random things

it’s interesting how you can read or hear about bits of advice over and over yet have no actual experience of them

and then one day, with a flash, a recognition

last week a few art-world truisms flashed at me...

beginning with don't pre-judge something new to you

I did but went ahead with it anyway - using a piece of foam-core as a writing tool for calligraphy

  keep going, even when you think it's hard - the writing marks weren't going well, I kept losing the crispness of the edge but I just kept going, trimming and trimming, then cutting a new piece when the one I was using got too short

don't throw anything away - during the session I saved all the practice papers including the warm-up sheets and ones where I cleaned off excess paint

notice what you notice - when tidying up, stacking the sheets of paper,  I turned one of the sheets to fit on the pile and I noticed something...

once, when cleaning excess ink off the foam core, I had done a quick few scribbles and tap-tap-taps on a small piece of paper to hand - looking at it in a new orientation, it I no longer saw a scribble of scraping ink rather, I saw a landscape

a small house, complete with a chimney

trees, hills, light and shadow

hmm...

I remember the motions of cleaning off the tool, the swift motion of it

seems the best way for me to get a loose expressive drawing might be with a tool not really meant for drawing

less control, more expression

something to remember...

and following on from last week, a few people commented on my practice of photographing and printing my painted sheets to use in collage work so I thought I would show a few examples of how I go about it

first is a sheet of paper I had taped off and then painted each section differently

the paintings came out much darker than I had intended and weren't going to work for what I wanted

(they are actually lighter here than in real life)

for some reason I no longer remember I decided to take a picture of them

on my laptop, I duplicated the image four times and then cropped each one to have a better look

it was then I noticed the range of details I hadn't really seen in the originals

as I had a new lightweight inkjet printer paper by Awagami I printed the first two you see below

the results were wonderful; the paper is beautiful, giving the print a fine, soft texture and it's feather-lightness makes it perfect for collage

after those interesting results I found a piece of cloth I had painted with ink mixed with watercolour

there was a lot of pigment settling so the result was less than hoped for

but after photographing it and playing with some of the edits available in Photos on my Mac I came up with two that worked well: one rather grey, the next with a soft green tint

it takes a fair bit of painting and/or mono-printing for me to get a decent result and in the past I have been hesitant to use them because I know they can never be reproduced but this... this process lets me play as much as I like without fear

there will come a day when I'll know the right thing to use is the original but knowing I will still have the digital versions to work with will allow me to do it gladly

and that is a pleasing thing

take care,

Jillayne

expanding

I've held a rather narrow view of the river in my work these past few years

 the current and pilings have been both the fascination and the focus and whilst I've loved every minute of it this week I took a side-step

the Klondike riverboat is an iconic fixture of the Whitehorse waterfront but my earliest memory of it is of the day they hooked it up to 4 Caterpillar tractors, spread 8 tonnes of "Palmolive Princess Snow Flake Soap"  on the street and proceeded to drag the boat through Whitehorse to a new location

half the town hoped it would rain and half the town hoped it wouldn't

(it didn't!)

this week I decided I needed to do something different

so to the Klondike I looked

a few quick drawings, just to find out what interested me

I find drawing the best way to figure that out, better than thinking or looking at photographs

I like drawing well enough but would not call myself an enthusiast so if I'm willing to draw something then there's a high degree of probability I'm interested in it

isolating the stacks, wires, cargo doors and chain-link style railings gave me a few ideas but for the "dipping my toe in" beginning, I chose to work with the stacks and wires in the making of two collages

in the one above I added a few shipboards

below is just the stacks and wires

the paper I used for the stacks is one I folded in a diamond grid after painting - the soft paper breaking along the creases, enhancing the look of them

a nod to the fence-rails encircling the upper decks

the ship boards were cut from a print of a photo I took of piece of linen I gathered and stitched shibori-style, painted with watercolour paint and let dry

i edited the photo massively, bleaching out a lot of the colour and then printed it on fine art paper to use in collage

actually, all of the papers I used were ones I painted or cut from printed photographs of papers or cloth I had painted

I like doing that, painting papers, photographing them, playing with the various editing functions on my laptop and then printing them to use as collage papers

doing that preserves the original painted paper and allows me to make multiple variations of it by varying the edits and then use them over and over again in my work

I suppose in a way these collages are as much a reference and exploration of those papers as they are the imagery of the boat itself

which is all very well and good except... now that I've started to really look at it... there's much to see

and more to inspire

barrels

stairs

frosted windows

wonderfully peeling paint

hmm...

two years ago I had a play with superimposing an image of the paddlewheel on a photo of the river on a foggy morning in August

kind of fitting to share this one again, since my own wheels are turning

take care,

Jillayne

wonderment

swift water flowing, day after day, year after year

never-ending

surface patterns continuously forming and re-forming

design in motion

the fascination continues, and now, finally,  the work begins

the first stitched sample, complete

a scrap of dark blue linen from a charity shop find

the base stitches were laid in by hand but with sewing-machine thread

the fineness of it meant many stitches melted in to the weave of the cloth so there was a lot of over-stitching

still, it was effective, albeit slow

metallic blending filament in steel blue laid over top

the small light stitches above are the glint of the metallic thread shining... if you zoom in you may see it better

a long-standing itch is finally being scratched...

over the past few years I've photographed the Yukon River in every season and every light

the current patterns never ceased, nor did my sense of wonder at the ever-changing beauty of it

it's only in the last few years I began to draw them

and now, finally, to work them in stitch

this small sample was a test piece

wanting to know how long laying in the base design with the sewing thread would take

(it takes a very long time)

and how frustrating the fine metallic thread would be 

(it was beyond annoying)

and ultimately, how pleased I would be with the results

(over the moon!)

when I first started this piece I realized my dream of a large piece of cloth a-swirl with these marks would take years to do... mulling it over as I worked on it I thought of using free-machine embroidery to make the base design of current marks

I did that this summer, three versions, now ready to add detail stitching to enhance the current lines

before tackling one of them, I first wanted to test the metallic thread - last week I finally did it

there's more I'd like to do though, than just adding the metallic but I'm keen to begin so am jumping in - no more sampling, just going for it

a selection of threads is laid out

and I'm feeling good, ready to begin

stay tuned...

this is not always like that

or...

"all inks are not created equal"

with a footnote:

*and that matters, especially when you're taking the time to test things before taking them to the actual work

thankfully the "work" in this case is in my sketchbook 

the long and short of it is I did a collage in my sketchbook that was to have a wide band of calligraphy running vertically across the page

curly cursive text in black with white on top

a wide band, growing denser in the centre, then visually lifted with very loose white calligraphy in the centre area

I found a failed print made the same day as the one that was used in the collage 

first I tested scribbled writing with the white posca pen

good

then a scribble of black using a Calligraphie black marker

also good

then in succession I tried a number of other different black writing tools

good, good and good

as a final test, white posca pen on top of all the different blacks

good again!

testing over I moved on to the collage

and began with my Lamy fountain pen

writing with it is smooth and effortless and I easily did the five initials rows, then began laying in the next ones in the centre area, moving closer and closer to the centre with each subsequent layer

the outer edges were nice and loose with some gentle curves and swirls

I waited for 7 - 8 minutes,  picked up the Posca pen and began

 expecting a line of flowing letters running through the centre space I was surprised to see nothing on the page other than the odd blue smudge here and there

hmmm...

I hadn't waited for anything to dry on the text piece but maybe a few more minutes would do the trick

and so I waited for almost two hours and tried again

garbled blueish writing

it hit me then it was not the fault of the white pen...

I realized in all the pen trials I had done, not once did I pick up the Lamy

and that pen does not have permanent ink in it

all the others I tested did

sigh

normally I would keep fiddling with this, looking at ways of redeeming it, gluing something else over top, trying this, that and the next thing to make something successful

this time, I'm leaving it as it is, knowing that's the best hope of me remembering to make notes when doing tests, keeping track of what I use and what I don't

it appears testing and sampling are two different things!

lesson learned

take care,

Jillayne

ragged

in a week filled with delightful family visits and a whole lot of cake there wasn't much creative time... a few stolen moments whilst waiting for a baking timer to go off was about all there was

through whiffs of chocolate, lemon and carrot cakes baking I worked through some stitch sampling ideas for these 

a while back I layered up some pieces of cloth I had painted with earth pigments to see if I could come up with something somewhat representative of the pilings that line one shore of the Yukon River in Whitehorse

painting with earth pigments is a messy, unpredictable business but one that yields an interesting look to the cloth, a roughness, that you just can't get with traditional dye techniques - at least I never have

this week in the in-between times I added some stitching to two I had prepared, it would add some interesting details inspired by the way the pilings have weathered over time

trying a few different types and thicknesses of thread yielded similar results - the threads sat on top of the cloth and didn't look at all like an integral part of the pilings 

I tried cutting the fabric... some simple scissor cuts and others where after the initial cut I went back with the scissors and trimmed some of the cut edges further creating a very narrow opening

then I tried laying long stitches in the cuts

top right are dark stitches on top of the fabric

bottom right are cuts with thread stitched within them

I'm pleased with the cuts and think there is something there to work further with, perhaps layering dark (or very light) fabric beneath the cut and allowing it to show through, eliminating the need for stitching?

those ideas investigated,  I moved on to stitching a dark thread along the edge of one of the layers

reasonably successful, as seen below

the last thing I tried was cutting notches into the lower edge of the upper fabric, where the dark one would show through from below

again, there's promise here

the pigment paint does help hold the warp and weft threads together a bit, as if they were lightly glued but I tore these (it tears well, depending on the weave of the base cloth) so they're a bit frayed but can get some definition when I want it

aside from that, the sample below was the first I worked on and it's entirely stitched

I love this small piling but am not at all happy with the stitching so as I'm only showing it here to emphasize why I'm not keen on the look of the stitched lines;  the stitching will all be removed tonight

what I am excited about though is the effect I see when I lay it on other pigment cloth as a background

this first one is on a pale grey that had Chocolate Lace flowers laid on it during the painting process

the visual texture that transferred to the cloth is beautiful, like granular ice

and the next two are on a different piece, one I did, attempting a nod to Turner's skies - it wasn't that successful an interpretation but the cloth itself has an interesting texture 

interestingly, these next two photos were taken just a few minutes apart but the first is rather grey whilst the second has a more bluish cast

I couldn't decide so I posted both!

so... a few discoveries, some things to try and a fresh inspiration to paint more cloth

busy days ahead

found and ground

summer's foraging along the shores of the Yukon River yielded a few surprising finds... burnt boards, rusty square nails, rusted cables, a few earth pigments, old brick shards and some things that piqued my curiosity from the moment I first saw them shimmering black in the river

it was a small secluded area, an abundance of taller grass growing near the shore

pushing through, I found a small clear spot where I could kneel at the edge of the river bank and as I looked into the water I noticed these two "rocks" right away

I'd never seen shiny blackish rocks such as these... rough areas and smooth, a touch of dull tan colour here and there

later that day I uploaded a photo of them to Google and was informed they were not meteorites

that made me laugh... the thought of them dropping from the sky hadn't crossed my mind at all

over the next half-hour I had a "discussion" with the AI function on the Google search page and through that learned these are called "Boiler Clinkers"

 most likely coming from the boiler of one of the Yukon paddlewheeler boats that ran on the river between  1879 to 1955

made up of fused ash and non-combustible particles, they are a by-product of the burning of coal used to fuel some of the ships on their journeys up and down the river

usually shovelled overboard, in order to keep the grates clear, they can be found at many points along the river still

I found these in Whitehorse, at the old shipyards

a few hammer strokes brought the one on the left to heap of small particles which were further ground with a mortar and pestle

and ground,

and ground

they probably could have done with yet more grinding but I was eager to see what colour they would make so on to my glass plate a spoonful went and with a few dribbles of gum arabic solution, the mulling began

and continued,

and continued

eventually I could resist no more... a few swipes on a piece of watercolour paper showed me I could get a quite dense black and lighten that to beautiful greyed taupe with additional water

then more water and another piece of rougher watercolour paper showed me there were some nice granulating effects to be had

colour, richer and more varied than I'd hoped for

amazing to think I can paint a Yukon scene with a small piece of it!

the next find I want to work with is the brick shards, found in the same place

and the story continues...

take care,

Jillayne

you know it when you see it

the return to Salmon Arm is rarely without a thud and a bang... I find the "re-entry" tough, especially during the warmer months

the sudden change from the clean, clear expanse of the north to the heat and busyness of the south, the air at times thick with humidity, the population and the automobile exhaust that goes along with that make me long for the deep green forests and mountains I leave behind

for the last few trips, during my first week back, I have given myself the gift of time... time to play in the studio, to immerse myself back in my creative work

time to do what I love whilst getting used to where I am

to do as I please - cooking, yes... yard work and cleaning, no

last week you saw my "noticings" book, finally filled with small sketches

this week I'm pleased to show another finish

the first of my work based on the snowy wind-rows I saw on the shore ice of the Yukon River two winters ago is finally finished

hand-stitched vintage linen, ink-dyed linen for the base, driftwood for the handle

it stands just 4" tall and is barely 2" wide across the front

inspired by this view

and began like that

the tiny, tiny textural stitches that are grouped here and there along the longer lines are barely visible, reading more as a disruption of the weave than anything else but the effect of roughness is there and that's all I wanted

the pouch itself was completed some months ago but was awaiting it's handle

none of the driftwood I had was right - too short, too long, too brown, too wide, too narrow, too straight

on it went

Goldilocks herself would have been impressed

but then this summer, as I sat on the shores of Kluane Lake 

I found it

the beaches were littered with small pieces of twisted, bent driftwood in varying shades of grey and brown

right away I saw a small piece that looked exactly like what I had pictured in my mind as I sewed the pouch together

slightly crooked, arched, knobby, greyish, a few imperfections... 

I didn't have the pouch with me to judge right there and then so just in case I gathered a few extra pieces but in the end the one that made me say 

"Aha!"

was the right one after all

take care,

Jillayne