Painting with Wild Abandon

Hello, Everyone!

This "finding your artistic voice" stuff is a challenge! There are so many things I like to do and I haven't figured out how to combine them all yet, but I keep plugging away. That sounds like drudgery, when it is really fun creating physical textures with paint for Kim Klassen's "Art of Texture" class and Jane LaFazio's "Mixed-Media With Paper & Cloth". Kim's class is primarily about using textures in Photoshop, but what attracted me to the class was that she included info on painting your own textures. I followed Kim's directions for the texture above, in colors I'm using in Jane's class!

I don't usually work on paper, but it has been a lot of fun. Maybe I don't sweat errors as much because paper isn't $10+/yd! There are definitely advantages to working on paper -- the paints spread more smoothly, and they don't run the way they can on fabric. Either way, I'm having a grand time enjoying the interplay of the colors without anything specific in mind. Wondering "what would look good here" and then just diving in is a new experience and one I'm enjoying quite a lot. Who knows where it goes, but I love taking a break from thinking so much and just playing in the moment.

What do you think, isn't this cool?

The Scramble Begins...

Hello, All!

I am getting ready for my trip down to CA at the end of next week, and I'm starting to hyperventilate with thoughts of how much I have left to do! One quilt needs binding, several need hanging sleeves, I need fabric for my class with Gloria Loughman, etc., etc., etc.!!! Breathe, Kath...

I have been cutting fabric for my "Laundry Blues" blocks (ugh, several people have their tops done already!!!) -- the sewing is easy and will be a nice break from intense creative activity. Of course I have enough cut for at least a week's worth of sewing, but I wouldn't want to sit around and be bored, would I? :-)

Anyway, I'm trying to use up smaller chunks of older fabric to make room for new stuff (some of it lives on the floor right now...). Anything that I don't use in my quilt will be cut into 5" and 3.5" squares for scrap quilts. This fabric has been in my stash a while -- it was our challenge fabric in 2003. I love my quilt and thought I'd show it to you. It has a wee bit of hand embroidery....!
Back to work, take care!

Vintage Bling

Vintage rhinestone jewelry is in, and the bigger the better -- according to the saleslady at the antique shop I visited today. I love to work with crystals and other bling-y bits, but I don't usually wear over the top jewelry. Compared to a lot of the jewels in the display cases, these are fairly subdued but I decided, what the heck, why not splurge on some fun stuff for my upcoming talks -- pretty fun, eh?

Alchemy

Hi, All! We had a couple of reasonably warm days earlier in the week (considering it is winter in Central Oregon, so above freezing during the day!) and I played at my workbench making the kraft paper background above. It was the wrapping on a wonderful piece of hand-made paper!

I crumpled it, smoothed it out and crumpled it again, and then painted it with a wash of black coffee. I only needed a slurp so Chris was happy to oblige and drink the rest. The color wasn't strong enough so while it was still wet I sprinkled instant coffee powder -- that made the lighter brown splotches.

It was still a bit boring, so once it was dry, I stenciled burnt umber acrylic paint through sequin waste and randomly stamped with a sea sponge. Scanned it in and started to play in Photoshop.

Remember the watercolor and acrylic background I showed you in "Pixels and Paint"? I layered that with the kraft paper background, played with blending modes and got this:

Since the result was so magical, I call it "Alchemy." If you look closely, you will see bits of writing layered in -- I used a bit of text from an old alchemy manual (Wikimedia Commons) and a scrap of a letter written in a foreign language I got as a freebie somewhere along the way. How cool is that? I have printed the image several times on photofabric and want to turn it into a small art quilt. Stay tuned!

Too Late -- I Couldn't Resist! (Photoshop Strikes Again)

What do you get when you mix paint, gel medium, lace, texture gels and stir with magic wand???

I call this Dark Mysteries -- isn't it scrumptious???

I'm shutting down my computer now, I promise!

Stop Me Before I Photoshop Again! (More Fun with Textures)

Playing with textures in Photoshop is so much fun, I never want to quit! :-)

I desaturated the watercolor and acrylic background from my last posting (turned it to greyscale) and layered it with a scan of linen-look blinds. I thought it had a lot of potential, but when I tried it on a couple of images, it didn't do a thing! (As an aside, isn't it interesting how our eyes/brains read watercolor as very sheer, but the scan shows a lot of pigment).

Since the images I tried were quite colorful, I tried again with an image with a very light background. The changes are very subtle and I don't know if they will print on fabric very well, but it could make a pretty postcard:

Wishing you a creative, inspiration filled day!

Ghost Fish in a Fantasy Pool

Just finished this little quilt -- the black fish border didn't exactly work, but done is good! I quilted ghost fish in the green borders and I hope they have fun swimming in the fantasy garden I've created for them. On to my lighthouse quilt...