November Stitching

I love black and brown together, so November is a good month for me.  I love the way we see more black branches and limbs and deep brown leaves that make the remaining colors pop.  Here are some of my components from Nov. 2016 that I am now joining together.

I probably shouldn't pick favorites, but this one wows me.  That dark brown and black with a little chartreuse and a pop of hot pink.  Yes!

Dusty Rose

Sometimes when I'm uninspired, I like to browse through SCRAP, our creative recycling center, or the Goodwill Bins and see what jumps out at me.  I was hoping I might find the perfect pile of wool strips to start rughooking, but that was not to be.  Instead I found a pile of cheap, very sturdy, flashcards, unlike the awful new index cards which are about the weight of binder paper.

They are perfect for small collages, and I wanted a quick project.  Recently my 17yo niece said her new favorite color combo. is black, white and dusty rose.  Dusty rose?  I hadn't thought about that since the 80s when all you saw was dusty rose and country blue.  I didn't like it then, so I was curious how I would like it now.

I pulled a bunch of my black and white painted and marked papers, some found papers, and ones in shades of dusty rose, peach, pink.  Not surprisingly, I had almost no dusty rose in my stash.  I challenged myself to work very quickly and intuitively, sometimes pulling papers blindly and trying to make them work together.  It was a lot of fun and got me going again.

Sometimes I let the word on the flashcard show through.

 Sometimes I added paint to try to get more dusty rose.

 And sometimes I liked it just the way it was and couldn't bear to add pink.

I also found this perfect index card holder for $1.  I love the thought of a whole box full of mini collages in different color palettes.

So did I come around to dusty rose?  Blush yes, hot pink yes, but dusty rose--bleh!

October Stitching Wrap Up

I love October colors, so putting together my bits of stitching from Oct. 2016 made me very happy.

Autumn Inspiration

October is my favorite month, and this one was spectacular.  I did very little artwork, but I absorbed all sorts of new inspiration.  Don't know if any of it will ever appear in my work, but my senses are filled.

I went on a cruise with my mom through New England up to Nova Scotia and Quebec.  I had been to Quebec 30 years ago, but I forgot how beautiful it is.  And how very European.

The countryside around Quebec is equally stunning and colorful.  This was one of my favorite buildings.

We visited the site for Anne of Green Gables while on Prince Edward Island.  I enjoyed those books many years ago with my boys and recently enjoyed Anne With an E on Netflix.  It was exciting to walk down Lovers' Lane or the Haunted Woods from the stories, and a beautiful setting overall.

I was really attracted to the simple house shapes in the fishing villages.  These are from Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia.

I thought I'd get burned out on lighthouses, but we didn't really see that many, and those that we did see were picture perfect.

 And then there were the lobster rolls!  I had 4 of them!

 

Ever since I saw these great pillows in Halifax, I've been obsessed with rug hooking, at least learning about it.  Wish I got the artist's name.

So lots of beautiful sights throughout the trip, but one of the main reasons we went at this time of year was for the fall color.  There were plenty of golds and oranges, but there has been no frost to turn the maples deep red.  Ironically, I had to come home to Portland to get a good dose of color.  We took a trip up to the Japanese Gardens which are spectacular right now.

Another bit of inspiration came from an artist talk/demo I went to at Multnomah Arts Center.  Elise Wagner is known for her encaustic work.  She has developed a method of printmaking using encaustic collograph plates.

Here is the print she made in the demo along side the ghost print.

And one of the plates she uses.  She etches into acrylic plates, adds encaustic wax, textures into that, then prints.

This is the second of the printmaker demos Multnomah Arts Center has done.  I am fascinated by the process, but also quite certain that printmaking is not for me. In fact, I heard the phrase "don't print like a painter" meaning don't make a big mess when you print.  I know exactly what camp I am in and will stick to my paint covered hands and messy edges.  It is fun to learn about new techniques though.

October Stitching

I've been stitching like crazy trying to catch up on Oct. before Nov. arrives.  I took my stitching along on my trip, but I never manage to get as much done while traveling as I think I will.  Now that I can see the end of this project in sight, two things are happening.  One--I'm getting very eager to join them all together in a large roll and let them drape.  Two--I'm starting to wonder if I will be able to come up with a new daily stitch plan for 2018.  So far nothing is coming to me.

Finishing Up September

I wrapped up my Sept. 2016 stitching project and am ready to move into the depths of autumn, my favorite time of year.  Here are all the components joined together.

I hope to be stitching with rich, fall colors all month, but I won't be posting.  I'm heading out on a cruise with my mom that goes through New England up to Nova Scotia and Quebec.  I've always had New England in fall on my bucket list, so I'm hoping we will catch it in all its glory.  See you in Nov!