Fall in Iowa

The clouds were really wild looking when I took this photo, the wind turbines were a nice contrast to the soy beans.

Website update

I updated my website this past weekend, streamlining with the focus being on Prairie.  Since I work in several mediums I decided recently that it would be best to focus on one subject for now and explore the subject in depth, I'm very happy with this decision as it has relieved some stress and my work now looks cohesive. http://www.kbaxterpackwood.com/

Rusted Grid

Rust Pattern Making

John cut salvaged scaffolding walk ways for me to use in my rust dyeing projects, one cannot have enough rusty things.

Goldenrod Dye Pot

Goldenrod out in the field.

One pounds worth of fresh goldenrod plant tops will dye quite a bit of silk fabric quite nicely.

A close up of the blossoms.

Natural Dyed Silk Yo-Yo's

Yo-Yo's made from my natural dyed silk fabrics, I picked up the Jumbo Yo-Yo maker today and it's a very nice addtion to the sizes I had already.

Sketch Book - Motifs

I made my own sketch book journal to fill with various patterns and motifs I was finding around the house, this one is from a stencil I'm in love with.

Journal Madness

Large journal cover

Small journal cover

Gold motif

Inspiration

Basket and Vines

A shot of my compost bin, this old slat basket has been propped on the post for years, this year it had vines growing in and around it.

Poppies - WIP

Found my long panels that I started some 4 years ago now and am working towards finishing them!  This is what I'm up too whilest I wait for John to finish my next set of raised panel board frames so I can work on my Winter encaustic series.

Quilt National and Well That's Life

I missed the deadline for QN again!  I know I know the actual deadline is tomorrow but in order for my entry to make it there tomorrow I would have had to have shipped it, overnight no less, yesterday!  How about that for logic!

Sandstone No. 4 WIP

Anyway, because I was busy plugging away on my latest body of work, for my solo show, I fell behind way behind.  Absolutely no one's fault but my own, that and I'm seriously in a cow and field encuastic painting mode, the need to switch gears back to fiber just wasn't happening.  So the above piece is STILL in progress, I have three more pieces in my Sandstone series in various stages of progression, waiting on the fabrics to rust and compost to the desired level of doneness is also taking forever with this summers crazier than ever weather.

Solo Exhibition Set Up

Encaustic Panels EVERYWHERE!

Encuastic Setup

Set up for working on two panels simultaneously.

Girls of Summer - Solo Exhibition

HUH???

You might be wondering what I'm babbling about, and for good reason.  Yes I did have a solo show coming up still do, I set up on this coming Monday,  it was to be called She was Third Class.  Well I started having problems with the pieces I was making for starters given the current state of the economy researching third class social status for women in America was becoming, well depressing!  Couple this with John being very ill, massive flooding which meant I was out of my studio for two whole weeks, and that everytime I started to work on the subject cows kept coming to mind, I decided to shelve this project for awhile.  I want to approach it from a satirical point of view, not a depressing point of view. 

In come the Girls of Summer... but the Girls of Summer is about "Cows".  Yep out in the pasture grazing on grass is my happy place!  I love cows, they make me smile and quite frankly if you've ever watched them long enough, they will also crack you up.  Having spent one long hot summer milking 300 cows twice a day, on a 600 dairy cow farm, taught me a LOT about cows and cow humor.

So enter the "Girls".  I'm still doing encaustic for this show, very large panels in fact that will require some torch work over the weekend.  If I did the math correctly the 10 pieces I am currently working on will just fit onto the one wall. 

More later with pictures ;-)

WIP - Girls of Summer

WIP - Sample Scroll

Scroll has been waxed with encuastic medium and round one of heating has been done.  I think I will do layer two and round two of heating with an iron NOT a heat gun!

Wet Studio Clean Up

The niche grave yard!

Encaustic painting area has become a niche holding station.

WIPS- niches in various stages of completion.

More niches!

I cleaned up a bit for this last push, it'll be a huge mess within hours if not sooner ;-)

WIP - Sample Scroll

I ironed freezer paper to the back of the scroll.