challenge.  Please take a wander over to her part of the Forest for a look at wild Nature through the eyes of some exceptional artists.  Happy week!

silk organza panels piling up on my ironing board