Up early

I am up early on a Saturday morning. That's rare for me, as I tend to be up half the night and sleep late. We have a pheasant who is marching around the perimeter of our house, raising a racket! I have taken many pictures of him, but his days are numbered if he dosn't stop waking me up, after I finally fall asleep!

I decided to pay attention to, "different birds," since I was up, and started painting some seagulls from a digital photo that I have taken. On quiltart, we are talking about working in a series. I guess I work in a, "beach series," so perhaps this will be a piece to go along with my Jellyfish. I took the photos on the same beach. I guess fish, seashells and birds of a feather, should flock together!

Scotia's Videos

My email address is derived from the town that I grew up in; scotiagirl@metrocast.net. This weekend, while looking over a website on Synesthesia, recommended by my daughter, Elizabeth, I found a vodcast video that I have seen before. It is an interview with Georgia O"Keefe and the video is outstanding. I have added a gadget at the bottom of my page for you all to click on and enjoy, hense the term, Scotia's videos.

Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens by Patricia Lynne Duffy is a book that my daughter found at the library, which is our first introduction to the term synesthesia. I am just starting the book myself, but it looks like a very informative read for anyone, but especially for artists.

This has been a great weekend, so far. I did a short paddle in my kyak with my daughter, and got pictures of nesting loons, and then some walking on Hampton Beach and Seabrook Beach, to look through tidepools and enjoy the summer sun! All of this becomes more ideas for fiber art!

Blue Jellyfish finished

I just completed my blue jellyfish piece and am sewing on the sleeve and binding. My husband is making a frame for the original picture. Hopefully, I will send it off some place to be displayed. I always wish that I could send the photo and the fiber piece to a show, so viewers could see the inspiration behind the piece.

Adding Thread

My fiber art pieces usually start with a digital photo that I have taken. When we were on Hutchinson Island in Florida, at Christmas, the beach was awash with blue jellyfish. Their long blue tendrils spread out over the sand, and you really had to watch where you stepped! I took some great photos, now I'm working at turning one into fiber art.

Monthly SAFA meeting

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of Seacoast Area Fiber Artists, a small group of fiber artists from southern Maine and NH, that I am lucky enough to belong to. The meeting was in Old Orchard Beach, at the home of Kathy Angel Lee, and we were trying some NeoColor Water Pastels, that Kathy has worked with. These pastels were new to me. It is always fun to be able to, " Try before you buy," new art supplies. We brought a piece of PDF white fabric, or something else that we had on hand, and just sketched a design and tried a little blending with water. I reached for the, "fleshy tones," and tried sketching a face. I want to add people to my pieces, and I am always looking for another product that will work.
I like these pastels. They blended well with a light touch. Now I want to buy a big set! On the way home from the meeting, I stopped at The Art Mart in Biddeford and bought a few colors. i am now thinking of the colors that I didn't buy, so more things are added to my, "wish list."
We talk on the www.quiltart.net list about the fabric stash that many artists have, I want more paints and now pastels!
Maybe I'll add this face piece to a larger piece.

Learning to Draw

I have subscribed to Sarah Ann Smith's generous offer of following along on her new blog http://seedrawquiltlearn.wordpress.com/ and have ordered the suggested books from Amazon. This is very timely for me, as the small project that I have been thinking about starting, has involved drawing hands. I did do a study of my mother's hands, last August, before she died. I had been re-reading Deidre Scherer's book, Work In Fabric & Thread, ( I highly recommend it ), and it made me want to remember the contours of my mother's hands as she held her Rosary Beads. As Sarah has said, it's about, "Seeing." For me in this instance, it was also about remembering.
I am anxious to start the project.

Great week for fiber art!

This past week was great! I am usually at home with only my own on-going work to look at, but this week I went to three art shows. On Tuesday, I attended the opening of the Families First annual art exhibit in Portsmouth, NH, where there were over 100 new art works on display. Most of the work is done in oils, water colors or acrylics, but there were three fiber art pieces. My small framed piece, Whaleback 2, appeared in the show.
On Friday, 5/1, I attended the opening of Kathy Angel Lee's solo show at New England College in Biddeford, Maine. Kathy has spent the past year creating small watercolor pictures, which she has also translated into fiber art. The show runs through May and is truely lovely. I would urge anybody who can get to southern Maine to go and see the show.
On Saturday I traveled to Springfield, MA, to attend a SAQA meeting and trunk show presentation by Elin Waterston. It was great to meet other art quilters from neighboring states and see Elin's trunk show. Elin also gave a lecture on painting on fabric. It was a great day to expand my vision of art quilting.
It is now the start of a new week and time to see what new works I can create.