lavonne ~ watercolors, soft pastel, colored pencil and casein paint on muslin

watercolors, soft pastel, gouache, colored pencil and casein paint in zecchi journal

i was feeling like i couldn't think of anything 'good' to draw, and then i was thinking that that was a very silly thought. so i started drawing whatever came to mind... and then i was happy because i got to play and color...


i've laid down 'bird on a wire' to stitch this silk together. a friend sent me the center piece wrapped around a gift, and all i could think about was making a scarf out of it. i've slowed down from my initial charge to complete it, though; stitching silk to silk without a backing is like stitching clouds! i have to keep giving myself pep talks about how soft it'll be when it's done...

thank you, ruth, for telling me that the painting in my moleskine was by suzanne valadon.

* * *

"I understand that Picasso told my Dad, "Just do it, Henry". And that's what Henry told artists and writers all his life. Paint or write every day, and it will get easier, and it does."

~Valentine Miller speaking about her father, Henry Miller

XO

* * *

“You ask
why I make my home
in the mountain forest,
and I smile,
and am silent,
and even my soul
remains quiet;
it lives
in the other world
which no one owns.
The peach blossom.
The water flows.”

~ Li Po (701 - 762), via tumblr... thanks robyn ...

XO

incognito

sparrow ~ watercolors, oil pastel, gouache, colored pencil, pencil & casein paint on muslin

i'm stitching, painting, reading 'war and peace', and sleeping late...

and watching the sun get higher in the sky. i swear it's higher already!



isabel (wants to go to france) ~ watercolors, soft pastel, gouache, colored pencil, pencil & casein paint on muslin

blue girl ~ colored pencil and soft pastel in moleskine pocket sketchbook

the painting on the lower left is from the magazine 'art forum'. i cut it out and threw away the artist's name; if you know it, please let me know...

in progress...

* * *

“Art does not lie down on the bed that was made for it; it runs away as soon as one says its name; it loves to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what it is called."

~ Jean Dubuffet

XO

xoxo

morning sun through woodsmoke, december 2010

from my cocoon to yours, i'm wishing you a beauty and peace filled solstice...

* * *

“Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. It’s true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above the ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away - an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost the sense of something that lives and endures beneath the eternal flux. What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.”

Carl Jung, 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections'

XO

i'm gonna make myself a cocoon ~ pencil, colored pencil, watercolors and charcoal in 4" x 4" muslin book

XO

stitching

i've been stitching on pieces of muslin that i've used for cleaning paint brushes and blending stumps... washed them and then soaked them in walnut ink water before i started stitching. i've got quite a stack of them, and i don't know what i'm gonna do with them once they're done...


i bought this book last week at barnes and noble. wow. what a fantastic book... i've never given making silk flowers a second thought, but the idea of making them from recycled sari silk totally sends me!


i'm also waiting for jude to make the 'cloth to cloth' videos available. soon, i think...


XO

part II

gilberto ~pencil, soft pastels, casein paint, watercolors & oil pastel on muslin; approx. 5" x 6"

i think i wasn't very clear in my last post about the casein paint... : )

it's the casein paint that creates the texture - it comes in a tube and it's thick. it almost reminds me of wet plaster. it has a matte surface, but if you buff it with a soft cloth it quickly develops a soft sheen. it does smell something like pine-sol when it's wet, but not when it's dry. it is a milk based paint and it's non-toxic. let's see, what else... it dries quickly and they say not to use it in thick layers on canvas (or other flexible surfaces) because the binders will crack. of course i'm ignoring this completely. pencil erases off of it easily.

on gilberto i used soft pastels to put the color down for his face, and then i smudged creme caran d'ache oil pastel over most it. the casein paint (white background) is not slick - you have to really push the oil pastel around with a blending stump.

pencil, soft pastels, casein paint, old wallpaper, watercolors & oil pastel on muslin; approx. 4" x 5"

this is the next page (after gilberto) in a muslin journal i've been working in for months now. the dark spot near her nose is a hole in the page. this happens sometimes when i sand the pages... a bit of something gets under the sanding block and in the blink of an eye i've sanded right through the page...

thank you all for your questions about the casein paint... without them i would've thought i'd done a great job of explaining. ; )

* * *

toe tapping and smile making...



XO