Tag Archives: painting

2015 The Big Summer Project

Well, this blog has been dormant for YEARS! As has my artwork. This is the summer to change that!

Basement room in progress

Basement room in progress

I haven’t made artwork in years and part of that is because my studio space has not been easy to use. The attic has been problematic for a number of reasons: too hot or too cold, depending on the season; only access is by ladder which my knees can’t handle anymore; and the dogs hate it when I am up there. So not that our basement roommate has moved on we are repurposing many of the rooms. Along with that a deep clean and repainting as things are moved around.

I already finished painting and cleaning the basement room. Next we move Shawn’s books and computer down there. Then I will temporarily move the bedroom to the spare room to allow for cleaning and painting of the bedroom. Next I will do the same for the living room. Finally, I will paint and clean the spare room and move my studio from the attic.

Part of the studio move will require new furniture, including a fabric cutting island. I will also sort and pare down supplies to focus on fiber arts. I am hopeful and excited that the new studio arrangement will allow me to work more often and more easily on my art.

As part of this, I am taking an online class called “craft cleanse” which has assignments geared towards clulling and sorting supplies to make your studio space more usable. I plan to blog as I go along with these assignments and to show the progress on the overall project.

Meanwhile I am pinning lots of ideas on Pinterest.  http://pinterest.com/shebaduhkitty/studio-remodel-2015/

 

 

My House through the years

The Newest Color of Paint

The NEW purples

and a side view. I LOVE driving up the block to see this 🙂

2009Junehouse003

A horrible in-between with purple and green still needing to be painted over, this was during the painting contract from Hell.

Purple House 2007

The Purple and Blue when it was finally horribly done. (The paint contractor basically did a bad job then walked out before it was done and disappeared!)

Purple and Blue 2007

Original Colors when I bought it, with the old chain link fence too.

Original House Colors

and a side view

Original House Colors

Playing Favorites: abstraction

Continuing with Seth’s Playing Favorites series I first pick my least favorite to contrast with my favorite.

~not~ my favorite

Abstract art is harder than you might think. I know that I thought that it was pretty easy. You know those paintings that you see and thing “my kid could do that” but then I had to make an abstract painting for an EBSQ Challenge. After creating this painting, I had a much better appreciation for people that primarily create in the abstract. Seth features some pretty good work here, so check out what the experts choose. Playing Favorites: abstraction 

Since then I realised that when I stick to collage, I am not so bad at abstract art. Although I noticed I do tend to stick with the monochromatic theme. The piece below is a combination of papers, fabrics and ribbons sewn together in big random sheets. It was then trimmed to book page size and reassembled in blocks. It is both random and organized, which is what I think makes up a good abstract piece. Of course I can’t resist getting in some text pieces.

recycledsin.jpg

Sinful

Walk on This?

Floor Cloth

My final day of ArtFest 2008 was Judy Wise’s floor cloth class. It was not a first choice (I wanted the waxy layers one).  I was pretty envious of what I saw coming out of some of the classes that had been my top choices. Plus the room was tiny and therefore SO crowded that it was just uncomfortable. Here we were painting large canvases and the table space we each had was barely the size of our canvas. We had to watch out for paints and elbows, while storing most of our supplies on the floor. I held my paint palette in my hand most of the time, which was tiring, something I am not used to at all. Despite what could have been a horribly bad day… I got into the right head space, adapted for my needs in order to enjoy the time to paint. Of course I injected collage elements… it is impossible for paper to stay OUT of my work.

Judy went over some hints about prepping your canvas to be a floor cloth. She gave out a lovely color pamphlet and showed us a bunch of her canvases. Then we got right to work. I know I was tired and overstimulated at this point in the retreat, but I don’t feel that I really learned anything new in this class.  I only spent a few hours on this before it felt finished, and I was FINISHED. I cleaned up early and went back to nap. Since I haven’t painted in this size before, I was actually impressed with my final project. This piece started my ideas for my current series about journeys.

I won’t be walking on this! I do have a bunch of unstretched canvas that might someday become a floor cloth. For now this one will be named “Girl Traveller“