Ice Painting

What better art can one do in the winter in the Frozen Tundra than Ice Painting????

It is a variation on Pounded Fabric in my opinion. Interesting results though.

The first set I painted liberally first and then scrunched into the containers. This time I used DynaFlow paints and started with undyed, white cotton (PFD)

Painted fabric

Ice cubes placed on top of the painted fabric. This turned out to be too much ice.

Then let the ice begin to melt in the studio...not in the batching closet. You can already see the paint starting to disperse

A few days later the ice was all gone. The fabric was put into the batching closet to dry completely.

When it was dry it was ironed. And this is the result. Very pale color and both will get additional work on them. Perhaps too much ice and not sure about the DynaFlow. More experimenting!!!

                     

Next I found some hand dyed pieces that definitely needed work. I scrunched these in a tray and put paint on them (dabbing and swiping). I used watered down acrylics for this set. Just colors that I had lying around...and that would blend in well with the boring flat dyed pieces. I also used some metallic paints on them as well. A girl has to have her bling!!! 

 Top to Bottom - Piece 1 then Piece 2

Top to Bottom - Piece 3, Piece 4 and Piece 5

Then I placed some ice cubes on top of them. No photos though...end of the day...very tired....enough said. The tray was placed in the batching closet and two days later the ice had melted and the fabric was completely dry. Then ironed them. And the final results.......

 Piece 1

Piece 2

Piece 3

Piece 4

Piece 5

I like them all, but piece 3 will get a little more loving attention shortly

So in the spirit of Frozen Tundra exploration....Ice Painting is a winner!! And since it is Friday....I'm linking this post to Nina Marie's Off The Wall Friday!! 

2014 Voyage is one for the books!

yes....I said 2014. Ran a bit behind on this year for the international yahoo group Voyage, but it is all finally done. The theme for 2014 was EARTH. We were allowed to develop our interpretation of that theme as we wished. I decided to choose 6 beautiful places on earth that are natural creations. The title of my series is "Earth's Amazing Wonders"

BEAUTIFUL BOUNDARY

Great Barrier Reef

Australia

(The reef is made with a new technique on sunprinted dupioni silk. The sea, sky and cloud are all my own hand dyed cottons, the surf is painted cheesecloth)

GIANTS  IN  THE  MIST

Giant Sequoias

Sequoia National Forest

California, USA

(The very distant trees are a b/w image transfer on silk organza, the middle range trees are from a commercial fabric wrapped in silk organza, the foreground trees are made with bark cloth. The undergrowth is my own hand dyed cottons scrunched and painted)

IRIDESCENT  CASCADE

Ruby Falls

Chattanooga, Tennessee

(The large pink back wall and the side purple walls are sunprinted dupioni silk, the top of the back wall is two of my own hand dyed cottons. The waterfall is painted with Jaquard Lumiere and white acrylic and overstitched with an iridescent white Sulky thread. While the cavern walls are not actually purple, in several photos I saw of them they were up-lighted with different colors)

REFUGE

Blue Caves

Zaknythos, Greece

All of the fabrics are my own hand dyed cottons except the purple-ish water under the rocks and a turquoise piece in the front rock wall which are sunprinted dupioni silk. Each rock face was also painted with some rust on the far rock wall.)

SURROUNDED

Antelope Canyon 

Arizona, USA

(The walls of Antelope Canyon are actually these vibrant colors in the summer when beams of sunlight penetrate the canyon the most. Winter colors are a bit more subdued. This canyon is called "the place where water runs through rock" by the Navajo.)

UNDER  AFRICAN  SKIES

Avenue of the Baobobs

Madagascar

(The sky is a commercial fabric but I chose it because it looked exactly like I wanted it to. I researched many baobob tree photos and the one that intrigued me was one where the trunk of the trees had a silver look. These tree trunks are a commercial satin fabric.The horizon green was quite a serendipity moment. It was cut from an impression on the very last piece of a certain breakdown screen print I have. I was sorry to see it go but it went out in style.I also used the cut out pieces of this for the bushes under the trees. The ground is one of my hand dyed cottons. The road is bark cloth and the leaves of the trees are thread lace. 

I and the 12 other Voyage artists for all over the globe will have all our EARTH pieces in a Special Exhibition for the Minnesota Quilters Association Quilt Show 2015 in Duluth in June! If you are there, please drop by and visit me at that exhibition!

So, that's it for now. The theme with Voyage for 2015 is Abstract Nature. I already have my inspiration images and the series of four pieces is titled "Forces of Nature" I have chosen an iceberg, lava flow, a hurricane and lightening

As promised...here it is...my first piece off my new easel!! It is made for a dear friend of mine. She will know what all it means. I haven't given it to her as yet. I hope she likes it.

BROKENNESS HEALS

It is a piece which a lot of meaning but I don't want to spoil the surprise for her...although I'm not sure if she even reads my blog!  She gave me very wise counsel in a time of great confusion and helped me deal with some very difficult issues. She's an amazing woman and I'm blessed to know her.

Anyway, I told you I would show you the finished piece and here it is!!

Another canvas is already on the easel so there will me more to come!

Back In The Studio

The first week in April until now I have had a physical issue that has basically kept me out of the studio, at least creatively. I did check e-mails on occasion. But yesterday, even though the last vestiges of the physical issue are still a problem, everything changed.

Those of you who are artists probably know what I'm talking about. Yesterday I felt driven to get back to the studio. It was an actual physical, gut level, tangible feeling!! Like hunger pangs are physical. It felt like I would burst if I didn't get out here today and begin something creative. And here I am.

The first order of creative business was to assembly my new easel!! Yep, since so much of my work now involves painted canvases, I was thrilled to find this adjustable easel for an amazing price a few months ago. This morning my husband helped me assemble it and I will be pulling out the paints the minute after I publish this post!!

I know I have a number of series pieces that are running behind schedule but I feel the need to do something not "required" of me....something a bit simple but it is important. It is a piece that "came to me" recently and I'm so excited to get it started!!

Here's my new toy!! (the little table beside it is for my brushes, paints, palettes, etc.) I'll keep you posted on the new piece as it progresses. It feels SOOOOOOO great to be back in my creative environment and have the energy to actually make art!

Three Days of Pounded Fabric

Starting today, I'll be spending three days explaining and demonstrating the technique for making pounded fabric.  It's fun and rather easy but the results are wonderful.

Drop by at the And Then We Set It On Fire blog and follow along! Here's a picture of all you will need to have to do this technique:

See ya there!

My April Show - Granite Area Arts Council

In January I was contacted by the Granite Area Arts Council about having a show in 2015. However, shortly after that, they asked if I could be available in April because they had a cancellation. Not a problem!!

We installed everything on April 3rd and it was ready for the Opening Reception on April 4th.  Here are a few photos from the Opening Reception.

K. K. Berge Gallery

Granite Area Arts Council
Granite Falls, Minnesota

April 4 - 29, 2014

 

The gallery is on the river. I'm so glad they included some beautiful views out of the windows!

And, of course, some wonderful wine!

The plates were even purple!

I have a journal I am using as my own guest book at my shows. The pages are already painted and marked. I ask people to sign their name and draw a picture or make some kind of mark in the book. I love the collection of names and art I find after the show is over.

I now have signed and numbered prints of some of my pieces available for purchase at the shows. It is a bit of an experiment.  We'll see how it works out.

It was a wonderful weekend...met some amazing people...drove through some beautiful countryside. Thank you to all the Granite Area Arts Council for inviting me and making me so welcomed!

One last thing. I found out that locally they have an Art Meander in October. If you are anywhere near there, it would be worth checking out.  I'm planning to go so I'll be posting about it later as well.

London Show 2014 - A Quick Look

Six of my pieces for the theme "Who Am I?" (the same that were in the Veldhoven show in October 2013) were in a show with our group just this past weekend.  Alas...I was unable to attend in person but one of our group took the following photos. (Thanks Gillian!)

The Festival of Textile Art

Here is the group exhibition 

(my six are just about in the center of this photo)

Another view

Here is a cropped view of just my pieces

Now these pieces will be coming home in June.