Findings #6

What a find! A Spoonbill feather on the beach. Have you ever noticed how similar leaves and feathers are?

Findings #5

Water oak leaves and some southern red cedar, stitched and with some watercolor. What will I find today?

Findings #4

These are two different Florida epiphytes - one is Spanish moss, which is lush and beautiful right now. These were in Lake Seminole Park. Some curlicues still need to be stitched down, then I'll add the watercolor.

Findings #3

The whole page of stitched live oak leaves, with its watercolor ground.

And another gorgeous sea grape leaf, with very different colors from the first two I chose. Part of the leaf tore as it dried; I clipped it away with scissors.

Findings #2

 Leaves from a walk at Lake Seminole Park, with their watercolor and thread embellishments.

Some of the nine live oak leaves on one page. My mom asked me why I was sewing all these leaves onto my journal pages. I had to think about how to answer that. I realized there are three reasons.
1. I enjoy  looking closely at these lovely objects.
2. I love doing this kind of embroidery.
3. I want a daily practice and trust that it will lead me somewhere if I just keep doing it.

Findings #1

 Finds from my first beach walk of this Christmas trip to Madeira Beach, Florida. Two sea grape leaves, combined with embroidery threads and watercolors.

Luscious colors, yes?

Heart Art

Our co-op gallery, NorthWind Fine Arts, opened our Valentine show last night. Three other galleries in Saranac Lake had openings as well, and I got to each one. Some pretty fine work all around. 

Ginger Leaf Love

Morning Glory Love

My contribution to our group show included these two mixed media collages. I used photographs of my once-was garden, fixed them up a bit with Paint.net (very cool editing program), and printed them on sumi paper. The sumi paper is great for collage. It runs through my printer beautifully with no carrier sheet and adheres perfectly to the acrylic-painted canvas with acrylic matte medium.

And Valentine cards! Who doesn't need Valentine cards?! In addition to selling my cards at the gallery, I have printed several designs from my original watercolor cards to sell at Saranac Lake's Community Store. Some samples: