Chevrons in the Fog

 

A rather cold, wet, foggy weekend here, that was filled with extended family, cooking, a couple of walks,

and the beginnings of a new small painting.  I also managed just a smidgen of block printing on some denim from an old pair of jeans that were on their way out the door to a charitable reseller.  Pretty pleased with it, actually, because the "drape" of the soft denim is wonderful.  Of course, you wouldn't find the periodic horizontal marks an a piece printed by a master printer, but the fact of the matter is, I like the interest they add to the pattern.  Our family has consumed so much denim over the years.  Lot's of potential. . . .

Looking for a little inspiration this week? Watch this 4-minute video on Nora Fok, an English artist,originally from Hong Kong, who was shortlisted for the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize in 2007.  Nora creates extraordinary one-off jewelry pieces from plant parts and micro-filament that blur the boundaries between textile art, jewelry and sculpture.   

Hope you're able to fit some creativity into the week ahead!                          

An Appointment with a Professional Photographer

 "Sienna Square"

 24 x 36

"San Francisco"

30 x 40

I've been concentrating on putting the final touches on several paintings in preparation for my first appointment with a professional photographer.  (Funny how a commitment can do wonders to build a fire under you.)  Yesterday, my sister and I packed close to thirty of my works on canvas into our two cars and headed over to the photographer's warehouse-like studio.  

Of course, this very experienced photographer has his system down to a science, but still, the whole process took about three and a half hours with lots of moving around the space as my sister and I grouped paintings by size and orientation, and he set up the background and lighting, hammered nails into the wall, and moved his tripod back and forth.   After each grouping of similarly-sized paintings was photographed, the photographer and I would move back to his computer and work with adjusting the hue, saturation and lightness in Photoshop, while my sister,-- thank you very much -- packed paintings back into the cars.  I came away with both tiff and jpeg images of each painting; some that were uncropped (i.e., showing the background) for gallery owners, and some that were cropped to show the image, only.  The photographer also created a folder of files formatted to 4"x 6", ready to be printed as postcards. One the best parts of the whole deal??  Images of all of my paintings are now easy to find in two folders on my computer, which is such an improvement over my existing hodgepodge filing system!  Such a time saver for me!

Anyway, the above paintings are not recent, but I've never been able to capture good photographs of them. It's so nice to have these!

Portland is heavy with cloud cover and rain, and lush with foliage and flower.  A nap would be perfect!

Happy weekend!

"Bands" In Progress

"Bands" in progress

24 x 30

This painting has existed in my mind for several months now, so I'm happy that it is finally underway.  I'm attempting to achieve some areas of graphic clarity and some of receding vageuness in the composition, which is a current goal that I have in mind for my paintings in general.

In keeping with the palette of this painting, our yard is ablaze with luscious rugosa roses in various shades of pink and cream.   Their scent is heavenly. . . especially in the evening.

Thank you for visiting!