May your coming year...

- be filled with magic and dreams and good madness.  I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope somewhere in the next year you surprise yourself.

- Neil Gaiman

Are you Ready? 18 Days until Art-a-Day January 2016!!!

I'm beyond excited to launch into Art-a-Day 2016! 

Will you join us?

This is day 3 in my new studio space since selling our home and significantly downsizing 6 months ago. I am so excited to start making again. 

I'll be returning this year to a long time idea of making 29 totally unique heart brooches/pins and building a display for them, something like a February Heart-a-Day advent calendar (including leap year) of one-of-a-kind wearable hearts.  

Part of my goal is to stretch creatively both in design and materials. Last year during Art-a-Day January I completed five pin/brooches.  Below is the first: steel construction strapping and sterling silver.  Wonderfully Steampunk in look and feel. 

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H word handwoven Tapestry

helical, a 1.5" wide, 12 warp threads tapestry woven wool without cartoon
Anticipating Art-a-Day 2016
are we are we are we
Patti Kirch 

Between BookArts and Urban Sketching

96 hours of weaving time, since January done,  I have completed weaving the Sunrise Christmas Morning from Schweitzer Mountain tapestry.  Plus, Agent Carter is shaping up into a fun tapestry!
Allied Arts Month of May Show:  Book Arts of the Tri-Cities
Cheese Louise:  Urban Sketchers Tri-Cities
Art Before and After Work!  lol
Patti Kirch

Allied Arts Gallery May 2015, Visually Speaking: Creatively Read

Announcing, Allied Arts Gallery in Richland, Washington  the May 2015 Show:

Here's a fine selection of your visual treat below. The book artists have their own blog. Check it out at http://bookarttricities.blogspot.com

                                                Visually Speaking: Creatively Read 

Vicki Gerton's wood sculptured books
"A Gathering of the Obsolete Generation"

Barb Sherrill's fabric sculpted multi medium books

Felicia Follum's recycled multi medium concertina

Kriss Botino's "French Fries" book

What a Pleasure. Thank you.

It is such a pleasure to share this space with you. Thank you for your generous spirits, creative magnificence and willingness to play and to encourage.

There are no rules on this being a January only thing...Feel free to continue writing, posting images, sharing. I'm thinking I might this time.

Much love and appreciation to you all!

"Aunt Dorothy"

Today I worked hard to finish off the art-a-day challenge with this Assemblage.  A close friend had an aunt who traveled all over the world with a man she wasn't married to (scandal!) and lived a very exciting life.  She was also an amateur writer.  Here's to you Dorothy!

Red lips, Red hat vinyl block prints

Red lips, Red Hat, agent carter inner artist tapestry, 10" x10"

Fun experiments with supplies, first with red/orange ink and then water colors.

Just water colors

Yes, lots of vinyl block prints!  Next, crazy fun colors!  Thank you Bobi for the Art a Day  January Challenge!
Patti Kirch

 

Gail Roadhouse

full time artist

gailsgiftsandgallery.com

I have been a very busy artist all weekend. Last night I enjoyed being on the panel at THE REACH with Patrick , Michael, and Judith.  Our artwork was selected to show at the site for 6 months and they had a reception for the opening.

here is a photo-

 

Then today I had 9 little artists to teach SNOW PEOPLE in acrylic at Allied Arts Gallery / The Gallery at the Park Richland WA.

They were very creative and eager to paint.  See for yourself.

 

What I Am Learning

As I am having a hard time with seeing the reflected colors of light outside in plein air, I decided to do a little study I found in Kevin MacPherson's book Paintings with Light & Color. I used a box and changed the color around the pear  with construction paper.  Here are my results.

 These are on little 6x8 panels

 I am hoping I can apply this to the  great out doors.  I should probably do a few more but my pear was getting too ripe and changing color ;)

Year end goal, to be accepted into a juried show

This 16" x 48" at 10epi (ends per inch), tapestry is woven vertically, but the scene is sideways.  So view this taco style!
Each bobbin bundle has six strands of color. Gobelin and Aubusson Tapestry methods are woven with discontinuous
 weft (horizontal).  Therefore shapes are built up like individual bricks, one on top of the other, not all the way across.  

For the month of January, I wove 32 hours, only 96 hours to complete the weaving!  I moved the bobbins out of the way for this picture.

The pink cone in the back most resembles the full ounce that all of these cones initially were wound with.  The greens, black, brown are on the right side of the tapestry loom. Tapestry Nerd,  Patti Kirch

Homage to Maxine

This is an assemblage I started last fall and finished up gluing down today.  It is in memory of my aunt who spent most of her adult life in the Topeka State Hospital.  She was a sweet and gentle woman and I loved her very much.  Hanging down is a scroll I wrote on what I know about her life and my memories.

Valentine Cards

Cards are coming along.
Each is unique, contains at least one copper heart and it's own story. ie, "Totally Bound to You," You, Me and the River" etc.
The 'card' is made from vintage photo album pages and the envelopes from old player piano scrolls.
18 or so prepped thus far.

The Olympic Mountain Range, WA State Ferry, Bald Eagle and ….

Can you spot the seven hidden dancers? They are not the focal point so you might miss them if you don't look closely. I finished the painting on 01/28 and have already started the first layers of paint for my next one. It won't get finished in time for the Art-A-Day, but I will keep doing art each day all the same.

It was fun. Everyone did such cool things. There is a lot of talent out there. Thank you for inviting me and thanks to all who shared.

Please "like" my page on Facebook. I am trying to get my work out there and that is not an easy thing to do.

Susan E Wheeler - SEW

More Valentine's Cards

Im still working on cards!

Vintage Auto Collage

I finished another vintage collage placed on an old dictionary cover, including an old key, old card game pictures and a photo from my grandmothers album of her and my mother.  I used walnut ink to distress the edges.  The red area is part of the spine.

Subbing, Cleaning and Soup Bowls

Hello. Got called out today to substitute for Keith Duncan at Kamiakin in Honors Chemistry. Honors Chemistry, did you catch that? Subbing is so random. Unloaded the kiln when I got home and trimmed some soup bowls. My wife spent the day cleaning my work space. Did you catch that too? Wife, cleaning studio!!!! It is a good thing she is genius or it could have turned out poorly. It really looks good. Got some more pics but will post two them tomorrow. Gotta spend time in front of TV with wife and dogs-not in that order.

Scrolling Along

This ole scroll project has continued for almost a month. Some day are proving interesting, like yesterday's collage and colored pencil piece shown here. I'm finding I get a sense of "accomplishment" and "completion" with each day's effort. My days fill with this added thread of creativity… in addition to my other paintings. Delightful!! It's like doing "morning pages" (from the Artists' Way) but with color and glue, rather than unbridled words.

So for the others that are doing, or contemplating a project like this ... I'll be curious to hear your feedback. I think it easily could be done in a book format as well.

"Day 27", collage with colored pencil on scroll. I added prose onto the faces. I like having words represented in these.

Norwegian Farmhouse

I finally finished the pencil sketch of the farmhouse my daughter-in-law's ancesters owned.  I had an old photo to work from.  It was extremely difficult for me maybe because I hadn't done pencil sketches from real houses for years.  There are lots of erasures and it's still not in the correct proportions but this is it.  I hope she likes it!

Fleming's progress

Hello. Here are some pics from this month. Two of them are of Kennewick Avenue and another one is from a photo of me trimming one of our fillies back in the day. I was thinking that the fair is closer than it appears. These are all done with acrylic and tempera with acrylic additive. I think I will do more horse pics. Thanks. Pat

Kathryn Kaye 1/27/15

Its been very busy in this studio.  My photos of 3 large paintings did not turn out so I will post 2 of the smaller ones that are ok.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Artist Trust - ***Tonight*** - Richland.

Today at 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Pre-presentation reception from 5:00-5:30pm!
Washington State University, CIC Building, Richland, WA

Looking to give your arts career a boost? In this one-hour presentation, Artist Trust At Large speaker and artist Davin Diaz gives you the scoop on how Artist Trust can help. You’ll learn how Artist Trust serves Washington State Artists of all disciplines and how you can use these programs and resources to advance your arts business.

Free!


Info/RSVP: http://artisttrust.org/index.php/events/event/artist_trust_at_large_richland

Copper Jigsaw Clasps

These will be drilled and riveted to the front of cards and act as the lock or clasp.
(sandwiched with a copper or brass Csheet on the back) 
The colors are coming through more garish than they really are.

First the heart shape is cut from sheet copper and sanded.
Then I draw the jigsaw lines and saw out the connection.

Filing off burrs and rough spots followed by sanding.

Sanding with 1200 grit.
Not so much to refine the finish but to make edges comfortable to the touch

Before and after heat treating.
I used my phone to take a video of the heat-treating process but the file is too large to transfer. Bummer.
  I heat the pieces with a torch to red hot then immediately drop into boiling water.
It makes a wonderful roiling noisy fuss then settles down.
Colors can range from warm yellows  -to orange - to red - to deep red - to nearly purple
depending on the temperature when it hits the water.
It then receives several coats of wax and buffing.

Paintings 01_11_15

Hi.... I finally got onto this site,  it kept telling me to do something about the cookies, the house hold systems manager (my husband)  fixed it.  I have been painting every day ( as I always do),  
 with the encaustics, since Jan 1.    I've been working with 3 wood artist and 1 potter interested in adding encaustic to their art, What fun. Jane, the racu potter from Naches, gave me this racu piece and some chips from the firing.  Jerry Johnson gave me a bowl he created and left the edge  so I could add some encaustic art work, so it is now 12 days into Jan., and I will post some of the art

 work I've done.      Inspiration from Jane's racu pottery.

Jerry's wood bowl, trying to think of encaustic design.

Jane's pottery, my three encaustic paintings with chips from the racu, and Jerry's wood bowl embellished with embedded chips in the encaustic paint.

This has been quite a project Jim, Jerry, John and Jane were here last Wednesday, we worked all day with wax medium.  It  was a great day.  Just finished the bowl today.


Kathryn

Gail Roadhouse

Gail Roadhouse

full time artist

gailsgiftsandgallery.com

finally completed -

Sunrise Serenade-"Goldfinches"

Washington State Bird

11x14 acrylic collage

rice paper and sheet music

on canvas.

Collage on Hawaii

I continue to work on various projects and finally finished a collage I made for my son's birthday since he was brave enough to take me to Hawaii!  I used a pre-stretched 8x10 canvas and acrylic paint plus ephemera including sea glass he and my grandson found for me on the beach.  I also used a flower from the lei.

Gail Roadhouse

Gail Roadhouse

full time artist

gailsgiftsandgallery.com

This is the 4 hours of designing a 11x14

acrylic collage painting of our Washington

State bird "The Goldfinch."

First step is to draw the two birds on card

stock. 

Second step-- is what color palette would

be pleasing for the viewer. I chose blue and

yellow with hints of a green forest.

Third step--draw the birds on rice paper in

pencil and then go over with sharpie.  Very

carefully because rice paper is very fragile.

paint the back side of the birds in white acrylic.

Fourth step---paint the canvas and collage with

shredded music.  Once it is dry apply the rice

paper drawing with acrylic polymer.

Stand back and look over the painting and check

for the direction you eyes move around the

painting.

Happy Painting Everyone

(*****incidentally I have not found out how to post my comments...)

I will keep trying.

But I want you all to know I love your blogs and your artwork

Bobbi is metal hard to work with?  And Pat once again

love your pottery blogs and days in the life of Patrick Flemming..

Progress by Pat

Hello. It is Saturday evening. I think the painting, taken from a photograph, of me trimming our fillie's hooves, back when we had fillies, is doneish. The county fair will be here before we know it. I always take several days to look over and adjust paintings. Cyberart509 hung art at Grill on Gage today and then Ed and I stopped by a coffee shop to give them a sample of a 16oz coffee mug. They might want some to serve customers in. There are few things I enjoy more than making a bunch of matching pots. Went to AAA today and they put out my decorative pots that I turned in too late for the January re-do on the 5th. That felt good. Oops-blew 2 mugs up in the bisque kiln today. Mike brought over his bust of JFK and since there was room I put some wet mugs in and didn't notice that the switch was on high, not low. Oops! Poo poo happens I guess but it is always disappointing. At least the clay was reclaimed. I am glad I was down there to hear the blow instead of upstairs. That might have cost us the sculpture. The latest Kennewick Avenue pic is ready to spray with glossy stuff. I am using Behr white paint from Home Depot and it seems to be a pretty good paint. We just found the gallon of it while getting ready to sell the house. Thanks. Pat Fleming

Feeling a Bit Excited

No I am not painting yet, but for $20.00 at Lowes I purchased some white backed masonite board and for free they did 10 cuts.  I had them do all the long cuts plus some 12x12's.  Brought the rest home to have my hubby make the small cuts.  Now I have a years supply of plein boards to paint my heart out.  For me if I have what I consider "practice" surfaces to paint on, I feel freer to experiment and go for it, and not worry about what I might be wasting.

12x12    9x12  8x10  6x6  background pieces are my re-do's 

I have not counted how many of each, but I am planning on a series of pears with the  6x6's to experiment with different colored backgrounds to learn about how atmosphere affects an object.  I know such beginner stuff ;)  Shout out to Laura Gables and Melanie Thompson who recommend Kevin McPherson's books!  Learning something new is always and exciting adventure for me.

Calling it Good

I'm claiming designing and teaching a yoga class (which went great and much fun!), cleaning, shopping and rearranging the house for sleeping spaces and making a few tests with making beeswax candles as my 'art' for recent days.  A bit of a stretch but that's creative too.  :)
Getting to the studio - or not - is part of the process.  Greatly appreciating this January kick-start and filling my soul with your work and your posts.  Thank you!

Here's an image from years back.  Miniature collage Autumn Leaves.  Measures about 3" tall.  One of my favs and delights me that it is in the care and appreciation of Laura Gable.

Bad Starts :/

Well it has been a busy month and not as much time as I had hoped for painting.  I have run outside to paint on the few sunny days we have had.  I have not been happy with most ALL of my plein air studies.  So I am rebooting here with some do overs.  It is funny how sanding down an unsuccessful piece almost bring back a view of what you were going for.  So I have two pieces to fiddle with and most a re-do :)

 Re-do's

Fiddle

I have to say I have enjoyed seeing everyones work, their successes and their struggles too.  Makes me feel like I am not alone on this journey =)