thinking, doing, looking, seeing

over the last year creativity has waxed and waned

not often sure of what I want to create, I'm almost always sure of what I want to work with... the solution? 

scratch the itch

if the urge to play with scraps of fabric or lace strikes, that's what I do

when I feel like mucking with paints... I dig some out

I've been working with watercolour, acrylics and water-soluble oils all year; the piece below is done with heavy-body acrylics on watercolour paper with strips of linen attached with gesso prior to the painting

as always with me, texture comes first

when I have leftover paint I dab, scrape and brush it onto other watercolour paper

I tried watercolour paint on acrylic-paint paper (below image, upper right),  acrylic paint on oil-painting paper canvas (bottom), and eventually watercolour on watercolour paper (far right)... I like to see how the paints work on various papers

I also like to see how different fabrics work with the painted papers

one day I made paper, embedding cheesecloth in the layers of pulp, adding dried plant material for flecks of colour

all of these experiments had no end purpose, just the urge to see what could be done with whatever was to hand, building a library of skills, ideas and samples

with each one I see a full range of possibilities, ideas for taking them forward in many different ways

the small stack has built up over the months, never far from sight

every few days I pick it up, shuffle through, looking at them in different ways, seeing new possibilities - what surprised me most was that even though these have been done over the course of the pandemic, and many other things were made and worked on in between, they have a strong commonality of colour and texture

there is simply no denying I like what I like

*I recently learned the "subscribe by email" gadget is going away soon so if you have subsrcibed you'll not receive a notification after the end of the month. I'll see if there is a suitable replacement but in the meanwhile I plan to post on the weekends, usually Saturday

As Time Goes By...

well, been quite a while since I've posted here, and not for any reason but I just kind of ran out of things to say...

it has been the strangest of years; worrisome at times, downright pleasant at others, I haven't minded a quieter way of living nearly as much as I thought I would have. Puttering in my studio, in the yard, in the kitchen - those are always, have always, been my favourite kind of days... I like a quiet life.

creatively it has had it's ups and downs, some wonderful "discoveries" coupled with a fair amount of frustration... waffling, dithering, and being "blocked" have all been present; thankfully I've come a long way in figuring out how to deal with all of them. It always boils down to me being far too attached to the outcome, something I am learning to let go of.

in the meanwhile, I've been using this time at home to try some new techniques, hone some skills and do something different... sketching and painting have moved up the creative ladder and captured my attention of late. When I first started reading up on and learning about sketching I found it difficult to find subjects to use for practice. It wasn't long before I realized it isn't so much that I want to be a sketcher, rather, I want to be able to sketch what interests me when I'm travelling... one of the exercises in a book I was using suggested choosing a sketch by a "Master" and try copying it. I loved doing that and became somewhat obsessed with it so I decided I would learn to sketch by copying sketches and it's been great fun, very interesting and I am already growing in confidence. Win, win, win!

this first one is a copy of one by John Muir Laws, taken from his book "The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journalling". I actually did quite a few copies of sketches taken from the various lessons in the book as well as several watercolour paintings during the time I had his book. (One thing the pandemic did was spur me to get a library card and I have been beating a steady path to and from the library ever since.) This lesson was on drawing a forest view, doing lots of detail on one tree trunk and then lessening that as up draw back into the forest.

this next drawing is a sketch adapted from a watercolour painting by Ann Blockley, a UK artist, this one taken from her book "Watercolour Workshop". Thankfully our library has several of her books! 

as for hand-stitching, I've been making cards lately... they're reasonably quick, lots of variety, nice to give etc. etc.

my latest versions have patched backgrounds of naturally dyed, organic Indian linen from Maiwa

using Edith Holden's book "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady", I sketched versions of selected paintings and began interpreting them in stitch. 

neither are completed, I flit back and forth between them as the mood strikes

this first one is also sporting some snippets of fabric I dyed myself, long ago, whilst we still lived in the Yukon

a little snapshot of some of the things that have been capturing my attention over the course of the past year and a bit...

what's kept you busy?