Painting Update...

I promise all the madness of buying our house will end....I say this mostly for my own sanity. ;)
Until then, I have updated the small oil paintings page on the website for those who might like to have a look. I am amazed (and grateful for) how fast these go! Let me know if you want one.

I am still working (slowly) in my glazing experiment. I have learned a lot, mostly about what not to do.

Here is the progress of our little friend, Mr Peacock....



Underpainting. I should have made the lights lighter. In general, the underpainting must be painted lighter on the value scale than it really appears because as glazes are added, the painting gets darker.



Too much medium.



I think I am getting it......although, still getting darker and losing highlights.



Where we are now. But...I like it. I will keep messing around with it until it gets to the magical "done."

Complimentary Encounter

Complimentary Encounter, Judy Coates Perez 12" x 12"

I made this little quilt for an exhibit that friends were putting together for the Dallas Quilt Show earlier this month. Some how in the midst of everything I forgot to post about it.

I started this little whole cloth quilt by drawing my design on paper and placing it under white cotton fabric and tracing it lightly with pencil onto the fabric. I traced the outline of the birds and butterfly onto freezer paper with a sharpie then cut them out and ironed them to the fabric to create a resist.

With a wide flat brush, I painted a wash of blue paint partially mixed with white paint over the fabric so that I would get streaks of light and dark blue. This would be very difficult to do if I was trying to paint around the birds and butterfly.

Because there is blue in the color green I knew that I could paint the stems of the plants over the blue background with out a problem.

Painting the orange on the birds would have been a problem because blue under the orange would have created a dull muddy orange instead of the bright clear orange on the birds breasts.

Lark Prize Bonanza!

While I have been buried in a pile of paper work this week, I received a wonderful distraction, a big box filled with books from Lark Publishing for my prize from the "Quilt it" contest. This is great there are several books in here that have been on my wish list for some time, so I look forward to a little time to peruse those lovely colorful pages.

In the mean time I am preparing kits, writing an article, modifying supply lists and preparing for my trip to New Zealand. I am so excited to be going on my first teaching adventure abroad! I will be teaching two workshops in Auckland for the quilt guild the last weekend of April and then traveling to Palmerston North for their Tote and Gloat Quilt Symposium the first weekend in May to lecture and teach. I wish I had a travel companion to explore the country side between these two locations, it looks extraordinary. I would love to drive and stop where ever I want to see things but I am afraid to drive on the opposite side of the road with no one to remind me to keep the car where it belongs. Maybe I will get brave...

On the Easel

Painting without reference material directly from imagination is my most favorite way to paint. My thought here is to integrate the bird figure with the chambered nautilus. You can see the shell starting at the beak.
I feel rather stuck on the stag, so I found a canvas I painted black awhile back and just started with an interesting eye.........and will work outward from there.

Painting Update

Here are the first glazes on the peacock. I am already finding myself impatient and wanting to paint directly. Hmmm.....may not be my thing, but I will stick it out and we will see, right?

I spent Sunday purging things for our move in April and found an old 40" x 30" painting of me with Vincent Van Gogh. I painted over it and started a new one today. The central focus will be a white red shouldered hawk that fills up most of the canvas. Let's see how it looks in such a large scale and how it evolves.

"Ki" is done....I just need an assistant to help me get an image...

An art escape

While in Wisconsin at the retreat last week, Frieda, Laura and I ran out at the end of the presentation on day one for an art fix. We managed to get to the Racine Museum of Art one hour before closing and had just enough time to take a quick spin through the building and see everything.

I loved these little ceramic birds by Annette Corcoran.

I was really drawn to the colors and oil painted kitchy travel images in this wooden "Highway Quilt" by Lisa Krivacka.

I really liked these whimsical garden themed objects. The metal can of peas sculpture is by Roberta Williamson and the cool thorny tools made from anodized aluminum are by Laura Marth.

I have only seen Diane Itter's work in books so it was really wonderful to see one up close. 

The Stag.....

Back to the stag today. I am still floating ideas.
Repainted some areas and did the tedious work of painting in the cracks in the antlers. Some scumbling in the sky.
I am trying not to over think here, as I am prone to do with paintings that have been long on the easel.

A new mixed media retreat you won't want to miss!

the Premier Mixed-Media Retreat in 2010, August 25-29, Rosemont, Ilinois

This fall Cloth Paper Scissors will host an event that will celebrate artistic expression through Mixed-Media unlike any other. CREATE with Cloth Paper Scissors is a new Retreat that will bring together inspiring artist instructors and enthusiastic participant artists of all levels for an exciting weekend of workshops, special contests & prizes, shopping opportunities, and the first ever Mixed Media Mixer. The Retreat will take place August 25 through 29, 2010, at the Rosemont Hotel just outside bustling Chicago.




• Learn interesting techniques &; make creative projects in Workshops taught by renowned mixed-media artists
 
• Shop for supplies and unique finished artworks at the Exciting Vendor Night
 
• Meet the Cloth Paper Scissors team, Instructors and new friends at the 1st ever CREATE Mixed-Media Mixer
 
• Participate in Artist challenges to win great prizes
 
• Celebrate Art at the CREATE with Cloth Paper Scissors Retreat

Check out the website for details and sign up for updates. 

Today's painting

American Crow
7" x 5"
oil on panel
$250, framed

New Painting Technique

Sometimes I can spend all my time painting and forget to continue my oil painting knowledge and technique. Oil paint is a rather complicated medium with a lot of "rules" that must be observed in order for the work to have any longevity. It can be a little overwhelming when it comes to grounds, mediums and paints and their proper use to create a lasting piece of art.

I spent some time this weekend refreshing myself by reading about oil paints and methods. I looked at some amazing artwork that really challenged me to stretch my approach.
In my work, a painting is created in a fairly direct manner, meaning I mix and apply the paint directly from the tube modeling it within the value scale until I achieve my vision.

I decided to try the indirect method with the peacock. I began by painting a highly detailed image in grays. This is called grisaille and will serve as the structure for the completed work. Once it is dry I will apply several glazes of color over the next weeks until I get what I want. In other words the colors are optically rather than physically mixed. It is much like stacking pieces of colored glass on top of each other to obtain a luminous result.
I will post images as a go along. Hang in with me and lets see how it goes.

Artist interviews- women who like to paint

Alma

Alisa Burke interviewed Alma Stoller, who often paints portraits of women with a tranquil moodiness, combining stitching and paper elements, translating everyday objects into artful images.

Then Alma interviewed Alisa, who paints with a lively floral graffiti style, Alisa's world is an open canvas ready to be transformed.

Alisa

St. Patricks day dinner a few days early

I cooked St. Patrick's day dinner on friday night, seems appropriate for Chicago, since the city has been celebrating all weekend as well. I have been making this dinner every year since this recipe was first published in Sunset magazine back in 1994. The majority of my favorite recipes have come from Sunset. I am so glad I found a link to the article here, so I don't have to write it all out. This is an absolute favorite in our house and it smells heavenly while it is cooking.

What makes this so incredibly good is the addition of lots of extra seasonings, malt vinegar and Guiness stout, mmm......

You can't skip the colcannon, basically mashed potatoes with sauted cabbage and green onions

Yummy soda bread loaded with raisins, currants and caraway. I love this meal, we eat the leftovers for breakfast with eggs for days.

Update.....

We have been in the process of buying a house, and though I have been able to do some painting this week, that process has taken most of my focus. We did indeed get the house we offered on Sunday. I am surprised at how exhausting house hunting can be. From Sunday to Wednesday night was a roller coaster. Hence the wiped out feeling, I suppose.

I am really excited about how "Ki" is coming along and will post an image soon. I started a new painting, too, and I am still mulling over the stag painting.

For the weekend I will leave you with Jeremy Geddes. His paintings are the perfect marriage of technique to creativity. Not an easy task.


"The White Cosmonaut"
c. Jeremy Geddes

Alyson Stanfield Retreat

I am finally catching up with enough things to sit down and make a blog post about the fabulous Artist Marketing Retreat with Alyson Stanfield.

Alyson brought lots of books and CD's with her wonderful marketing materials to help guide you and inspire you to get moving with putting yourself out there as a working artist. We had two full days of presentations filled with valuable information.

Our fearless leader Laura Wasilowski makes announcements while Alyson sets up her presentation.

We also had lots of times to chat with friends and share information on breaks and after our day was through.

The lovely Frieda Anderson and Anne Lullie (below)

We had a nice turn out of 50 attendees from several midwest states, many from PAQA and several photographers, weavers and jewelry artists.

The retreat was held at the Sienna Center in Racine, Wisconsin on lake Michigan. Unfortunately it rained most of the time we were there, but the weather cleared just before we left and I had to take a walk out to see the lake.

This a view looking back at the Sienna Center with a labyrinth planted in the grass, if I wasn't in such a rush to get back to Chicago and my kids with all the afternoon traffic ahead of me, I would have loved to take some time to walk it.

The lake was lovely with waves crashing on the beach, it looked and sounded just like the ocean. I am a coastal girl, spending most of my life close to the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, so that is a sound that is so comforting to me.

Now I have to get started on making my Irish dinner of Corned beef and cabbage, I have a knitting group meeting next wednesday, so I am celebrating early. I have a friend from Austin staying with me over the weekend to share the meal with us this year.

3 of Swords

I finished the quilt, except for the sleeve, I will be stitching that on over the next day or so while I am at the PAQA sponsored Alyson Stanfield artist marketing retreat in Wisconsin.

Before hand stitching, the red painted batting was machine stitched with two threads threaded through the needle to get a bolder weight line from fluorescent colored threads. After I put the backing fabric on and the machine quilting was done, I used embroidery floss, with all 6 strands, to make big bold stitches around the machine stitching on the batting.

To create the stitched graphic line drawing of the 3 of swords, I drew the line art in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out using the tiling option in the print dialog box on 12 sheets of paper. I taped the papers together into one large image and then traced the image onto tracing paper with a sharpie. I pinned the tracing paper in place on the quilt and stitched with a straight stitch over the lines to transfer the design. After tearing away the paper, I used satin stitch "to draw" the bold black lines onto the quilt.

See you thursday...

Free shipping on Blurb books

Blurb is having a special for the next couple weeks on free shipping when you order blurb books by March 22.

USD $ promo code: WESHIP
GBP £ promo code: WESHIP2
EUR € promo code: WESHIP3

There are many self published books being made on Blurb by artists these days. Here's a few:

Painted Threads, mixed media textile art
by Judy Coates Perez
The first half of the book is a collection of images of my art quilts with corresponding artist statements and the second half is mixed media textile work combining paper, fabric, paint, metal and stitching.

BIRDWATCHING a metal clay adventure
Vickie Hallmark compiles a themed set of her mixed-media art jewelry, hand-formed from metal clay and glass. Images and descriptions of silver and bronze jewelry, accented with gemstones, enamel and hand-painted glass, all feature bird images original to the artist. The high resolution photographs alternate with famous bird-themed quotations.

Copper On, Copper Off an electroforming adventure
Based on her popular on-line tutorial, Vickie Hallmark presents an authoritative manual for copper electroforming onto glass beads. Topics covered include theory, equipment, design, and operation, as well as troubleshooting and sources. Illustrated with dozens of one-of-a-kind electroformed lampwork beads, including her signature carved copper encasements.

Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life
By Virginia A. Spiegel
"Wild at the Edges" is woven from the intertwined threads of writing, photography, adventuring, and making art. "I share my inspiration and influences as well as what’s beautiful and significant in my creative life."



art. stitch. life. works 2006-2009
By Kelli Nina Perkins
"I decided that it would be nice to have a compendium of the last few years' worth of artwork at a glance, so I knocked together a 194 page book filled with art. This represents at least my favorite, if certainly not all my work"