Changing Gears

In my last post , I mentioned that I had taken an online painting class offered by Carla Sonheim. Here are some of the results of my explorations following the class (IOW art I made for show/sale, not as part of the classwork, but incorporating techniques I learned in the class).

Underwater Fantasy I  12” x 12” on birch plywood panel.  Watercolor, gesso, charcoal and acrylic ink.  Currently on display at Arts West in Athens Ohio through September 2. 

Lotus Dreams  12” x 12” on birch plywood panel.  Watercolor, gesso, charcoal and acrylic ink.  Private collection.

Crown of Thorns, 12” x 12” on birch plywood panel.  Rice paper, gesso, watercolor, charcoal and acrylic ink.  Currently on display at Arts West in Athens Ohio through September 2.

Who Needs Fronds, 12” x 12” on birch plywood.  Watercolor, gesso, charcoal and acrylic ink.  Private collection.

Spiral Dance, 12” x 12” on birch plywood.  Watercolor, gesso, charcoal, India ink and acrylic ink.  Private collection.

Reaching for the Sun, 12” x 12” on birch plywood.  Watercolor, gesso, charcoal, acrylic ink and collage.  Currently on display at Arts West in Athens, Ohio.

Tropical Treat, 12” x 12” on birch plywood.  Collage, gesso, watercolor, charcoal and acrylic ink.  Currently on display at Arts West in Athens, Ohio.

I really enjoy working on the small panels of wood and letting myself see what images take form instead of forcing them to come.  Currently I’m working a bit larger, on canvas with acrylics, but I am maintaining the same spirit of exploration and fun that I found in creating these works.

My show of new work, The Mermaid’s Tale, is on exhibit at Arts West, in Athens, Ohio, through September 2.  If you are in the area, I invite you to check it out.  Most pieces are for sale, contact me for more information, and check out my Etsy shop.

Challah Collaboration

 

I am working in collaboration with our local Hillel and PassionWorks artists, on some Challah covers for show and sale May 5th.  Students worked with PassionWorks artists to create colorful, unique challah covers, and then they were turned over to me to enhance with stitching and to finish up.  Each piece is one of a kind.  They all measure approximately 22” x 22”, so they can cover a lot of challah.

Here is the first one that I’ve finished.

You can see how pretty the colors are.  Each piece is different, but all are colorful and fun.  I stitched the outlines using Kreinik gold machine embroidery thread.

You can see the detail here.  Once this was done, I had to figure out how to finish the edges of the burlap.

Here is a picture of  basting stitches I put in as a sewing guide for the stay stitch and decorative cording.

I zigzagged over the basting stitch to keep the burlap from unravelling.

Then I zigzagged some Kreinik #16 braid over the zigzags, to add extra sparkle.  You can see where I also did that on the edge of the painting.

Here’s the finished piece.  I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Now to do this at least 28 more times!

Show Prep

In addition to my show at the Casa Nueva restaurant here in town, and my group show with the Innovative Art Alliance at the Parkersburg Art Center, on Sunday I am hanging a show at Donkey Coffee and Espresso.  Here are a few of the pieces I will be featuring.

 

The background of this piece is painted on Fabriano cold press 300lb watercolor paper, while the monkey is painted on Arches cold press 140lb watercolor paper. It measures 30” x 22”

This piece is painted on 140lb Arches cold press watercolor paper.  I happened onto a really sweet clearance sale at Michael’s last summer and was able to get 22 sheets of this wonderful paper for around ten dollars. 

I am planning on having a few more of these pieces completed before we hang on Sunday, so I’m off to the studio.