New Images

It's been a long dry spell....

Perhaps that's beginning to change.

I pulled out my wonderful box of oil pastels and tried to capture some of the color around me.

Almost Complete

The vest is almost finished! Today I started sewing the binding around the arms and front edges.....hopefully it will give it the strength it needs. Then the challenge will be creating some kind of buttons and voila!......completed at last.

Using the sewing machine wasn't easy, but I think was what was needed. Here's the vest before the final stage!

A Plein Air Day

This week, Sandy and I went to Braintree Hill in Randolph to paint plein air one lovely, sunny morning.  At the top of the hill is an old church and graveyard.  I got so taken up with taking photographs of the cemetery nearby, I ran out of time to paint.  So, instead, I sketched.  

Here are a couple of drawings from our time outdoors in the fresh air...

This is a marker drawing of an ancient tree that caught my eye.  I loved the way the trunk split into two separate sections and how full the tree was despite its age.  It looked like an apple tree to me but it had no apples so maybe it's some other kind.  Sitting on a stone fence was not the most comfortable place to rest!

And this pencil sketch is the view looking back up the road to the crest of the hill.  To the right was a corn field and the sun was warm and friendly as I sat on the bumper of the car....

Tea Vest or Vest-tea

This past week I've been working on making a vest out of square and rectangular tea bags (the kind that come without a tag). Since it is a garment (even through it surely won't be worn!) it seems appropriate to use a sewing machine to stitch together the bags. A new challenge.....but overall the assembly is going okay and I've finished the back and one front piece. I have no idea how this will come out when it is completed, but hopefully it won't be too strange!

Galvanized Gardening

Sculpture Fest 2010 had its opening on Saturday. It was a joyous event, with hundreds of visitors of all ages checking out some fantastic sculptures in the Davenport's meadow, woods, and hillsides.


It was really exciting to be a part of it after having come as an observer for so many years. My piece, "Galvanized Gardening", is installed in a lovely spot, under the shelter of some old apple trees. It seems to fit well with the theme this year, which is "Water." I enjoyed the process of working 3D so much that I'll have to continue at some point.

I highly recommend the show, which will be open through October, to everyone!

Completion

It was very satisfying to stitch the final piece into the quilt this week. I can't quite believe it's finished after working with it for so many weeks, but it is complete and somehow it feels "right". I believe that part of its appeal for me is in the imperfections, the pieces that aren't quite aligned correctly. As I was sewing it I often had to decide whether to "fix" what didn't seem right or to allow it to exist......I guess the piece is a metaphor for that balancing process in my life of striving for perfection and letting go into acceptance.


So on to another experiment in this series of seemingly unending experimentation. I have set up my sewing machine in the studio and cleared out a corner to begin some new work. This time it is machine sewing a garment, probably a vest (since it is simple and straightforward and would really "showcase" the tea bags.) More to follow.