Good Things!

Snowdrops!  There's still a good deal of snow in the backyard and I wandered down there this afternoon to give Cassie a little fresh air and playtime and there they were, pushing themselves right up out of the snow!

Seems like a miracle, since the big picture still looks very bleak and wintry.  Sometimes you have to look very closely to find the bright spot!

Meanwhile, I received these bright beautiful blooms from one of my little fans at the library.  We just finished up the winter session of children's programs so she gave me these as a little thank you.  They just made my day!  Now they're brightening up the whole kitchen.

After working out this morning, I stopped into Homegoods and picked up this cheerful tablecloth.  I received a birthday giftcard a while back and finally found something I could use!  It will be perfect for Easter coming up, and for the spring in general.

And it goes perfectly with the mantle decorations I put up a few weeks ago - all those pinks, yellows and greens.

 I also saw this neat metal container and picked it up as well.  I hope to fill it with some flowering plants and put it on the front step just to perk up the entryway a bit.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, I finished the robins. . .

. . . and I started on the next piece.  I painted the background with various acrylic inks and paints.  First I did a thin wash, then I added some grass-like texture, first with a brush, then using the edge of a bent piece of cardstock as a stamp.

I added some more in a darker shade of green, with less water in the paint so the grass has more definition.  Now comes the real work... adding the applique focal point flowers.

Still Dreaming of Spring

Although the calendar says spring begins tomorrow, the forecast is for another 3-5 inches of wet snow!  We've had a little spring-like weather (sunny with temps close to 50) and a lot of the snow has melted, but it still feels very wintry for the most part.

So I continue to make progress on spring-y art, as you can see above.  I decided the leaves needed some additional depth so I sponged some paint over the sheer fabric and added some stipple stitching.   I also opted to layer and quilt this piece so the sky would recede a bit and the tree and birds would come forward. I did simple wavy lines to bring to mind soft breezes, migration, and flight.   I'm debating whether or not to add blossoms to the tree.  I like the way the pink flowers reflect the sky in the lower portion, and the added dimension they bring to the piece.  Maybe I'll keep them.  Any opinions?

I can't take up too much more time finishing this up - if I'm going to cover the entire box myself I'll need to finish up two or three more of these PDQ!

Follow up:  Thanks for the suggestion, Vivien!  Here's a shot of the piece without the blossoms:

I think it makes the tree recede into the background, so the birds and nest become the main focus.  I'll need to mull it over a little longer...

More Spring Color Therapy

On my way to the grocery store this afternoon, I stopped into the Carmel Flower Shop to smell the roses - and tulips, and ferns, and all the other beautiful growing things!  This is what greeted me when I walked in the door:

Isn't that a sight for sore eyes?  Here are some other beautiful displays:
Planter baskets...

Easter bunnies...

and this adorable bird nest planter!

There are many of these lovely apothecary jar terrariums (terraria?) with cute little figurines in them.  Can you see the little hedgehog and ladybug?

The store sells jewelry, scarves, scented soaps, and other gifts as well as these lovely books.

It was like a mini vacation!  

Color Therapy

This afternoon I went into Homegoods for some Color Therapy.  I didn't even end up buying anything, just walked around looking at all the pastels, florals, bunny, and egg-themed tableware.  Felt like a breath of fresh air!  Take a look...

Before I went out, I added a few things to my latest piece, below.  The nest is made up of fabric and paper.  I found an interesting quote about trees by Herman Hesse, printed it on pre-painted kraft paper, and cut up the lines to resemble twigs.  The robin is all fabric, fused and stitched to a felt backing (click on the photo to see more detail).  Every day, I make a little progress, and we get a little closer to warmer weather and longer days...

Spring Dreaming

Every few days, I see the weather forecast, hoping that it will show a warming trend.  And every forecast for the whole month has been the same:  cold, cold, and more cold!  I keep thinking, it can't go on much longer, but tomorrow is the first of March and we are looking forward to another 6 inches of snow.  Sheesh!  When I took down the Christmas decorations, I left this cute display of snowmen because they looked so cheerful all together like that, almost like a barbershop quartet, but I took them down today.  Enough is enough!

In place of the snowmen, I put the little mixed-media "tunnel book" I made a couple of years ago.  It's nice to gaze at it and imagine myself in a park on a spring day, meandering along the path past azaleas and daffodils, with the sound of a fountain splashing and birds singing in the trees, the perfume of blossoms in the air...

I've been trying to get down to my creative space when I can, and recently added this page to my art journal.  It was another "lesson" in Pam Carricker's book, "Art at the Speed of Life."  In this one, we chose a figure to put on the page and I happened to come across this photo of Michelangelo's David.  I love the way his gaze is so intense that you want to turn to see what it is he's looking at.  I have yet to add some text.  I'll probably find a quote about courage or underdogs going against the odds.

I also started the background for another piece to go on the 16" square box that will be part of the next FANE exhibit (see previous post).  This time I glued down some paper pieces before I painted the fabric, but then added a little more paper on top.  Here's the first couple of layers...

 And here's where it's headed.  I intend to add another bird in flight and a nest among the branches.

So happy March, and Think Spring!

Catching Up

I can't believe it's already February 20th!  The days just fly by!  Hopefully, that means Spring is right around the corner.  Meanwhile, we are completely frozen here in the Hudson Valley, prompting me to create the oversized snowy valentine for my family last weekend.  The snow is quite deep and Cassie and I hadn't ventured down there much, but since I trekked the path of the heart in the snow, we have been down several times, following in our own footsteps where it's a little easier to walk (although, as you can see, Cassie strays off the beaten path more than I do!).

The garden is buried, as you can see below.  Even the tops of the little mushroom stool and bench are almost completely covered with snow and the lake has been frozen for weeks.  It's a bit bleak, but every day the sun stays up a little longer as we crawl closer and closer to the equinox and the promise of warmer days.

I haven't done any further art journal work, but I did start a new piece based on my journal experiences and my need for some spring colors.  I worked on the piece below in various layers, starting with a piece of white fabric.  I first painted some diluted acrylic paints in a criss-cross pattern in shades of yellow, salmon, and ochre.  I wanted to incorporate some paper, and added a page from a songbook as well as some printed squares of light cardstock.    I added texture with some stamps and stencils and hand wrote a quote from the Song of Solomon: "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come."

At that point, I stopped to figure out what subject matter I wanted to include and where the focal point should be.  I decided on some paperwhite flowers and handpainted in the stems, then stitched over them to outline.   I added flower shapes with stamps and layered pieces of lace and other white fabrics over the stamped images.  Then I added the sheer green fabric at the bottom and the sparkle tulle in the upper right.  Since the quote mentioned the singing of birds, I added a white bird near the printed music.

Here is a close up:

I'm happy with the way it turned out, although I would do a few things differently.  I think next time, I'll add any paper elements before I paint, so I don't have to go back and blend them in, like I did this time.  Also, the three cardstock squares posed some problems.  They were difficult to stitch through and took the paint differently from the surrounding fabric, making the square shape very visible.  Two of the three are still visible here, but one is almost completely covered by the white flowers and really wasn't necessary.  I'll avoid cardstock in fabric-based pieces from now on.  I also wish I had chosen to angle the large tile stamp so it appeared as a diamond instead of a square.  I think it would have added more interest, movement, and a hint of sparkle.

I hope this new piece will be part of one of FANE's next two exhibits.  For the past three years, we've taken over a classroom at the NSQG's World of Quilts show in May.  This has traditionally been a 3-D exhibit, with pieces on stands or hanging from the ceiling so viewers walk around and see the pieces from all sides.  This year, we decided to use a cube format inspired by the mixed-media cubes we traded earlier this month.  Of course, the display cubes will be much larger and we have a choice of 12", 16" or 20" squares to cover cardboard boxes of those dimensions.  My piece above is 16" square.  We also have the option of teaming up with other group members to cover the box.  I'm not sure I'll be able to make enough pieces to cover all visible sides of a box (5 pieces).  If not, I'm sure I can find another group member to share a box with.

Meanwhile, I never shared the mixed-media cube that I received in the trade - here it is below!  All the group members are talented and I would've been happy to get any cube, but I happened to get Jane Davila's, our group leader and very talented, experienced mixed-media and fabric artist! She used paint and paper on her cube.  I just love the color palette, textured papers, and calm, zen qualities it exudes. It is one of my new favorite possessions!

Last Day of January

 January is probably my least favorite month of the year and it always seemed soooo loooong.  Between the end of the holiday festivities and the beginning of the frigid winter weather, January always seemed so bleak and unending.  But the days, weeks and months seem to be passing more quickly than ever, and here it is, January 31st already!  Where did the month go?

I've managed to continue with my art journaling and have the next entry here.  In this exercise, I painted with watercolor paints and then lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the wet paint, welcoming crinkles and wrinkles.  When the paint dried and I peeled off the wrap, I added a little tree in the resulting lines.  Then I added the words "bloom where you are planted," and embellished with some stenciling and shading.  The left side is blank so I can write a little critique of this process/piece.

The watercolor/plastic wrap is very easy and produces an interesting effect.  I enjoyed the process and wonder how (or even if) it would work on fabric.  I like the happy accidents that occur (I didn't intend to draw a tree - it just looked like a tree, and the quote fit right in there among the rocks and roots).  I'd like to do exercises like this more often.

The last two exercises sparked the urge to get out some fabrics with high contrasts and start a new piece!  Here is a little sneak peek, below.   I'm trying to make this a quick exercise, not a long drawn-out, laborious creation, so I hope I can put a little more time into it in the next week or two.  Maybe a good approach would be to use the journaling as a warm up, then do a little stitching on this piece.

I recently read about a new book titled The Little Spark: 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity by Carrie Bloomston, and was lucky enough to find it on the New shelf at the library.  I've only read the first 3 or 4 ways, and so far some of it is a repeat of many of these books on creativity, with suggestions like set aside time, set aside a place, be generous with your materials, take a class, that kind of thing.  But I could probably use a little pep talk, and the author is very encouraging and positive and the book is full of great inspirational quotes.  So why not?