black and blue

inside days again this past week so more time to work with and learn about some of my art materials

working with indigo and charcoal, making marks, adding water, drops of ink

the swish of a brush and the scratch of a pencil

working on a large piece of cartridge paper that after a satisfying 30 minutes of trying this and that looked like a complete mess of awful

fun to do but disappointing to look at

the next step was to turn the paper over and rip it up - that wasn't hard to do at all!

surprisingly, when I flipped the remains over, there were a few that pleased me greatly

in isolation, the marks took on a new dimension and what was overlooked before took centre stage

this one intrigued me greatly... that tangle of dark

the one below became a landscape right in front of my eyes... stormy sky, wind-swept plain with a small hill... dark shadows on the land and lightning bolts - bold cracking ones high in the sky and a delicate one, straight down to the earth

sheets of rain

the first one again, turned on it's side

and then this 

making indigo watercolour paint, mulling it for ages and when all I could scrape from the plate was in a watercolour pan, I did one last spin with the muller and then stamped it on a piece of paper

little interesting things that kept me busy for a few days

if not now...

an off-hand remark on a podcast i was listening to several weeks has had a profound effect on how i manage the things in my life that need doing

it was something along the lines of "if it needs to be done, why not do it as soon as you notice it"

and then a pod cast or two later this one:

"if it's such a good idea why are you not getting at it right away?"

one good for life and the other for art?

or perhaps both for both?

simplistic i know, in a busy world, when what might get noticed is the thing you see just as you're heading out the door, but otherwise why wait?

the old, "if not now, when"

i've been using both of these ways of thinking ever since i heard them and am pretty darn pleased with the results

not only are nagging things getting attended to, i've also become much more discerning with just how good my ideas are

one i had last year was after i completed the online course

"Inspired by Nature"

i had several photographs and samples of paintings inspired by them so i thought it would be nice to make a concertina book for them and have a visual record of that connection

I gathered my favourite photos and paintings/prints and even managed to cut the cover boards and fold the paper for the pages but then spring came and the days got busy and my good idea sat in a drawer for 15 months

last week i did a big studio re-organization and in doing that i came across the folded paper, cover boards, photos and samples all bound neatly together

the last of the studio sort-out was completed this morning so today i tackled it

with eight pages i decided on a two by two layout of four sets, a photo and then the work inspired by it

the photos were all taken after an early spring windstorm that brought down hundreds of twigs and branches all around the banks of our little lake

the shore ice was melting and re-freezing, trapping many branches and often icing them with frost

i went back several times over a few days and took at least two dozen of photos, the details changing day by day

trying a variety of techniques to interpret what i was seeing

layers of ice and wood, appearing lines and disappearing ones

freezing and breaking up

water and ice

lots of trials to choose from

the covers are finished and the concertina pages attached - the whole of it is pressing under weight now for a day or two

one side will feature these photo/art duets and the other will have some of my observations i think 

having put this project off for fifteen months already I've no doubt it would have languished for another 15 at least as there's no pressing reason to get it done and other things are calling loudly

but if not now, when?

and maybe another, better question might be

if not now, why?

things to think about

i haven't usually any shortage of things to think about... pondering things, that make me consider not just the world around me but also my place in it and understanding of it

this week three more were added to the pile

shrub and the ensuing stump removal have been a big focus this summer... last week as i was sawing large roots from one of the stumps i had a rather startling experience

the stump had been removed from the ground at least two weeks prior but the larger roots were still rather soft and flexible; as I sawed my way through one of the largest i noticed a faint pink tinge which deepened as i got closer to the centre of the root by which time it was quite ruby-coloured; in minutes the colour was entirely gone with not the faintest hint it was ever there

seems perhaps "the surge" before death, (sometimes referred to as terminal lucidity), is maybe not just something for human beings...

when the root came free i laid it down on the growing woodpile and as it rolled over i noticed a small web of fine "root-threads", pure white and in the shape of a tree

so much symbolism in these two events they feel like startling messages from the plant itself and not ones to be taken lightly

a few days later, an afternoon in the studio with more mark-making using charcoal in the works, i was determined this time to just make random marks

it seemed to be going well, turning the paper this way and that, trying different ways of working but after 15 minutes there was yet another landscape appearing on the page - tried a few more things to break free of that but again, the new marks, in combination, just enhanced the overall impression

deciding there was no point in fighting it i took the eraser to the sky area to lighten it a bit and added a few more lines to what appeared to be a grassy area to define it a bit more and there it was...

the last thinking thing was spurred on by a photo a friend in the yukon sent me... they were on a boating trip on bennett lake and the white pass train came by so she snapped this image of it

https://wpyr.com

it's a tourist train now, running from skagway, alaska as far as carcross, yt along with a few points in between but until the early 1980s the train came all the way to whitehorse

i could never understand the colour scheme though... I thought the yellow and green a hideous combination and often wished they would go back to the dark red/burgundy and black i remembered as a child

when Charmaine sent me this photo I understood immediately... it's the colour of the water, and of the land, the greenery in sunlight

it's nature's perfection

some things i did

art activities are still taking a back seat to house painting and yard chores... frustrating beyond measure but there is some satisfaction that things are starting to look pretty good and i remind myself now and again that at some point the end will come

one exceptionally hot day forced me inside and so a bit of sketching and mark-making took place - working with chunky blocks of charcoal but also an indigo intense block, and a few charcoal pencils... it was a messy, dirty business but oh so much fun

i used a large piece of drawing paper and just started making random lines and marks across the paper... it wasn't easy though, perhaps in part because it all felt so aimless but i kept on, sometimes turning the paper, erasing, smudging, re-drawing and slowly the process drew me in

it wasn't long before it began to feel like a landscape so i turned the page again, trying to force myself away from that

in the end it all looked rather odd to me so i tore it into large chunks, trying to isolate areas i liked

the piece below was leftover, the only area where there was nothing i liked at all... but it's funny the difference a day makes

when i photographed it iPhoto imported it upside down and i liked it that way so much i duplicated the image and now have a copy of it each way round

and a few more days later i can't say that i prefer one over the other - there are things about each i like very much

last sunday a big wind kicked up late in the evening - it was a wicked one, and the sound of it woke me several times during the night

the next morning i took my phone with me when I went for my walk, knowing the trees would have shed a number of small branches and the sidewalks would be littered with "letters"

they did not disappoint... many photographs and a handful of twigs later, i arrived back home with a good variety of interesting letter forms to sketch - so many in fact I decided I needed a sketchbook devoted just to them

a "y"

a very funky "r"

(this one fits right in with the thinking of the expressive calligraphy course i've been working on)

another "y", because you can never have too many

some of these, if turned, could easily be interpreted as a different letter but I take them as they are presented to me

my favourite of the day was an "f"

photographed below with an "l" from the next day along with a pinecone... thinking perhaps it might be a period because after all, trees use punctuation too

let week i discovered tinted charcoal pencils... 

sketching first with a mechanical pencil, then "driftwood" to emphasise the darker gnarly areas and finally a touch of "mossy green"

and then my laptop did it's thing and gave me a new perspective on it too

how it happens

it's been another long hot dry week here, the drapes and blinds shut all day to block the sun... an afternoon in the studio had been planned but all my energy and ambition had faded away with the cool morning air

tidying then... the continual little pile of things that don't get put away

these two were there, in amongst the hastily scribbled notes and diagrams

placing one on top of the other, liking the effect, thinking about what could be next, i had an overwhelming urge to make of these small linen, paper and sometimes cloth and lace collages

tidying was off the table 

a little more cmc added to the glue jar, a dash of water and swirl around; setting that aside, 

into the linen scrap box I went, then the paper and cloth ones respectively

some used parchment paper from the last collage go-round laid out and i was ready to go

and just like that there were 33... all laid out over three sheets of parchment paper, drying quickly in the warmth of the room

they were made quickly, almost nothing was trimmed except for a few over-size pieces.. a few scraps of lace here and there but only four or five - mostly it's paper and often but not always there's a scrap of cloth

they're small, a couple are long and narrow, maybe 1 1/2" x 3", most are perhaps 2" x 3" or less

love the ones on dark linen... stray threads here and there, a selvedge left in place

the one below is from a making session a while back - there are 8 or 9 like this, all about 3 1/2" x 5" or thereabouts, all on a scrim/cheesecloth base... light and airy, fragility at it's best

no particular plans as yet for all of these but the wheels are turning

in addition to that there was an afternoon spent putting together my coptic-binding sketchbook

it went well, only one tangled thread, holes and signatures lining up well, a nice firm binding, flat covers, a book that sits closed and opens flat

the neat, regular stitches on the inside

so far so good... next is to tackle the large one 

in my usual fashion though, the urge to paint my own cover has hit and so the project is stalled for a bit whilst that gets sorted out... never having painted anything that large, and wanting something in my favourite yukon palette but abstract, not representational, some experimenting is in order

and so here we go again...

the time it takes

this post could easily be titled "round and round and round we go"

it all went like this:

several weeks ago a plan was hatched for a project to do 100 small collages in a couple of days but before commencing on the collages a sketchbook was needed to mount them in as soon as they were finished

not having one in the "perfect" size, a second plan was hatched to make said sketchbook

paper was purchased, cut and folded, spacers made and inserted where required, cover boards cut, cover papers selected, all ready to go and then...

a decision to make a coptic binding rather than a case binding led to a few self-doubts... i've never tried my hand at a coptic binding

being rather attached to the papers etc. chosen for the "perfect-sized" sketchbook, and not wanting to discover a coptic binding would not be the best choice after the fact, yet another plan was hatched to make a trial version in a smaller size

first a little research on how to make a coptic-bound book and then more paper cut and folded, more cover boards cut, new cover papers selected and so on

the paper has been glued to the covers and they have been pressing under weights for a few days now

next up is to poke the holes in the covers and signatures and the trial version will be ready to stitch together

the paper chosen for the cover of the trial version was one i had wanted to use on the "perfect-sized" sketchbook but didn't have a large enough piece

it reminds me of the evening sky at twilight

the first one you see is going to be the front cover... the large black mark in the centre-left makes me think of a mountain and just above and to the left is a crescent moon shape... the gold accents are metallic, the soft pink and general busyness of the paper makes me think of the milky way

and here, the back cover

a lot more pink on this one but still a beautiful sky

as soon as the paper cutting and folding began a settled happy feeling came over me... i do love to make books

this morning, as i was taking a few minutes to check on the boards to see if they're ready for the book to be put together i saw this collage of paper, scrim and silk cloth... it's a favourite that's been hanging on an inspiration board in front of my writing table for quite a while now, and wondered... what kind of cover would it make for a book?

hmm...

turn, turn

had a day set aside this past week to do some playing with my ink and a few new art materials but a summer cold zapped almost all of my creative energy

i showed up at my work table at the appointed hour where the materials were waiting for me but all I wanted to do was turn around and go find a comfy chair and a blanket

still... there was a sheet of acrylic paper marked off into various-sized sections and a brand new intense indigo block waiting for me along with a few inks and my fountain pen

i began with the indigo, then a bit of water followed by a black art graf tailor's chalk and then my fountain pen

every so often a bit of water was added to the page, then sepia ink, and whilst things ran together in interesting ways, the mountains i had envisaged did not materialize and it was all beginning to look like a mess

thinking white acrylic paint might help, i added a bit to a couple of squares with a palette knife but it was awful so i quickly blotted off as much as i could with a paper towel

a bottle of white acrylic ink was lurking at the back of my worktable so i gave it a good shake whilst looking over what i had done thus far, waiting a few minutes for all of it to begin drying

giving the ink a good shake and then using the applicator, I made some gestural marks in each of the sections

a short time later they were dry so i peeled off the masking tape and had a look at what i'd done

not terribly impressive, not at all

and no mountains... but, knowing you just have to keep moving forward, i cut them all apart 

odd how separating them, allowing each to stand on it's own changes thing

isolation is a very important design tool and one i learned early on to keep at my fingertips

 taking each in turn, looking at them this way and that, turning them,  looking at them from all sides

it never fails to amaze me how much that simple act can totally transform something 

every single one looked better in a different orientation than the one it was created in

this first image is the "right way up"

and now with a 180 degree turn

the next two were both turned once to the right - they look like winter trees

love the snowy branches

my four favourites

working in this random, gestural way may seem like an odd way to create but i couldn't have painted these if i tried

labouring over them as I iould have done would have made them contrived and stilted; instead, by just playing with ink and marking tools, being ok with not achieving what i hoped for and looking to see what else might be, i found something beautiful and inspiring