Landscape

 We are exploring various 'Scapes' in the Waverley Art Quilters this year. We started off a bit easier using Landscapes.

I wanted to try and abstract a landscape rather than a realistic depiction. I had no access to my fabrics because they had all been packed up to make way for my new carpet. I love playing around with paper so that was what I decided to use.

I have been doing a lot of paper collages this year so my papers were still handy. 

I had been using some lettering in my collages so I had some already printed out and I printed out a photo of a tree in winter.

On a large A3 piece of paper I cut and pasted some of the lettering. My photo is me trying to make a composition with the lettering and some black and white papers. The lettering really had nothing to do with the landscape but I thought it would be a good way to make it more abstract.

I got so involved that I didn't take anymore progress photos. So this is what it looked like in the end.

Landscape Collage

 I couldn't help myself, I had to add some coloured papers in the composition. I suppose one of the advantages of our group and working small is finding out what you really like!

Well, that really didn't take long to make so I decided to make another one, especially as I was a bit disappointed with my first one.

I printed out another tree and added some of my collage papers, but to abstract it, I sliced the papers into narrow strips. The photo below is what I started with but the tree looked too stark on the white paper.

I found a pale blue paper that I had painted and put it in the paper tray of my printer and printed it out. I got that hint from a collage artist, Rebecca Chapman in the Collage Makers Summit that was held earlier this year..

As long as the paper is clean and flat, the printer doesn't mind at all.

Here is my finished collage, this one is only 10 inches square.

Landscape Collage 2

I like using the papers, no batting and quilting to worry about and nice and flat to store. However, my carpet has been installed and I can get to my fabrics now. It took quite a few days to put everything back again.

I love my new carpet, everything looks so clean and organised. I must take a photo of my improved sewing room, it's working well so far.

But I am off to grandparents day at Kinder with my granddaughter Anna, she is very excited.

Bye for now,

Linda

Drawing Practice

 The theme for the Waverley Art Quilters this year is Back to Nature. We have a different topic every month to research and draw. Our topics for the last couple of months have been Insects and Birds.

I have enjoyed working in my sketchbook and I think I am improving with my drawing. At least it makes me do it, otherwise there is never enough time no matter how good my intentions are.

Here are some of my insect drawings. I like using a fine liner pen but I sketch lightly in pencil first until I am happy with the result.

Our most recent topic has been birds and I have found them much more challenging. I wanted to start adding some colour to my drawings. The book is only A5 size and because the drawings are not very big, I have tried using water soluble coloured pencils when I have added colour instead of paint. I've tried Derwent Inktense and Derwent Graphitint pencils.

For the yellow bird below, I bought a mini class from Design Matters TV, about drawing birds with watercolour pencils. Mine is very ordinary compared to Linda Kemshall's bird, but I have to remember that this is new to me and approach it with a beginners mind and not be too hard on myself.

I don't spend a lot of time on my drawing, but I do enjoy them. There is still a couple of weeks until our next meeting, so I think I'll try drawing a few more birds to try and get better.

Bye for now,

Linda

Back to Nature

 Our theme for the year at the Waverley Art Quilters is Back to Nature. After a few years of contemporary and abstract work, it is really nice to go back to nature. Everyone else in the group feels the same. Maybe after what we have been through in the last couple of years, it feels right to connect with nature again.

I started a new sketchbook and try to draw regularly.

Our first topic was flowers and the the following month was leaves.

Last Month our topic was Seed pods. I have a collection of seed pods because I have always loved them. Here is a photo of a few in my collection.

I enjoyed drawing them, it is hard to photograph the book though, the pages won't stay open.

I finally came up with the idea of holding the pages back with a clip, it made it a bit easier to photograph.

I wonder if this work will eventually translate into any quilts. Our next topic is Feathers.

Bye for now,

Linda

Leaf Printing on Paper

 I think that this year is going to be a year of experimentation. I feel a bit restless, as if there is something that I want to do but I don't know what it is yet. I know that I am loving playing around with paints.

A few weeks ago, I followed a tutorial on Design Matters TV about printing with leaves on paper. They have some good classes that are very reasonably priced.

First, I gathered up some leaves.

I cut and folded some heavy watercolour paper that was 300gsm. If you didn't use heavy paper, it would just fall apart when it was boiling.

I had to ask my husband if he had any rusty things because I couldn't find the rusty things that I had used last year when I eco printed onto fabric. I have obviously put them in a safe place and they'll turn up one day! I have sacrificed my old electric frypan that I haven't used for a few years. 

Then I put the leaves in between the folded paper, placed some cardboard on the front and back and clamped it all together.

It's quite an easy process, you cover the bundle with water and a cup of white vinegar and let it boil with the lid on for 90 minutes.

It was a nice day and I had the windows open but my son said that he didn't like the smell. It seemed ok to me.

You have to leave it to cool for a while after the time is up and then put on some disposable gloves to open the bundle, gently remove the leaves and leave it to dry.

If you don't wear gloves, your finger nails will be an unsightly black colour.

Not all prints will turn out well and I suppose it would take a lot of experimentation to test out the best leaves to use etc.

The prints look better if you paint the background, it gives the leaves some definition. I used watercolour paint.

I wish that I had taken a photo of the page above before I painted the background.

Here is another page I painted but I cannot remember what I used to paint with. I didn't like it as much as the first one, it seems uneven. I might have tried water soluble crayons.

I found the painting a bit difficult, the paper really soaks up the paint, so it's quite time consuming.

My plan was to paint them all and make them into a book, but because it was taking so long, I just packed them away.

It was an interesting experiment, but I don't think I will do it again.

It has been an eventful week or so. Our sewing group met and that evening one of them tested positive to Covid. By some miracle, I was the only one who didn't get it. Then my daughter and two grandchildren got it and once again, I missed out. I feel as if everyone I know has it at the moment.

Bye for now,

Linda

Sun printing

 We had a couple of days of sunny weather last week. It is the middle of winter and it wasn't warm but I thought I would grab the chance to do some sun-printing to prepare for an upcoming project I have in mind.

Here are some leaves sitting on some fabric waiting for some magic to happen.

Sun Printing with leaves

I want the fabric for a nature inspired quilt so I didn't want the fabrics to be too bright.

Here is the result of that fabric.

Sun printing result

After I had removed the leaves, I painted over with some yellow paint and then I added some olive green paint to make it more nature inspired rather than bright.

I also painted a fabric and left it in the sun with loose folds, once again I painted it twice for a stronger effect.

Sun printing with folds

I wanted to use up all my left over paint, so I put a stencil on some fabrics.

Sun printing with stencil

That was a very clear print, I think I'll be able to use them as applique in my project.

Some of my sun prints didn't have enough texture on them so I decided to add some flour resist. I hadn't done any flour resist since last year but luckily I could look up my old blog post to remember how I did it.

Here is my post on Flour Resist from last year.

I cracked the first one a bit too much and so the lines got a bit thick.

Sun printing and flour resist

I actually just gently tapped the stiffened flour on the back next to get a finer result.

Flour resist

Next I put some flour resist on plain white fabric, thinking I could paint it later in whatever colour I wanted. I was very gentle with the cracking this time and the lines were very fine.

Very fine flour resist

I think I will be able to use these fabrics in my upcoming quilt, I hope so anyway. I am trying something new this time, inspired by my recent collage work. I want to transfer what I have learned on paper to fabric.

Bye for now,

Linda

Inspired by Nature Collages

My Inspired by Nature on-line class is finished now, but I have done a couple more paper collages using my painted and gelli printed papers.

Banksia Collage

The above collage is of a Banksia Ericifolia that we have growing in our backyard. I was happy with it until by chance I changed the photo to black and white and realised that I don't have enough value contrast in it. I should have thought of that before I glued it down!

The next collage is of a Grevillea that we also have growing.

Grevillea Collage

I actually had fun making them, but it almost almost seems like I am playing around and not getting anywhere with some new work.

I made myself try out a collage in fabric. I have been painting and gelli printing fabric as well as paper and have never tried to use it.

I decided to use a paper collage that I had already made as a starting point.

Paper collage of gum leaves.

I made it bigger than the paper collage, the fabric one is about A4 size.

Fabric Collage

I enjoyed making it and I really like using my painted and gelli printed fabrics. They almost seem a bit like watercolour to me. I don't know if it was a fluke, but they didn't fray on the edges. Maybe the paint sealed the edges?

That gives me inspiration to keep going and try doing some new work using fabric that I have created. It's a shame that it is winter here now and not so convenient to paint fabrics. Still, I have a couple of ideas running around my head!

Bye for now,
Linda

Palette Republic app

Oops, I made a mistake in my last post! I have corrected it now though. The app I have been using in my course to get the colours in the photo is called Palette Republic and is available on iPhones and Android. I had called it Moment by mistake. The Moment app has easily adjusted setting for poor light etc. and is for taking photos

I can't believe that I made such a huge mistake. When I look back at my photos I realise that I had wrongly named them and so that is where the error stemmed from.

How did I discover my mistake?
My husband has installed a security camera at our front door and so he has been using my phone to work out how I can get movement alerts etc to the app on my phone. As he handed me back my phone this morning, he asked ' What is that Palette Republic app on your phone'.

As soon as he said it, I knew I had made a mistake and couldn't wait to get onto my blog and correct it.

Here are a couple more photos from the Palette Republic app.

Sorry for the confusion, I suppose it has also stemmed from me trying to fit too much into my days. Some of the online courses are finished now, so I can settle down and concentrate on getting some of my work done.

Here is a little collage I made with my gelli printed and painted papers. Our front yard was full of these little toadstools this year. I took a lot of photos.

This is the photo that used as a reference.

It is a very realistic version of the photo and I want to get away from doing such realism. I would rather try to be more abstract and arty. The more I study art, I think that creating realism is a learned skill but why create it when there is a perfectly good photo of the same thing already!

That's my plan, anyway.
Bye for now,
Linda

Inspired by Nature-Vignettes

I have been enjoying the on-line course Inspired by Nature. We have been encouraged to walk around our neighbourhood and our own gardens and collect any leaves, flowers or seed pods that we find on the ground.

It is Autumn here in Australia and so there are beautiful red, yellow and orange leaves everywhere. It is really magical and I often wonder what other walkers think when they see me taking photos of the trees.

When we come back with our leaf collections, we are encouraged to make some simple vignettes with them, photograph them and add them to our sketch books.

Here are some of the vignettes that I made. Tara Axford, our tutor suggested that we use the Moment app to take photos of our Vignettes but it is only available on iPhones. It has very easily adjustable features especially if trying to take a photo at night or in poor light.

The idea of making these little vignettes is to make us look more closely at them, to take in the colours and textures and make a memory of our walking experience.

We were encouraged to download a colour app on our phones called Palette Republic. I can't remember if the app was free or under $2. The Palette Republic app finds the colours in our photos and you can also print them out if you want.

I am just using the basic beginner colour swatches; if you pay some extra money you can get much more comprehensive colours, but I haven't felt the need to pay for those.

I am enjoying these exercises so much that I have decided to take it further and am trying to draw and label the different leaves and seed pods and maybe colour them as well.
I am in the very beginnings of doing this but I want to be accurate with the leaf shapes, not just draw a generic leaf. This means that I have to know the tree that the leaf comes from!!

This led me to download another app onto my phone. It's called Picture This. This app cost me $29.95. I could use it for free for a week to try it out and I loved it, so paid the money. It is just like the cost of buying a book anyway!

You take a photo in the app and they tell you the common name as well as the proper botanical name and show you other pictures of the same tree, bush or flower and then tell you all the details if that's what you want to know. I usually just want to know the name and move on.

All the photos are stored in the app and it also keeps a summary of the photos and records when you took them. I took a couple of screenshots.

I never would have thought that I would be doing this or even be interested in doing this. Will this lead to anything or is it just a distraction from the current virus lock-downs? Time will tell.

I have so many things on the go that I have to timetable my activities. So, I have to say today I will work on my nature and printing exercises. Tomorrow, I will do some more work on my latest quilt, the next day I will work on quilting my other quilt; and so, it goes on. Honestly, I need another year of lock-down.

Bye for now,
Linda