The 2017 BIG little Show

Last week, I spent some time preparing a whole different set of work (from my usual) for the annual holiday show and sale at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts. Little framed botanical contact (or eco) prints. White frames,  a little green handmade paper - I'm happy with them!  The show opens on Friday, November 17th, and the opening is always a great opportunity to see far-flung artist friends from across the northern Adirondacks.

New Directions

 Last week I delivered a bunch of my new eco printed silk scarves to the Lake Placid Center for the Arts downtown gallery (soon to be called Gallery 46). I've learned a lot about eco printing (a.k.a. botanical contact printing) in the past year. I also recently learned about ColorHue dyes. What a great combination!
 

Here is Jon Donk, wonderful Gallery 46 manager, holding a couple of my pillows with silk covers. I love the string resist marks and the eucalyptus on the left pillow; the right one was printed with oak leaves then shifted into another dimension with ColorHue dye. And you can see a lovely mauve scarf on  the counter, also transformed with the dye. I'll tell you all about the dyes and how I discovered them another time, as I relive my wonderful stay in St. Petersburg, Florida in March. So much creativity and energy there!

Below are some eco printed cards I made during my stay. I dipped the whole cards in the leftover turquoise dye (from that pillow above). It not only gave a nice light color on the white card - it intensified the original pigments on the card. Magical Stuff!

A Deeper Sense - Doing the Work

For a few weeks, I've been getting the parts of my mixed media interpretation of the Smitty Creek watershed project together. The botanical contact printed silk panels have been hanging on my design wall, as I added bits of blue fabric to signify the important of the water component in this ecosystem.

The next component was the textured background on which I wanted to print my photographs and other images. I used a non-woven synthetic fabric stabilizer (also know as interfacing), on which I spread fiber paste, an acrylic product that contains small fibers that create a stable texture when dry. I have to be careful to lay on a thin layer so the resulting material will be accepted by my inkjet printer. (Sometimes I use molding paste instead of fiber paste.) When the paste was completely dry, I sanded it thoroughly to remove any small peaks and extra rough areas.

The next step was the application of thin washes of acrylic paint to the stabilizer. For this piece, I used both medium brown and blue-grey paints. I accidentally applied more paint than was compatible with my need to have my photos show up fairly well, so I rinsed parts of it under running water in my big studio sink before the paint dried.

More to come - LOTS more!

Colorful Threads

"Spinning Sun" by Madeleine Appell

 The Pink House Gallery is currently showing "Colorful Threads." It's all fiber art and includes the art quilting of Madeleine Appell, the silk paintings of Lynne Taylor, and the embellished screen prints and eco (or botanical contact) prints of Cris Winters. Lots of fun smaller art and objects for sale as well.

"A New Day Dawning" by Madeleine Appell

"Seascape" by Madeleine Appell

"Up Spear Hill" by Lynne Taylor

"Sunset on the Lake" by Lynne Taylor

"Uplake Twilight" by Lynne Taylor

"Spring Enhanced" by Cris Winters

Detail from "Peony Leaf Fantasy" by Cris Winters

While this exhibit is in place, I'm preparing for a Fiber and Mixed Media Art Juried Show that opens at the Pink House Gallery on August 5th. More information and an application on my Juried Show 2016 page.