Studio Kit

Yesterday, Erin posted a comment saying that the background didn't seem like my style.

So I thought I'd post a "behind the scenes". The collector had asked for "something like your birch trees", particularly liking "Winter Birches" and "Winter Birches with Bird"

I sent him some quick mock ups of birches on backgrounds (done out of paper, collage style)

(unfortunately, I didn't save a completed one - so this is just one of my own experiments.)

However, the collector wanted a background he described as pinky, purply, or maybe green.

So I sent him pictures of samples painted on tiny canvases (5 x 7")

And then mock ups on the samples:

He eventually chose a *really* pink background. (You can see the original sample on the top right and the painted full-sized background on the left).

However, once I started laying it out, I plead with the collector to tone down the background. I just didn't like it!

*eep!*

And so the final pic I showed you yesterday, was our compromise. (As was the evergreen - I really didn't want to put it in there!)

And that's how we ended up with "Winter Song". :)

Kit

Hello everyone. :) I just thought I'd pop in and show you a commission I just finished.

It's 40 x 24", mounted on stretcher bars, using a variety of commercial fabrics, which have all been painted on or manipulated in some way. The background is painted cotton muslin.

I worked closely with the collector on this one, so it isn't fully my vision, but I still had to put a bird on it!

Similarly, although the client had requested red leaves, this peachy background (also at the request of the client) clashed with red, so in the end, these gold-y leaves worked best.

As with the other pieces in the "Winter Birches" series, "Winter Song" was borne out of my desire to convey my memories of winters in Northern Ontario: rounded blankets of snow several feet deep, topped by crunchy silvery white ice crusts underfoot; crystals of snow and ice contrasted on the black branches of stands of white Paper Birches.

A palette of white on white on white, interspersed with occasional evergreens, the varied colours of the sky, and the fauna of the North.

I'm currently working on five more commissioned pieces for the Black Lives Matter movement - I'm very excited about those. And Angelique has been very busy too - I've got loads to tell you about that.

If only I could find the time!

I hope you're all doing well - tell me what you're up to in the comments!

Until next time.

Kit

You may have noticed that my recent posts are about beading. No, I haven't gone over to the dark side!

It's because I've a piece in mind that will require extensive beading, and I haven't got clue one about how to go about it. I mean, I know how to sew a bead on, but I also know that it takes more than that.

(front)

I decided that the best way to learn how to bead was to actually do so; so I joined The Bead Journal Project. It's a group of beaders that commits to making one project per month and posting about it.

(right side)

And I also took a two day beading class at BeadFX with Anne Marie Desaulniers.

(left side)

So, here's my January contribution. Just a wee bit late (lol) as it turned out to be much more time consuming than I originally anticipated.

(back)

I've also been working on a commission which has been taking up much of my time!

(top)

As I'm just a beginner, I've got loads of room for improvement, but I'm very happy with it.

Talk to you later!

Is all it takes to see something with fresh eyes.

I've got more work to do...

Last weekend, BSP and I decided to go and see Quilts=Art=Quilts before it closed. I'm currently working on several pieces at once, but they were all either too big to take in the car, or I needed to a sewing machine, iron, or pin roller at the ready, none of which are conducive to working in a car!

So I decided to get a couple of hand pieces ready for the car trip.

(apologies for the varying light levels and quality of the photographs. They were taken in the car and in the hotel, at various light levels with my camera phone!)

I already had a couple of 8x10 pieces of cotton muslin that had already been fused to batting and had a coat of gesso applied. I made them a few years back in preparation for painting, before I knew that I could just apply acrylic paint directly to fabric!

As I needed to get these done lickety split (I was up in the studio at 6:30 before leaving, whipping something together quickly to take!) I decided to work with aquarelles - so having a gesso'd background was perfect.

As you can see, I just lightly stroked on some colour with the side of the aquarelle.

And then I brushed them with a large-ish watercolour paintbrush loaded with water. I had one that wasn't clean, and made that dark grey mark, which initially made me gasp; but turned out to be a happy accident. I liked it and added it to both pieces.

The watercolour dried to the touch almost immediately, which was great, because I had to pop them in the folder, into my bag, and off we went!

I had this idea for an embroidered box behind the tree. Ordinarily, I would have stitched the box first and then added the tree, but I had to go, so I applied the tree first and then started stitching.

Here, it's lighter, and you can see what my "go bag" looked like in the car. The folder on the left contained the other painted piece, some reference photos of grasses and flowers, a box containing embroidery floss, and that little blue cosmetic bag contains, snips, my needle case, etc.

Here I've added some little flowers...

And then we're back to where I am now.

Initially, I was going to embroider the leaves, but I found these little bead leaves in my stash and it seemed like fun to use them, so I popped them on.

More to come!

Happy new year. :)

Kit