next...

next Saturday I'll be winging my way north... off to the Yukon

 17 days of blissful contentment

when I step off that plane, out of the air terminal, the earth will gently reach up and wrap itself around my ankles and for the first time in three years I will feel anchored, at one with where I am

only in the Yorkshire moors, near Haworth, have I come close to this feeling

the last time I was in Whitehorse I stayed in a downtown condo with my daughter and grandson... quiet baby-days and each morning there was time for me to do a simple colour study... I chose a different subject for it each day and then painted what I saw; green, grey, brown, blue and finally "flowers"

it was very meditative and looking back on them now I am instantly transported to that place, that view, those thoughts

looking and recording in some manner will do that and I want that again but in a bigger way so I'm planning a  daily sketchbook practice whilst there

the trouble is, so much else will be going on and I am still rather new to working in sketchbooks so in order to streamline the whole affair I am practicing now: one hour each day with a different component to tackle during each session

yesterday was scenery and writing - nothing much for my first session other than that... a view and a record of it

I'm using photographs from previous visits - practice for working in a sketchbook on location makes even more sense when working with images of the landscape I am going to be seeing

up in the mountains of the Wheaton River Valley, first stop "Tally Ho"

a typical Yukon gravel road lined with fireweed, mountains all around and scrubby dark green trees dotting the alpine landscape

I had the idea to gesso drawing paper which I can get in large sheets at the art supply store but it did not take well to watercolour so this first painting was a real struggle

at least I know now not to bother with anything other than watercolour paper

today I thought I would work on mixing the colours of the Yukon, namely the dark trees and flowing water

this time, down on the valley floor, the Wheaton River itself

beginning with the trees, Alizarin Crimson mixed with Winsor Green (yellow shade) gave me the beautiful dark green of the spruce trees... a touch more on the crimson side and it throws brown - I learned that today and it's a good thing to know

next was the water... it changes from pale blue-green to deep green-blue to slate in a heartbeat, influenced by sun, shade and wind

Winsor Blue and Raw Umber

and if I lay down a light wash of the Umber first and then glaze that with the mix it's almost perfect

playing with layering the greens, sunlight and shadow and all that... lots more to learn and refine

and because I'm fascinated with abstraction these days, tomorrow's plan is to take a view and capture the essence of it followed by a thumbnail study of various aspects of it, stretching the reality of the view into abstract impressions

nothing like a good challenge to make things interesting!

groundwork

 odd how once you start thinking seriously on a subject it begins to invade your thoughts and actions on multiple levels

"simplicity" is pretty much all I think about right now

 and all I want really, especially in the studio

although it's chockablock full of supplies, it's also home to more than a few "decorative" pieces and the clutter has been bothering me a lot lately

Thursday I began pulling all of that out there and things began to improve visually almost immediately and I rediscovered the beauty of space

one area that had been nagging at me for a while was a printer's tray I had re-purposed as a bulletin board of sorts

it was full of layers of photos, postcards, greeting cards, trinkets, bookmarks

 things on things on things

visual clutter of the worst kind

I spent ten minutes stripping it clean and then had a think about what to put back when I realized I wanted that board to be full of things to inspire me - visual reminders of what I like to work with 

favourite fabrics, colours, inspiring work by others... things that make me want to make

slowly I have been rooting them out - not done yet but the "bones" are there and I'm pleased

below is a postcard of Helen Terry's work along with some fabric and paper scraps I like, and a quote by Goethe

"things which matter most must never be at the mercy of those that matter least"

a couple of photos I took along with a floral image I printed from Pinterest, original source not provided

I'm keen to do some work with pressed flowers I've collected so have attached a couple to fabric collage

also a thread wrap, scrap of painted paper, ink-printed linen, a torn ink drawing from a few years ago and a few other random bits and pieces

below right - another unsourced Pinterest image with another Helen Terry postcard below and more fabric scraps

I haven't any words on here yet other than the quote but they are next 

as well as a drawing or two I think 

I'm not in a rush to finish and know that over time things will come down and others take their place as my interests change and work develops 

for now it's a starting point, a laying of the groundwork... a visual reminder of what I like and what I'd like to work with

and just in doing this I have already discovered something exciting - the fabric swatches joined together in this haphazard manner are exciting to me and tomorrow I'll be snipping and pinning away...

seeking simplicity

home again... figuring out how to pick up where I left off

it takes time to become familiar with things in the studio... questions tumbling through my head, one after the other, trying to sort out what I was trying to achieve

stepping away from this work for two weeks turned out to be a very good thing

it's given me time and space to think, to consider what I'm trying to achieve, why I seem to struggle with my work more often than not

I have an idea, begin to work on it, am delighted (usually) with the early stages and then hit a great big thick brick wall, stymied as to what comes next

last week while pondering that yet again, I asked myself why I'm so sure there is something that comes next

I was following along with a free  one week painting course and an oft asked question was "How do you know when your painting is finished?"

easy, I thought... it's finished when you can't think of anything else you can add that will make it better and there is nothing that you want to take away or fix

as that thought flashed through my mind I wondered if the same reasoning could be applied to my other work

is the reason I draw a blank and don't what to do next because it's actually done?

I rejected the idea out of hand - the work would be too simple then, far too understated

again, I questioned that

yesterday, in search of writing paper, I opened a drawer in the studio and found a note I had written a while ago

"seeking the simple"

hmmm...

 a little research seemed in order and so I searched "simplicity" on google and found some interesting quotes

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

-Hans Hofmann

"Simplicity is a choice, a discrimination, a crystallization. It's object is purity."

- Le Corbusier

"Simple can be harder than complex."

- Steve Jobs

so for now, simplicity it is

there is a feeling of relief in that acceptance, a settling of sorts

I'm still working with ice and snow and frozen branches

now "doing" more than "thinking"

picking up the brush, scissors and/or needle and seeing what comes of it

the slow go

all things creative are at a bit of a standstill these days

I'm back in Calgary, helping out with the wee ones so there is almost no time at all for anything else

it's not a hardship!

I did work on a bit of collage the other day, using some of my painted papers

torn strips, alternating dark and light, angling things

thinking layers...

ice forms in layers and at the Little Lake that's always a messy affair due to the big fluctuations in temperatures during the winter months

freeze, thaw, freeze and on it goes

I'm pleased with this torn-edge version though my initial plan was sharp-cut edges

they ended up looking awful but when the 3 year old wanted to demonstrate his cutting prowess I gave him a less-than-perfect painting and his safety scissors and let him have at it

the results of that cutting spree are safely tucked away for me to play with next week when I'm back at home - I figure he might just have a knack for this

so the next thing for this is to cut it from the background

today I snatched a few minutes and started sketching branches from my photos

I want to play with some of the common branch patterns I keep seeing, turning and layering them to create some interesting repeats and then add them here

this is me, truly working within "pockets of time"!

slowly...

moving forward, though rather slowly

I've finally decided on a rectangular concertina book for the ice/branches studies, but one with a horizontal orientation

the pages are folded and embossed, viewing window prepared (for selecting crops from painted and printed papers), a selection of crops are cut and ready to be glued in place and now I'm working on bringing fabric and thread into the picture

I've also been painting ice, trying a number of different paint colours and tools, slowly and steadily getting closer to something that connects with what I saw and felt that day

in thinking about the branches and possible methods for constructing them, I sampled some fme stitching on English scrim with the horizontal threads removed and stitching "branches" with the verticals

the white stitching is complete and to judge the effect, I've laid it on top of one of the painted backgrounds with the view-finder cut-out placed on top... getting a sense now of the composition

I still need to bring in some of the soft greys and darker browns but am thinking of doing that with straight stitches as I attach the fme

I'm also working on embroidered branches that can be cut out and applied... I've a feeling there are so many options - those are just the first two that have come to mind

the next trial  iswith  tissue paper collage made with leaves and scrim embedded in it

this is from an old sample that I have now torn apart and stitched together, changing the orientation of the stitching lines - shows promise but I need to paint it as the colours are wrong

it does seem more abstract though, and that's the point of this work

to take something I see and make something inspired by it but not in a perfectly representational way

and now on my daily walks I am noticing fallen branches and twigs on the sidewalk

it's the same thing but different

(I love statements like that - not correct but everyone knows exactly what you mean)

I've been photographing a few of them, picking them up and taking them home to sketch

more often than not I see letter forms, just as I did with the branches at the lake, and I am slowly gathering an alphabet, creating a font of sorts

I'm not sure if they'll play into any of my current work but it's one more thing on the creative journey that is giving me a fair amount of pleasure at the moment

chipping away

still messing around with ice, this time using paper and cloth

trying to capture light and shadow, sparkle, cracks, roughness 

ice

I began with cmc collage as it's what I know best

an interesting surface for added stitching, good enough, but I want something different, something more abstract

a challenging idea that is pushing me into the unknown

it's been baby steps all the way

I found a piece I had made a couple of years ago while working on something inspired by cattails

close, could work, but not still not quite 

I question the three rows, the vertical strip-effect

although...

 branches laid along those straight lines did look rather interesting so I haven't ruled this format out entirely 

next was to take the essence of the "three rows" piece and break that visual up a bit

this time adding in some of the paper I painted

I still need to add more painted paper to the bottom but this is promising

next is to re-do it in a horizontal format

the crinkled silk is a favourite - it hearkens back to the grooves of the branches in the ice, and the branches themselves, when they are all frosted white, sparkling in the sun

lightweight Japanese papers with thicker fibres trapped in the paper

taking a break from the ice the other day, I began to paint paper I can use for wood

dark brown, light gold, stumbled texture, scratches of white... trying to capture the essence of the branch forms, partially,  or sometimes even completely, embedded in the ice, the exposed areas stripped of bark, bare wood exposed, frosted white

there is such a vulnerability in that, the effects of exposure on what is extending from the surface of the ice while at the same time you can't help but notice the wood trapped below that looks as it did when it fell

it's haunting and beautiful

and not so very easy to capture in paint, paper and cloth

but I am determined to try

trapped in ice...

spring may be sprouting all around me but my head, and it seems my heart, are both still trapped in ice...

one of the things talked about in the "Inspired by Nature" course is "pockets of time" and how to make the most of those

I've known of this concept since my children were tiny tots; an article in mom's magazine called it "found time"... the minutes here and there, throughout your day, when you're waiting on something

potatoes to boil

a child to pick-up

bath time to be over

and how you could use that found time to work on small portable projects

to that end, my children still remember my needle case and a piece of stitching, sitting on the table morning, noon and night and me picking it up several times each day and adding a stitch or two

in that way, I accomplished a lot of stitching without having to dedicate specific time to it

pockets of time is the same, knowing what to work on and taking advantage of short periods of time to do it... and the results pile up

I've been making use of all sorts of found time lately - this week it's still all about ice and paint

working out presentation ideas for a concertina book showcasing all the techniques we've covered in the class

{I think this is a brilliant idea and will do it for each class I take from now on - a small book with a sample of each technique/idea; there are always off-cuts and small pieces that don't quite fit in but have value and keeping them all together in a small book format as a reference to a particular course or technique would be a nice thing to look back on for quick visual reminders}

painted paper with embossing

painted paper with embossed strips

collage with embossed strips

the one above is a sample done long before this course but it's giving me an idea for a way of abstracting the ice which I am working on today

gelli print on tissue paper

the images above and below were done with the last of the paint on my tray - roughly brushed onto the gelli plate, thoughts of sun on water in my head

the one above is the first pull, below is the second, also referred to as a "ghost" print

ghost print on copy paper

the print below was done with thoughts of the branches frozen into the ice

I made a printing plate using branches I picked up the day I first went down there for a late winter wander; glued to a piece of book board and sealed with gloss medium, a fabric handle affixed to the back, I can press it onto the inked/painted gel plate 

before using it I pressed crumpled tin foil onto the paint first

and this last one is using the tin foil only

as you can see, it's happy, busy days in the studio and the stack of painted and printed papers continues to grow

using my own papers to create with is one of the most satisfying things I've done in a very long time; it's another layer in the creative process and allows me to make work that is even more unique to me

it's sticky and messy, the results are always mixed, and it's just plain fun

I've a little more I want to try in my ice explorations and then I'll break out and try some branches

then rocks

and trees

and of course, sky

flowers - can't forget the flowers

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