Face and Hand

Yesterday, I mentioned joining a blog group to work through the lessons in Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain. I did the first two Pre-Instruction sketches last night. The first was to be a 30-minute pencil sketch of our face, while looking in the mirror.

I would say that mine looks like a person, but not necessarily myself!

Here is a school picture that was just taken in April, although it features the opposite side of my face.

The second pre-instruction drawing is of my hand. It is a 15-minute pencil drawing.

Pencil sketches do not show up too well on the computer. I guess I need to get Photoshop.

Looks like I should be off to get a manicure! I can remember being a hand model for my dad back in his commercial art days. Yikes, when did my knuckles get so big, my veins so prominent, and what's with all these lines? Remember in Gone With the Wind, when Rhett saw Scarlet's hands without her gloves and realized she had been doing field work?

The next pre-instruction drawing will be a corner of the room.

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment.

Wednesday Potpourri

Usually Wednesday is my Work-in-Progress blog, but I do not have much new to show you. This morning, I made the dough for some delicious cookies to take to school for our fair on Saturday. Judy Martin's book Cookies and Quilts has the best cookie recipes I have ever made.

Oh,yes, loaded with butter and sugar and double the chips. The fifth grade is sponsoring the Cookie Walk, and I thought I better help out since I won't be here for the fair.

I have also created a few small pieces of background fabric on the embellisher, experimented with various combinations of fabrics and yarns to make tree bark for the Grand Canyon tree WIP I have been dawdling over, and done some more quilting on the Trash-to-Treasure fabric. I need to get at least one purse made in time for the North Carolina Quilt Symposium at the end of May.

I do have a beautiful piece of new fabric. My local bee is celebrating our birthday months with Fat Quarter gifts of fabric. My birthday is not until June, but since Janice will be gone, she bestowed this gorgeous batik lame on me at our last meeting. I don't know if you can tell how the fabric catches the light with shimmers of gold. I had never heard of batik lame, but I can't wait to try it out! Janice, thank you for this wonderful fabric-it is perfect for me!

Also, I have some new books and a new challenge to tell you about. Sarah Ann Smith from the Quilt Art mail list has started a blog for anyone who wants to improve their drawing skills. The blog is called See*Draw*Quilt*Learn. We will use The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. I also purchased the workbook that accompanies the book. Those who want to post their drawings can do so, and receive helpful feedback.

I have always been able to draw fairly realistically, but I should have spent more time at my father's knee observing his skills. (Absorbing them by osmosis?) He of course, made his living in commercial and fine art, and made valiant attempts to teach his kids to draw. He even came to my special education classroom every year and taught my LD kids to draw. But I am far from expert. Never even took art in school after eighth grade. I guess the home ec classes helped me become a quilter eventually. One thing about having an artist for a father, I have never feared trying new materials since my dad always encouraged us to use his stuff. Pastels, watercolors, inks, colored pencils, overhead projector, nice brushes and pencils, charcoals were all as familiar to me as the smell of fixative in his studio. Thanks, Dad, for encouraging me to try to make art!

My books just arrived, but it looks like I will be learning a lot. The workbook has forty exercises to develop drawing skills. It says there are five basic skills of drawing. Only five?

1. The Perception of Edges



2. The Perception of Spaces



3. The Perception of Relationships



4. The Perception of Lights and Shadows



5. The Perception of the Gestalt

Wish me luck! Better yet, join in!

New Sunset Quilt and Mothers' Day Weekend

Unto These Hills 9" x 10" 2009

It appears I am on a roll creating art quilts with sunset views. Here is a little one that I made for my sister Katy, whose birthday was on Friday, May 8.

One of our favorite things to do is ride to the top of the mountain and view the sunset from the Christmas tree farms. The trees are just shapes cut freehand from green cotton fabric and pieces from a shiny, gauzy green wine bottle wrapper.

Below the mountains, I added a little shine with Angelina fibers.

The sky is the crowning glory. I started with a hand-dyed orange fabric that I needle-punched to a piece of batting. Then I kept building up color with sheer organzas and silk tops until I achieved the effect I desired.

This one has some scripture that I hand-lettered on a piece of sheer fabric and stitched on with silver thread and pink floss. It is from Psalm 121, Verse 1: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

The back is also a hand-dyed orange. I used monofilament thread in the bobbin for all areas except the trees, and you can see the trees outlined on the back.

We celebrated Katy's birthday in the mountains for a wonderful family weekend. Her daughter Melinda was there with new baby Ragen, who slept all night after enjoying the fresh mountain air.

We went to West Jefferson Saturday morning to pick up our groceries. Welch's Produce Stand has re-opened for the season, and we stopped for fresh strawberries, tomatoes, and homemade sourdough bread. Don't the hanging baskets look inviting? When we got home, we all sat by the creek and watched Ricky and Mary's grandkids playing in the creek below our cabin. They braved the cold water for quite awhile, enjoying the slide they brought down to the creek to play with.
Ashe County is several weeks behind the Raleigh area as seasons go, due to the higher elevation. The dogwood was blooming along the creek and all over the mountain.



Also, the wild azalea, wild irises,

fiddle-head ferns, and lots of other flowers were springing up. I went hunting for the elusive lady's slipper orchid, and found quite a few in the natural areas along our driveway.


Also, the lovely wildflower trillium was in bloom.

On Sunday, Charlie fixed me a beautiful breakfast since it was Mother's Day. We dined alfresco.

While we ate, Mama and Papa Bluebird were busy flying in and out of the birdhouse to feed the new family.

Did you notice the roses on the picnic table? They were a wonderful surprise from my son Bryson for Mother's Day.

Minutes after I took this picture, Charlie opened the front and back windows to allow a nice breeze. He propped the stained glass on the window sill. A big breeze came along and picked it up and crashed it to the floor. Now there is a hole in the shiny green area at the bottom, and quite a few cracks in the glass. :(

We did a little gardening after breakfast. I asked for some of the fertile black soil that my brother-in-law heaped along a spring head when he was digging it out with the backhoe. Good old Charlie brought me two Gator-loads to add to my little flower bed behind the back steps and under the bird feeder.

Our old doggy, Maggy, is still enjoying the mountains, although she has gotten very stiff and the back legs just don't have much power any more. She still did not want to be left behind on any trips.

We hated to leave, but are going back next weekend, when all our kids and grandkids will join us. When we got back to Raleigh, we went right to Dave and Emily's house to enjoy a delightful Mothers' Day dinner.

I have a very good life, and am a very happy mother.

Collages for a Cause

Fiberart For a Cause has been raising money for cancer through donations of quilts and other fiber art that is donated by talented, generous artists. Virginia Spiegel is the driving force behind this effort, which to date has earned an astounding $170,000 for the American Cancer Society.

I started thinking about the many friends and relatives I have lost to cancer. My mother, my grandfather, my mother-in-law, one brother-in-law who was only twenty, two cousins, two friends named Pam, other colleagues... More happily, I also have many friends and relatives who are cancer survivors.

This year I decided to support Fiberart For a Cause with the purchase of two collages. I was so excited to find out that I have now acquired these works of art.

Rayons de Soleil de Printemps

(Spring Rays of Sunshine)

Roxane Stoner

10" x 8"

In honor of my mother in law, Gaylene Stoner.

I could not stop looking at this piece when I was browsing through the beautiful offerings. I love the colors, the facial images within the sun, the primitive and wild-looking sun worshiper, that fabulous button or bead behind the hand, and the tumble of colorful fibers. I looked at the artist's blog, and found out that she is a Frenchwoman who lives in Alaska. Perhaps that explains even more the joyous welcoming of the warmth of springtime!

Fluttering

Annette Rogers

10" x 8"

This piece appealed to me first of all because of the depiction of oak leaves falling to the forest floor. I love the layering of fibers in the background, and I expect that in person, this quilt may have a bit of a translucent glow. I am wondering what the leaves are made of...possibly painted Lutradur? A nice addition to our mountain cabin, or perhaps my new golden beige kitchen here at home.

Collage Mania continues until 5:00 CDT today.

May Flowers

Last night, wild thunderstorms raged through the Raleigh area, with twisters touching down nearby. We spent the worst part of the storm happily cocooned in a private dining room at Bloomsbury Bistro in the Hayes Barton area of Raleigh. The lights flickered off once, but our dinner was not disturbed. I was sitting next to one of my husband's clients, who is a local artist specializing in oil portraits. She all but applauded as each course was presented in its artistic and appetizing garnishing. My favorite was an asparagus vichyssoise with raspberry coulis. MMMMN!

Today, everything is golden in the sun and sparkling with raindrops on the foliage. Here is a little tour of what's in bloom in my yard:


Huge rhododendron bush on north side of front porch

old-fashioned roses growing along back deck

Double-file viburnum, also on north side of front porch

Towering mock orange bush in sunny front yard

On another note, I put in bids to purchase a couple of collages on the Collage Mania site. If I win the bidding on any of my choices, I will post them tomorrow!

Fabric Postcard- Sort of...

Midnight Garden, 4" x 6", 2009

Here is my first project completed from the online Creative Challenge...a postcard I have titled "Midnight Garden." It has a base of a black trash bag covered with strips of colored plastic bags. All that is covered with a rainbow organza and needle-punched together. Then, I have stitched, beaded, and embroidered a bit. The gold flower centers are Ferrero-Rocher candy wrappers. The sparkling flowers and petals are glitter glue. The border has a purple silk ribbon and a strip of the same organza trapped between several colors of shiny threads.

Today is Opening Day of Collage Mania, a chance to bid on a piece of art to raise money for cancer research. There are thirty-six pages of eye candy to drool over at the Fiberart For A Cause page. On the first day of bidding, you can win the piece you select with an $80.00 donation. On the second day, the price drops to $40.00- but it might not be available any more!

Of course, my very favorite one is featured at the top of Virginia Spiegel's blog, so it will probably be snapped up immediately! It features a coneflower with pastel colors and a quotation about art.

A Little Art

I don't think I have shared the little baby portrait that my father, Pete Turner, painted of my new great-niece Ragen. Isn't it wonderful! She looks so angelic. He did this from a photograph.

Not this one...she has already changed so much!


Last night I was thumbing through my new Journal Bliss book by Violette and suddenly remembered, "Hey! I have a journal!" It is really just my quilting doodle sketchbook that I made in an online class with Sue Bleiweiss. I created this little fantasy garden while watching TV last night. First I drew the doodles with gel pens, then colored with watercolor pencils. Then I decided, "Why not wet a paintbrush and get the watercolor effect?" Well, I found out why. You lose most of your sharp line designs. You can see that by the little blurry flourishes on the top right. I guess I should use a more permanent ink if I want to preserve the lines. I went back over some of them with a black marker. Can you see any secret garden creatures watching you?



Here is another older page of doodles, drawn in gel pens and colored with colored pencils. This one reverts back to my Green Man quilt.

I had made a few divider pages for this sketchbook by painting Lumiere on heavy watercolor paper. I doodled some quilting designs over top with a gel pen. This might be a nice background for a collage or scrapbook page.

I think I mentioned that I made my husband a scrapbook for his 60th birthday using old family photographs from a couple of awful old albums his mom had put together with cellophane tape over the photos. I have been scanning like crazy to preserve the pics and crop out the bad corners. My hope is to make an album for each of Charlie's two brothers and his sister. I have them sorted and scanned, and am working on another one. Time-consuming and not my thing, but I want to do this for these wonderful siblings I inherited when I got married almost thirty-eight years ago.

Now, time to pack for a grand-parenting trip to South Carolina. We are leaving as soon as I get home from school this afternoon! Yippee!