Transformation Underway

The image above shows the textured stabilizer I made with my edited stream photo printed on top. I make this printing substrate by coating medium to heavy weight stabilizer (a.k.a. interfacing) with either acrylic molding paste (like art-grade spackling compound) or - in this case - fiber paste. I spread on a thin layer with an old credit card. When it dried, I lightly sanded it then painted on thin layers of acrylic paint thinned with matte medium. I mixed some pearl medium into the paints this time for some snowy luminescence.

After the paint dried thoroughly, I ran the stabilizer through my fancy inkjet printer to print my photo, now transformed with contrast, saturation, and hue enhancements with Paint.net - my favorite image editing software (easy, free, on-line, although I send a donation about once year, since I love it!). The image was then trimmed and deconstructed. Ready for for layering and stitching.

Any questions so far? Guess what happens next!

Now You See It

Earlier this week, I went for walk to see for myself whether the lake near my studio was still frozen after all the ridiculously warm rainy weather. Yes, still solid. But other waters were flowing, including this tiny stream next to the dirt road. The off-balance cruciform shape appealed to me.

You are invited to follow along as I take this plain photograph on a transformation journey!

Brand New Book-lets

 These little works of paper art are at my gallery (NorthWind Fine Arts at 11 Woodruff Street in Saranac Lake) now, ready to become gifts. (I call them book-lets because they are mostly little - kind of like the Golden Crowned Kinglet. It's a sweet little bird found all year in our local boreal forests, and called a "bird-let"  by Roger Tory Peterson many years ago because of its diminutive size.)

Most of the books are about 4 inches by 5 inches. Some slightly larger; some smaller. Many have inserts of lovely papers (for special notes).

 I'll have lots of these book-lets for sale at my Open Studio too on Sunday, December 14th from 10 to 4, as well other little art works.

Let me know if you want to visit my studio at Breezy Acres Lane, Saranac Lake NY. I'll send you directions AND the current road conditions. (Four wheel drive is highly desirable :-)

Cooking the Sugar Plums

.... metaphorically speaking. I'm making sweet little things to offer for sale in my gallery and in my studio this holiday season. (I'd also be delighted to sell them to blog readers who contact me about specific items.) My studio will be open on Saturday, December 14th from 10am to 4 pm. Lots of lovely art for gifts, and I'll have previews of many items here on my blog over the next week.

In addition to the packages of 4 art cards (3 different themes: Watercolors in Provence, Fresh Produce, and Spring Flowers), I am packaging up many little blank books I made over the past few months. Wonderful to use for journals, trip books, and even shopping lists.

To see the next fun previews the easy way, just click on "Subscribe To." My posts will head straight to your inbox! How cool is that?!

From Final Product to Beginning Image

 Here is a detail from a piece in my new series based on a day's paddling in October with my Gratitude Girls buddies. After paddling and carrying our boats from Polliwog Pond to Follensby Clear Pond to Horseshoe Pond, we reached Little Polliwog Pond. Karen had told us it was the Place of the Magical Bog, and she did not exaggerate! We spent a couple of hours there exploring the pitcher plants, autumn-hued waterlily and watershield leaves, ripe wild cranberries, and the brilliant marsh vegetation set off by the dark spruce forest on the barely-drier borders.

The photo at the right shows the process, described backwards from the finished piece. I printed my edited and cropped photo on cotton fabric (with its freezer paper carrier sheet). Then I tore the fabric into strips of varying widths and fused them to my stabilized background fabric one by one. With dark blue thread, I stitched the strips down. The orange fabric and the printed pitcher plant image were added, and I did some free motion stitching on the image to emphasize the plant shapes.

You can see that the original photo for this piece was not great. I cropped and used the "contrast" and "saturation" functions in my photo editing program, Paint.Net, to turn it into a more colorful and interesting image.

I'm working on several more pieces based on my photos and memories of that beautiful Autumn day on the water. Next photo:

New Summer Lovelies

"Sprouts"

Since my last post, I have been doing lots experimenting, framing, and watercoloring. To the left is the results of one of my spring fiber (plus) experiments, now matted matted, framed, and hanging at our NorthWind Fine Arts gallery in Saranac Lake.

And below is one of the little bird collages made from the contested neck tie :-) (See my April posts.)

"Red-eyed Owl"

Yet another is the beginning of the piece I made for the "Life on the Lakes" exhibit (now showing at the Paul Smith's College VIC). I made a watercolor background, then inkjet printed over the dried paint. (It's an image of McKenzie Pond, showing McK Mountain way back there.) I stamped borders along the top and bottom, then added some collage elements over this. More about this piece later, with images of the additions I made. It was great fun to put together!

Preliminary view of "My Mountain Pond"

 Now though, I am off to Moravia, NY to assist the wonderful, fabulous Oiseaux Sisters with their week-long mixed media workshop. I'll be posting some processes from this week for sure! I feel like I just absorb the Creative Artist Mind while I'm with Caroline, Susan, and their creative students.

Provence en Plein Air - Part II

Cafe au Lait a Les Deux Garcons

Pepper & Plums

 Here are two more watercolor sketches from my Provence trip.  The Café Les Deux Garcons is in Aix-en-Provence - had to go there for its long interesting history of hosting many famous artists and others. I spent a pleasant hour there watching people and enjoying the atmosphere.

The Pepper & Plums is a sketch from my purchases at Le Marché De Cassis - one of the most beautiful open air markets imaginable. These luscious fruits were consumed shortly after the paint dried.

Both of these watercolors are in my new exhibit at The Left Bank Café, opening on Sunday, May 5th (4 to 5 PM) in Saranac Lake. On the left bank of the Saranac River. It will be a lovely party, especially if my young French-accordian player friend can come!