Autumn is Finally Here!

I love Autumn, I truly do. The lack of humidity, the cool crisp air, fresh apples, and pumpkins everywhere, and most importantly my allergies are starting to calm down.

The part I love the most,  however, is the colors of the leaves. Reds, golds, oranges, and brilliant yellows, and everywhere!

So it's no surprise that I created art cloth show casing these colors in my Colors of the Earth and Pretty Pigments online classes.

If you'd like to capture the beauty of nature's natural palette using natural earth pigments then join me in my newest class Colors of the Earth.  Class starts on October 17th!

Color Inspiration Fall 2015

My neighbors maple tree is a brilliant orange color this year, last year it was a brilliant red.

Two Red Pears

Two fresh red pears 

I asked for three but it's the end of the fresh pear season here so I'm doing good to have gotten two!

These are not as red as the Barletts I had earlier in the season, these are rudier and are more in keeping with Pantones color for 2015 "Marsala".  I also am quite enamored with the greenish blush on the large pear and the stripes on the smaller pear.

Since I have only two pears my original idea is well, will no longer work.  So I'm playing with these to see how I want to use them in my work.  Next up some thumbnail sketches and I think I will slice one open it could get interesting!

More Pear Therapy

Red Pear No. 1

This year there have been plenty of red pears available at the local grocery stores. Today's simple painting is of a red pear, or I should say the memory of the red pear I ate.

Red Pear No. 2 Detail 2 from my pear stencil series.

Birds in Tree with Madder Lac

Madder lac natural dye extract screen printed, using deconstructed screen printing techniques with my Birds in Tree Inverse Stencil, onto cochineal dyed cotton fabric.

Birds in Tree Inverse Stencil taped to the front of a traditional silk screen for deconstructed screen printing!  Stay tuned for more on this technique!!!

Learn more about these techniques in my eBook and Video series 

Mark Making with Nature!!! 

One of those Moments

When I decided to lose the red.

And was oh so glad I did!  More later am off to look at my embellishments cache while the first layer of gold paint dries.

WIP Red Crow

The madder lac dyed silk organza is much darker than these photos depict, the stencil sketch of the crow barely peaking through due to the lighting.  I managed to stitch an outline of the crow in a coordinating reddish heathered wool thread from Aurifil Threads.

I've decided that this smallish piece will now become part of a larger piece I'm working on for my upcoming solo show, as crows and ravens have always been a prominent icon out here on the western prairie and plains.

Irish Rose Sample

I haven't decided upon the orientation yet, I found this Irish Rose medallion in my stash and decided it needed to have it's story told sooner than later.  Off to add more stitching.

Red Oak Leaves

The leaves on my red oak are especially brilliant this year, I suspect it is due to the late season rains after a long hot drought this summer.  I will make some bundles using the bright yellow leaves this week and will report back on the colors achieved.

Inspiration

Inspiration for a future stitched piece!

Looking for a Bead Source

Ok, am looking for more of these beads since the shop that sold them went out of business. 11/0 seed beads in an olive lined in ocher and a transparent olive lined in ocher, transparent brick red lined and a transparent yellow lined.

WIP - Crown on Yellow 052913

Almost done, I have a few spots that need beads on the main body and then I'll bead the edge with black beads.

WIP- Crow on Yellow 052213

Crow body almost completed.

My crow had a red spot, so I decided to preserve this bit with some rose to reddish coloured beads.

Detail showing the contrast between the black matte beads, black beads, and irridescent beads.

Snow Pattern Inspiration

Red Oak

Some much needed snow fell today, the red oak is beautiful!

Red Ochre

Combining archival photos with new and found footage, Red Ochre is a personal, impressionistic rendering of what it's like growing up Mi'kmaq in Newfoundland, while living in a culture of denial.

Hoodoos No. 5 aka Hot Flash

I could enter this piece into an exhibition as it stands but there's so much more I want to do to this piece so it hangs on my studio wall for another day.

Hoodoos No. 5
Natural dyed silk fabrics, batting, machine stitched.

What is Old is New Again!

I used to draw and paint with these paints almost exclusively as a child growing up, so imagine my joy that Hobby Lobby was carrying these as kits.  I asked, no most probably they won't be carrying the single tubes, which is a shame because I ReALLY want a tube of red violet paint. 

I'm hoping that this will be the anwser to my fabric marker woes, I can control a paint brush but the fabric markers bleed, bleed, and bleed some more, and the marker tips themselves... well don't get me started!

Anyway, I will report back as I will be using the black color, and probably exclusively, as to how these interact with natural dyed fabrics.

Oak

The oaks are turning color slower than normal this year, drought related I'm sure, but finally they are turning! 

Maple Tree Inspiration

The neighbors  maple had very little in the way of yellow and orange on it this year.