A spring perspective

The snow is gone and I am looking forward to getting out with my camera. There must be something worth a photo amidst the leftover winter debris and springtime mud. Maybe a tree just budding out or some bulbs bursting from the ground.

My youngest son and I spent an enjoyable few hours at the Arboretum in Ottawa with our cameras one day in March. Cold, and with wet shoes, we explored the hill that had only recently been covered in snow. Large white bales pushed against trees to prevent toboggans from hurtling into them still remained. It could be a photo - carefully composed by an artist. What are these large white objects and why are they there? Are they packages dropped from the heavens?

The canal inlets were mostly drained of water and looked like some strange new country - people were down there exploring. The trees were large and naked, vulnerable without their protective green. We were looking at the bones of the park before it began to flesh out with people, dogs, birds and green.

 

 

                   

 

Maybe there is something to see with new eyes in the spring. Maybe there is another world to imagine... create...or find.

 

           

Looking back

Wow! It's been 6 months since I last posted any news about what I've been doing. My goal over the past year was to participate in sales events, so I've now been involved in 6 art/craft sales in the local area. This is a different experience than just exhibiting artwork. It involves grids, sunshelters, packaging, salesmanship, and long hours standing on your feet, just to name a few of the challenges to be met. But the payout is lots of great feedback from everyone who stops by your booth! Many thanks to all the wonderful people I spoke to over the past year, both visitors and fellow artists.

I have also set up my own website and continue to tinker with it to find the perfect fit for me.

Workwise, I am still making small folk art inspired textile pieces, mostly in themes for children. They are alot of fun to create and I think quite unique.

I have also added some local photographic images to my portfolio, urban and landscape images as well as flowers from my garden. It has been a very enjoyable experience exploring the area with my camera recording the beauty and charm of Ottawa.

Solo show at NFAL Gallery

Yesterday I spent a few hours hanging my solo show at the NFAL Gallery in Ottawa. After a little rearrangement of pieces by a friend it all came together, finally after weeks of preparation. Phew! Now I can attack my weedy gardens.

I have also set up my own website using Homestead, an easy to set up system with templates and simple point and click instructions. I will see how I like it over the next few months. I am still learning how to use it so it is a bit messy. I need to spend some time cleaning it up and adding more pages for pastels and other work.

My web address is janicesaunders.homestead.com

The NFAL show is a collection of my recent textile and pastel work. It is unified by similar warm gold, orange tones and black accents.

These small fibre works are done in the folk art style using fabrics, felt and beads. Each one is inspired by a proverb or common saying. They are meant to be fun and whimsical.

Welcome to my crazy little house!

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come. Chinese proverb

There are more examples on my website.

I have also included some larger quilted wall hangings that are crib size.

And some new mixed media framed textile pieces of the buildings and stormy sky images in a city. Very abstract.

Cityscape 1, clouds

The pastels include 3 figurative works and one landscape. I have used the Mi-tientes paper and board as well as a handmade paper I cannot remember the name of that has a very sandpapery tooth.

 

The NFAL Gallery is located in the Nepean Creative Arts Centre (Unit 11), 35 Stafford Rd. Bells Corners, around the corner from Bells Corners’ Wallacks store. This space, provided by the City of Ottawa and established in 2002, is dedicated to artist members of the Nepean Fine Arts League, allowing them to exhibit their work on a monthly rotational basis. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday: 8:30am to 9:30pm; Saturday 8:30am to 4:30pm; and Sunday 9:30am to 3:30pm. The telephone number is 613-596-5783.

Dye Discharge

I am trying a new technique with this quilt - dye discharge.  This is a process where you use bleach or something similar to take the dye out of the fabric to create new patterns and reveal new colours in the fabric. It involves a bit of chance as you don't really know what colours you will end up with. I didn't do any tests with this quilt, I just threw caution to the wind and went for it!  I wanted to harmonize the colours and patterns so I used this method as a kind of  'reverse glazing process'. I could have  'over-dyed'  the quilt to blend the fabrics as well. 

The final result is a much softer colour scheme and a gently, aged look to the quilt.  Following this I added another batting layer to the back and quilted random horizontal lines across the quilt to harmonize the design even more. I then added another complementary border and  beads for interest and texture.  I am pleased with the result and  happy that I had the courage to both drastically and irreversibly takes steps to alter my quilt.  Sometimes it is a happy ending, and then sometimes not!

The finished quilt is titled 'Blue Stratus" and is now hanging at a local museum for the next month.  The size is 34"x43".

This is detail of some of the textures and colours in the quilt.  Can you guess what the original fabrics looked like?  What were the original colours?

Winter Pottery and Art Sale

A big thanks to everyone who dropped by my booth a the Nepean Sportsplex Winter Art and Pottery Sale this past weekend! This was my first time running a booth and it was lots of fun! 

If anything caught your eye or you missed the sale I am posting photos of my work here. I still don't have my web site up and running but it will happen- soon I hope.

These textile pieces are done in a traditional quilt format as I am trying to get way from framing my textile pieces. The glass tends to dull the colours of the fabric and these wall hangings have dramatic impact!  The batik fabrics are an African pattern with gold that really glows under the lights. Very bold and dramatic! There are square gold beads sewn into the black  border around the central pattern. Two loops are sewn at the top of the quilt for easy hanging on regular picture hooks. The hooks will be hidden behind the quilt when it hangs flat against the wall.

African Batik 3.1, 30x39in.

 

African Batik 3.2, 30x39in.

Gone Fishing, 11x16in.,  SOLD

African Batik 3.3, 30x39in.

African Batik 3.4, 30x39in.

Hello Mr. Fish, 14x16in.,  SOLD

Green/Gold Illusion, 34x34in., In this pattern the circles 'move' and the colours 'vibrate'.

 Pink Asymmetry, 34x34in., This pattern plays with light and dark squares moving forwards and back.

Mexican Holiday, 34x34in., This is just a sunny reminder of warmer climates!

"Sea, sand", pastel, 16x20in. framed, This is from New Brunswick.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these pieces just contact me through this site or at my e-mail address: jr_saunders@msn.com

Quilting is Cool!

Quilting is big! Whether it is for a practical purpose or a part of the explosion in art quilts, women and men all over the world are into quilting. They are throwing out the rules and letting their imaginations go wild. Pretty much anything goes in the world of quilting today from raw edge applique to paint to far too many options for embellishment to list.  And, its a lot of fun!

Just in case you are not yet aware of how big quilting really is, watch this video-the number is huge!

Watch CBS Videos Online

Thread doodling and Steam fixing

September is here it's time to get back in the studio. I had a wonderful summer with my husband and kids spending three weeks travelling in Europe.  We saw ALOT, I think we put somewhere between 5000 and 6000 km on the rental van!  Months of careful planning and now it's only a memory and of course lots of photos.  I hope to use some of these for inspiration over the next year.

September allows for a fresh start and this has meant a clean up  of my studio space to remove a lot of unnecessary junk that was just cluttering up the place.  Creativity needs room to breathe!  Now I have one table for pastel work and one table for textile work.  No more fighting!

These are two pieces I am working on at the moment, one in pastel and the other in fabric.

I lay down the fabrics and then sewed them onto the backing in a random sort of "doodling" manner. I am going to continue my "doodling" and see where it leads.

This pastel piece is done on Wallis sanded paper. It started out as a garden scene, but I was unhappy with it so I decided to try washing the pastel off in the sink, toning the paper with an acrylic wash and starting over.  Wallis paper will not only accept up to 25 layers of pastel,  but you can wash it off and paint over it with a variety of wet media.  This was a good time to try it as I had nothing to lose! The pastel does wash off but some staining of the paper remains which is why I decided to tone the paper with an acrylic wash.

Unhappy with my garden scene I decided to just let my imagination run free and this abstract image was the result. I think it has an altered landscape appearance. Of course, while I was in the experimental  mood I decided to also try a new technique for fixing pastel paintings by steaming them. Steam fixing is method I found in The Pastel Journal, Issue No.53 December2007, used by an artist named Dennis Rhoades.  He uses a steam iron with distilled water, holds the iron about 2 inches above the painting and moves it back and forth until the painting is very wet. Then he lets it dry. I still have a bit of flaking of the pastels but it is an interesting method and it does not seem to darken the colours the way fixatives do.

Apparently Degas used a variety of techniques- underpainting, various fixatives and steaming methods, he applied liqiufied and powdered pastels and applied pastels  with a brush-  to create his paintings. There are many more  new tricks to try out this year!

And that's all for now. Happy painting!

What I'm Reading

Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee I just finished this book after having purchased it in June as a holiday read. Dense, but very readable, it provides wonderful insight into the life of this famous American author of “Age of Innocence” and her many other novels about American society in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Growing up in Old New York society, followed by extensive travels through France, Italy, Germany, and Britain, fluent in French and then living for many years in France as an expatriate during and after WW1 provided her with a wealth of inspiration for her novels. A very prolific writer, she also wrote many short stories that were serialized in magazines. She was a great friend of Henry James and many other writers of the time as well as an avid gardener creating lavish landscape designs at her different homes in New England and France. She challenged conservative social norms by writing about social issues like divorce, adultery and sex. If you are at all interested in the ‘writer behind the book’, you will find this a fascinating read!