Sketchbook Challenge - July

July's theme - Element

Elements of Weather - With all the hot and humid weather lately I tried to capture the opposite with this black and white collage giving a sense of cold, snow and wind. The elements used to make the collage: the insides of security envelopes, mulberry paper and an unfolded paper bag handle.

Elements of Water and Air - A collage of the water and sky meeting in the distant horizon. I used painted tissue paper, more security envelopes and a little bit of stacked journaling introduced in a post by Judy Hurwitt one of the Sketchbook Challenge hosts.

Element of Air - Grasses leaning in a warm gentle breeze. A colored pencil and watercolor sketch.

A Fun Saturday Workshop

A couple weeks ago I took a Folding Book Sculpture workshop with my good friend and inspirational teacher Laura Gaffke at Above Elite Studio in Westerly, RI. It was a beautiful summer morning and we students were greeted with coffee and homemade cranberry scones! If you have taken one of Laura's classes here I'm sure you would agree that her studio is such a welcoming space with wonderful natural light and a great creative energy.

For our book sculptures we painted backgrounds for the pages, painted on old book pages to use later as collage elements, then painted some more, cut, collaged, stenciled and stamped. We were having so much fun that the day flew right by. As usual, since I work on the slow side I did not finish my book by the end of class but did keep my promise to complete it by the end of the week.

I've been enjoying working in my garden so much this year that what else would my book theme be but about gardening. I created pages with three generations of gardeners in mind as I was thinking about where my love and appreciation for plants and gardening came from. I mentioned my Mom's special summer Hollyhocks in my last post and although my grandmother was known for her collection of indoor African Violets what I remember most are the Bleeding Hearts in her yard every spring. I thought they had the prettiest and most unusual flower - I still find them amazing. My page is about the Cosmos. I love the bright colors of the flowers and delicate feathery leaves. I can't imagine my garden passing into the fall season without those hardy flowers. 

  

Something New in the Garden

My Mom always had hollyhocks growing along the fence in the summer but this is the first hollyhock I've planted in my own garden. I just love these pink flowers that bloom their way up the tall stalk. They remind me of the fluffy crepe paper flowers we used to make in grade school. Why did I wait so long to plant one? I don't know but I will definitely have to add a few more next year.

Sketchbook Challenge - June

June's theme - Pathways

Drawings of a few things growing in the garden.
Eating well this summer - a pathway to good health and nutrition.  

Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy. ~Astrid Alauda

Fabric Swatch Exchange

I received my copy of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine in the mail yesterday. As I was flipping through the pages I saw the fabric swatch that I designed and sent in as part of an exchange. How exciting is that!

July/August 2011 issue

Page 82, upper left corner - that's me!

my fabric swatch - their photo is much better than mine.

The object of the exchange was to design an 18” x 36” piece of fabric using any technique (stamp, paint, dye, transfer, etc) you wanted. Cut into 9”x 9” squares and shipped to the magazine to be exchanged. In return, to each participant, the magazine sent 6 randomly chosen swatches designed by some of the other 200 artists who took part in the exchange. I love the variety of swatches I received and it will be fun thinking of ways to use them

Here are a few of the swatches I received. Aren't they beautiful?

designed by Victoria Gordon

designed by Judy Arbuckle

designed by Lisa Encabo

Can't throw it away...

Some new collages in the works. Not quite sure where they're going but having fun using all these bits and pieces that would otherwise end up in the trash or
recycle bin.

  

I love Moss!

When I moved back to the New England eight years ago I fell in love with the green moss, ferns and other shade loving plants that grow here. It was so different from the sunny gardens I had gotten used to in much drier Southern California. When I started thinking about creating a garden I envisioned a place that would capture the lush look and cool feeling I’ve experienced walking in local places like the Connecticut College Arboretum, Harkness Memorial State Park,  and Bluff Point State Park. I poured through the many catalogs arriving in the mail and the few books I had on North East gardening dreaming of the plants I wanted to include and how they would all look together.

"before" winter 2007

There is much more to do but after replacing the barberry hedge with a cedar fence, adding a black metal fence with a gate to contain the space and give it that separate room feel, building a small arbor from 2 trellises, transplanting moss to grow between stepping stones and getting the first plants in the ground last fall this is what it looked like a few weeks ago when the tulips and bleeding hearts were still blooming. Fences, arbor and heavy rock lifting - all courtesy of my most helpful and handy husband.

 

Most of the plants are gifts from gardening friends and family. These are always the most treasured because I’m reminded of these special people every time I spend time in the space and it gives the garden history. Others are transplants from different spots in the yard or from the many wonderful local garden club plant sales that go on each spring – the Ledyard Garden Club plant sale is my absolute favorite!

 Still on the "to do" list:
- one more planting bed
- pea gravel pathway
- make more hypertufa containers
- small water feature?

Sketchbook Challenge - May

May’s Theme – “Can’t resist this!”
A challenge to create images of things you can never resist or to use a ‘resist’ - a medium that masks off areas in your work that you want to preserve. I played with several different ideas and techniques. Here are 3 of my favorites:

Wax paper resist - Pieces of wax paper ironed onto paper to transfer wax and then watercolor over to fill in wherever the wax did not transfer.

 Wax crayon resist - Stencil drawing with crayon and then adding a watercolor wash over top.

Gesso resist and freezer paper resist - learned about this technique from one of the Sketchbook Challenge hosts Jane Davies.
Click here to see the video demonstration on her blog.

North Carolina

I can remember listening to James Taylor sing ”Carolina in my Mind” and thinking what a beautiful place it must be to have inspired him to write that song.  Just having returned from a trip to North Carolina, I’m pretty sure I know why he thought it was so special.

The gardens…

The Sarah P. Duke Garden, Durham

Botanical Gardens, University of North Carolina, Asheville

The food…

Barbeque in the River Arts District, Asheville 

The arts…

Roxy Paine's 'Askew' in the sculpture garden of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.

The scenery…

Views from the Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville

Precious Water

Each Spring the Mystic Arts Center has a juried exhibition with a theme that is open to all artists. This year's theme and title is 'Precious Water: A Personal Response'. Being a coastal town with a large artists community you can image the popularity of this theme so I was thrilled to find out that this print of mine had been chosen to be in the show.



'Drifting'
15" x 15" Gelatin Print Collage

The exhibition runs until May 21st. If you are in the area be sure to stop in to the see all the wonderful works on display.