Loving Joss Paper

It's been a long time since blogging but I have been working away.  I'm really into joss paper at the moment, enjoying its texture and colors.  These two books are currently being exhibited until September 7 in the Unbound Vol. III exhibition in Woodstock.

Experimentation has led me to tearing and dipping the paper into beeswax to get a wonderful texture and different quality of color.  These pieces illustrate some different ways of assembling the pieces:

This piece, titled Fields of Gold, is part of the Pompanoosuc Mills exhibition in Thetford, VT that opens tomorrow night.

Sap Buckets on Calendar Hill

I just completed a painting which you can see below in an early stage. Here,  the landscape has been brushed in quickly.

As I continued, I brightened the sky and added details to the under painting.  I decided to balance the composition by adding a limb so that the tree would seem to "pose" for her portrait.  This is the finished painting, now exhibited at ArtisTree Gallery in their annual "Mud Season" show....

"Sap Buckets on Calendar Hill"

acrylic on canvas - 14" x 18"

Below is the photograph I used for the painting.  As you can see, the background differs substantially from the photo.  Instead of the gray winter skies of my "Posted" series I cropped out the background and changed the mood with a blue sky.

There is a great advantage to working from photos--when it is too cold to paint outdoors, I can work in the studio.  As always, the landscape is open to interpretation.  I look forward to getting out to paint en plein aire soon as spring really arrives and the weather warms up.

Posted on Cobb Hill

I've been working on landscapes that speak winter and mud season here in Vermont.  Often we drive by trees sporting posted signs and these signs make a colorful statement in the cold and gray scene.  This is my second painting in this series.  Last week this is how it looked:

After removing an errant branch, cleaning up others, adding darker values to the sky and finishing the sign, this is the finished piece....

"Posted, Cobb Hill"

acrylic - 14" x 18"

Message from Down Under

It seems like such a long time since I blogged.....I have gotten out of the habit but hope to remedy that! Now I am settled in Australia, have passed through the holidays and am ready to report on recent work that I've been doing.

Before I left I made a pair of boots out of round tea bags.  For the first time I used an iridescent medium on the bags to give it a bit of silvery shine.  For the form I paper mache seemed the best option and after some experimentation it worked well:

I also worked on a sculpture made of wooden rods, tea sacks, beeswax and red thread.  The rods are flexible so move easily:

Finally I constructed a box made of rolled and waxed tea sacks and the red thread again:

Now that I'm working in my studio here, it will be mostly small pieces.  I brought a great supply of materials along.  More later.

Sun and Rain

August already, in fact well into it.  I'm slowly working away, finishing some things, starting new pieces and still on hold with others that I am trying to figure out how to complete.  My show at AVA is just  two months away and I am hoping to have some more three-dimensional pieces to add to the mix.

Meanwhile Lisa, my artist friend in Sydney, told me about a book art show that was asking for submissions.  I'm quite pleased to be juried in, so now need to figure out how I will send the work so it arrives in time.  One thing to apply, another entirely to get it there!

I have completed the bees wax hanging piece that seems to do best in a window so the light can shine through:

This umbrella, made on the frame of a Korean paper umbrella, was challenging logistically to put together, but I think is fun!  Unfortunately it won't collapse and certainly shouldn't experience any rain in its lifetime.

Book Art and......

It has been a long time since my last post.  Life in and outside the studio has been busy and I've been preparing work to enter into local shows.  At last the long book made with round teabags is complete.....I've called it "The Book Worm."

The other book, made with tea sacks kindly supplied by Laura at Mon Vert Cafe, is also finished.  I've titled it "Reading Tea Leaves."

Combining printmaking with the teabags inspires me, so I've experimented with teabags on paper, using an old woodcut as an overlay.  I'm not sure where this could take me:

Also interesting has been to introduce beeswax with the work.  My brother Greg in California has sent me long pine needles that are filling tea sacks.....I then seal the sacks onto canvas with the beeswax:

Today I tried painting the filled sacks with beeswax, then stacking the bags on top of one another.  There seems to be a lot of opportunity to play with different combinations and configurations of wax and the bags, so I imagine I'll spend some time exploring this option over the next days.

Too cold, too windy....

A beautiful sunny April day but too cold and windy to be out painting....  The unusual weather last month had us ready and raring to go, but we're back to more typical temperatures for a Vermont April.  
Below is a just finished painting I started in South Woodstock last summer.  It is good to have all last season's plain aire work completed now.

"Summer field, South Woodstock"

12" x 16" - oil

Today, I spent some time out raking flower beds and there are definite signs of life--lilies and daffodils and primroses poking up green shoots.  The sun is warm and the sky is blue--a lovely early spring day. 

Early Spring, North Road

There a giant benefit to this unseasonably warm weather for plein aire painters.  We can get out there and paint in March without sitting in the car or going to more adventurous means to be warm enough to paint outdoors.

So, yesterday, we went to Barnard and found a lovely spot in the shade looking off to the west across the valley to the distant mountains.  Dump trucks and friends came by and it was fun waving and chatting.  But more importantly, it was wonderful to be out there in the fresh air doing something we love.

"Early Spring, North Road"

11" x 14" - oil

Unfortunately, despite my attempts to correct the color, the painting here looks much more "turquoisy" than it actually is.  So, you have to use your imagination to make the sky and rocks a more soft and quiet blue....

Comfrey - my latest scratchboard engraving

This black clayboard engraving, named "Comfrey," is the final 10x8 inch scratchboard in a set of four.

When I finish framing them, along with four 7x5's, they will be going to Studio 47 gallery in Woodstock, Vermont. Stay tuned.

More ideas

Work is slowly moving ahead with lots of good interruptions. We have a number of visitors coming and going over the next weeks, so I get a bit de-railed, but am trying to stay on course.

I've gathered some information about a great gallery space here in Paddington that would be perfect for the tea work. I have asked an artist friend, Lisa Giles, if she would be interested in doing a joint show next year. She works beautifully with paper and I think it would be great fun to combine our work.

So I have completed the weaving piece, which is about 48 x 40 inches. I think the red knots add something a bit different from previous work.

Next is working with round bags, binding them together is tea-dyed linen thread. I hope to make this really long so it will sort of snake against a wall. I'm gathering as many round bags to sublimate the supply I brought.

Tick Tock Tea Time

Just for fun......Adrian gave me clockworks to use in creating a clock that will be in a silent auction at ArtisTree Gallery over the next week. It was really interesting to work on a specific project and of course I had to think of a way to use tea bags. I found myself wanting to embellish the clock with lots of bits and pieces from tea bags, but ended up keeping it simple.

I look forward to seeing what other artists have done in making their clocks. It's a great idea that I imagine will capture the imagination of many!

New Medium

It's easy to forget that creating art should be fun.

I uploaded a sketchbook app to my Kindle Fire and wanted to share some images that were fun to create.

Nothing else, no expectations, no pressure, just fun.

Enjoy the day.

2500 Tags

This piece has been in process for many months. Even though the canvas the large (3 x 3 ft) I didn't guess how long it would take to make it. And it became quite tedious at times and I found I just needed to put it away. But yesterday, taa daaaaaa, I affixed the final tag and can call it complete, minus a few coats of medium over the surface.

About 2500 assorted tags.....that's a lot of cups of tea!

In the Bag

Things are humming in my studio. I recently had new track lighting installed and as the days darken and shorten it is going to make such a difference! Today I completed a new piece constructed with Mighty Leaf tea bags sewn on canvas. The bags, which are made with a sheer fabric, allow the beautiful colors of the tea really show through. Here's the as yet un-named

piece:

I've also started another book piece which I am binding together with Irish linen thread. I'm about to run out of thread so have ordered more. This will temporarily slow down progress on this project, but I plan to keep working on another piece that has been hanging around waiting to be completed. I'm really savoring my studio time.

Shades of Autumn

The foliage seemed to come and go within a few short days this year. Dried tea bags are reminding me a bit of the crunchy leaves on the ground. My wonderful tea drinking suppliers continue to faithfully add to my stockpile and I like having a collection of at least eight different designs of bags to inspire new ideas.

I finished another work on paper with the standard sized rectangular bags in quite an array of colors. I think it really does capture something of autumn.

I also completed another big canvas piece with tea bag sacs that Laura at Mon Vert Cafe has been so diligently saving for me. They are much larger than regular bags and really stain beautifully. The hibiscus stained reds are wonderful but they lose much of their color when in contact with adhering mediums. I'd love to find a way to preserve the red when I use mediums on them.

I'm currently sewing Mighty Leaf tea bags together. They are made of an almost transparent light fabric that allows all the tea leaves to show through. I'll have to see where this takes me!

Little Cottage in the Woods

I haven't cut a large kirigami mandala for a while.  This one is a commissioned work for Christine in England.  She is moving and bought this as a present to herself for her new home.  She wanted something with birds, trees and flowers and a little cottage.  I hope she likes it.

After the Storm

It has been a long week, this week.  When hurricane Irene came through this state she did lots of damage.  We were fortunate to come through unscathed.  But lots of time was spent taking care of people whose lives were turned upside down by the flooding of virtually every brook, stream and river.  So many roads and bridges washed out.  So many houses damaged and lost.  So many lives altered dramatically.  Every morning folks met at the elementary school here in Woodstock to volunteer in whatever way they could.  What a fine community of generous, involved and caring people we have in Vermont.  I am so grateful to be part of that community.

And, finally, despite the storm, my floral print calendar is complete--here is the final print intended for November....

"Rose and Holly"

9"x12" -  soft cut linoleum print

"Rose and Holly"

9"x12" - hand colored linoleum print

At the moment, all twelve prints are being scanned and turned into a proof calendar.  I'm excited to see what it looks like!  I still need to make some decisions about typeface, binding, etc. after I see it.  But I'm almost there.

And then the question becomes what to do next?

After Irene

It's been a while since I last posted. There was the fabulous trip to the big skies of Montana. Then some serious studio time before Hurricane Irene landed in Vermont earlier this week. Life is not quite back to normal, but it is moving in that direction.

Before I left to go out west I worked on a canvas piece with some wonderful envelop tea bags called Tea Sacs that the local Mon Vert cafe is saving for me. I don't feel like it's complete yet, but here's the first layer of work:


I've also been preparing for hanging my solo show "The Art of Tea" that will go up next week in the main rotundra of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. I made a smaller version to fit in the display cases of a favorite piece, "Fragilitea" (which I have titled "Fragilitea 2"). I really enjoy the process involved in this particular technique where it almost feels like I am painting with the tea paper.



"Come Round for Tea" is now complete. This is the third version, a permanent one.




Now I have to work on writing my artist statement and hanging details. It's quite exciting to anticipate a new show!

One More to Go....

It has taken me much longer than I thought it would to create twelve finished prints for my floral calendar.  Buying one house, selling another, moving from place to place and then painting and renovating is very time and energy intensive!  

But I am now working on the last month of the calendar, involving roses, and here is the latest print, for the month of January. 

"Amaryllis and Paper White"

linoleum print - 9"x12"

"Amaryllis and Paper White"

hand colored linoleum print - 9"x12"

It is just wonderful to have time to work in my studio today and I look forward to more of it in the days ahead.... 

A Spring Flower Print

It's been a busy summer with not much studio time.  We've had a great vacation on the Cape, a wonderful visit from our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, lots of work on the house and normal, fun, summer activities. 
Here is a spring flower print, perhaps March....  I think the little bee in looks suspiciously like "Flying Piglet" and that entertains me!

"Daffodil and Crocus"

linoleum print - 9"x12"

"Daffodil and Crocus"

hand colored linoleum print - 9"x12"