Category Archives: Materials

The Art of Noticing

This doesn’t happen all that often, but I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to write this week. And then it occurred to me, perhaps that conundrum in itself is worth a few paragraphs.

The first pass of color literally sets the tone for what is to come

The challenge of finding something to share with you every other week, beyond just “I made this and then I made that” is a big part of what has sustained me in posting regularly for – can it really be? – nine years. Invariably, if I keep an eye open, something unexpected will spark an idea and from there it’s a matter of connecting the dots. My goal, of course, is that whatever that particular something is will be of interest to you as well.

Inspired by my sitter, drawing from my button stash was a no-brainer

So as I was driving to the grocery store several days ago, mulling over what I’ve seen, read, talked about with folks, and yes, been working on in the studio over the past couple of weeks, I was still coming up dry. But then it dawned on me: having nothing to write about is something to write about. In other words, running into walls is a given and finding a way around them is just as much a part of my (or any) practice as threading a needle and putting brush to paper.

The embroidery on this piece is relatively minimal. Not only does it encourage a viewer to slow down in her looking, but also to more closely considering the unique qualities of watercolor as the stitches and the washes work together. The hard and fluid edges throughout the work are another nod to the medium.

There’s no gliding through this game; every single detail is worthy of consideration. As Lorene Edwards Forkner of A Handmade Garden has written: “Noticing reveals the invisible”. So if I had to distill into a single element what it is that most feeds every part of my practice, both in and out of the studio, it comes down to two words: pay attention.

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While sewing the buttons on The Alchemist yesterday, I listened to a recording of Jeannet Leendertse talking about her work on Zoom. Leendertse forages seaweed (specifically Rockweed), that she sews into remarkable vessels and sculptural forms. As a native Mainer, I am intrigued by her use of this material that, as I grew up, was as common to me as grass.

Noting that she is highly aware of the materials she uses and the lasting impact of her creative process, Leendertse shared a link to Future Materials Bank, a resource that highlights sustainable materials gleaned from the waste stream and artists who incorporate them into their work. Check it out – you will be amazed and inspired.

Tools of the Trade

It’s been a while since I last posted about art supplies.
As I delve further into stitched paintings, new supplies are rotating into my regular line-up. I’m also reintroducing a couple of items that I haven’t used in decades, but happily never got rid of…chalk one up for pack-rat genes! Maybe something below will nudge you into thinking about trying something new – or old – in your own practice.

I’ve recently been considering the possibility of incorporating small areas of gold into my paintings. However, before dropping into a gold leaf rabbit hole, I realized I already had some ground gold watercolor pigment from Daniel Smith that I must have bought at their flagship store when we lived near Seattle almost 30 (gulp) years ago. It’s so old I don’t think you can even get it like this anymore, but what I have hasn’t suffered any with age. Once reconstituted with water, it’s just the touch of Midas I was looking for, without the learning curve.

When I worked in graphic design (and we actually drew with real ink rather than on computers), I had a ruling pen for making rules/lines. It’s a great tool that I’d completely forgotten about. Listening to a podcast recently, I heard someone mention using a ruling pen as a way to get a really fine and even line with masking fluid for her watercolors. Eureka! Works like a charm — as you can see both above & below.

Gold paint and masked lines in action on my current piece

It hasn’t taken long to realize that if I’m going to continue with watercolor painting, I need to stretch my paper. I wanted a couple of boards that could accommodate smaller cuts of paper and would fit on my desk with all the other supplies. But I didn’t want to have to buy a full 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood which was way more than needed. I’m so grateful that a friend had a smaller, cast-off piece in his barn that he was willing to throw my way. My husband cut it down into 4 pieces of varying sizes and sanded them to a velvet finish for me. A quick coat of sealant on the flat sides and gesso along to edges to keep out the water and I am now in business with several sizes to choose from. If you’re interested in making your own boards, “Watercolorish” has a solid video that discusses his boards and his method for stretching paper.

The algorithm on Instagram definitely has me pegged, so the ads I see are pretty much all art-related. In two cases I learned about items that have become my new workhorses.

Jazper Stardust paint is 100% handmade in micro batches of pure earth pigments. I bought a set of 12 half pans of what he calls “Skin Tones” and I absolutely love them. They mix and granulate beautifully. If you’re curious, he has loads of intriguing individual colors and sets – a lot of which are geared toward landscape artists with specific locales and weather in mind.

Last fall I bought two round Polina Bright brushes. Their performance is so outstanding that I bought a rigger and mop brush last month. Made with synthetic hair, they aren’t expensive yet they hold water and a point better than any of my other “fancier” brushes. Heads-up: she’s in Australia so your order will take a bit of time in transit.

And of course it pays to keep your eyes open because you never know where and when you’ll find your next treasure.

I grabbed this gem last weekend at a nearby bookshop; it’s from the awesome Peter Pauper Press (love their sketchbooks too). It comes with 3 removable book-like inserts: 1 with lined paper, 1 with dotted grid pages, and 1 with blank pages, and it also includes a zippered storage pocket.

It’s wonderfully compact (7-3/4″ x 4.5″) with a faux leather cover and an elastic band closure, so I know it will be secure in my bag and can stand up to lots of use, making it perfect for both travel and around town. I’m thinking I’ll just switch out a couple of the ready-supplied inserts for a homemade sketchbook using the Fabriano or Stillman & Birn paper I have on hand.

Finally, writing this post tickled my curiosity because I know there have to be plenty of other folks who are sharing what they know about art supplies online. Here’s a list of various podcasts that do just that. I can’t vouch for any of them yet, but I’ll be listening to “Art Supply Posse“ this afternoon as I continue with the stitching phase of my current work in progress.

Sneak peak of “Keeper of the Keys” earlier in the week as I was choosing thread colors.

A Gift Across Time

December tends to get away from me.
I’ve learned to make peace with the fact that studio time will be limited considering all the extras that go hand-in-hand with this particular month. But I still try to squeeze in time around the edges for making art .

On December 1st I began a new little house, wanting to get just one more under my belt before year’s end. I also figured it would be something of an ace up my sleeve for the busy weeks ahead, knowing there would be times when sitting quietly to stitch would get me into a calmer headspace.

Finished dye work

The sticking point with this particular piece has been the open areas where the silk didn’t absorb any dye because it couldn’t seep through the many-layered folds. Without time to do anything but forge ahead, I tried to position the blank areas so as to play off the steep incline of the roof. But that still wasn’t enough – the empty spaces seemed to hang in mid-air like a half-finished sentence.

Even with careful placement, the blank areas were overpowering

Thanks to a dog-walk epiphany after reading an article on Jane Perkins’ art, I decided to dig into a collection of white buttons that has followed me around for the past 35+ years. Their glossy texture and variety of sizes proved a means toward transforming the undyed emptiness into areas that could hold their own against, and in alliance with, the bold shibori patterns. Not unlike a Japanese garden, they provide a rest for the eye that includes an element of visual interest.

A healthy variety to choose from…

When I was first married, my mother gave me a baggie filled with white shirt buttons so that I would never be without when I needed a replacement for one of my husband’s work shirts. It was a sweet gesture and so “of an era”. And even though at the time the idea may have raised my feminist hackles a tiny bit, I recognized it then, and certainly now, as an offering that was a perfect expression of my mother’s hallmark thoughtfulness, practicality, and organizational skills.

And while I didn’t use many of the buttons for their intended purpose, I’ve kept the bag through all our many moves, and have continued to add to it ever since.

Icy Breath of Boreas, alternate view

Not only has this turned out to be a satisfactory solution for making this little piece whole, the process has also contributed to making me feel a bit more whole during a holiday season when for the first time ever, like so many other people, my husband and I can’t be with family. It brings me comfort to work with these little white discs of shell and plastic, to be blanketed in my mother’s thoughtfulness (this will be our 9th Christmas without her), and to think of this piece as a holiday gift she is sharing across time and space.

Icy Breath of Boreas, alternate view

Wishing you a peaceful holiday…

Living Color

If you had to choose one thing to work on for the next 6 months to a year, what would it be?

I’m still chipping away at my 2019 goal to incorporate more color in my life drawings.
Generally, what I think most about when drawing is line, so I’ve been using hatching to follow through on that plan. However, the more drawings I get under my belt, the more I see a glimmer of where further practice may lead.

The following quote pretty well encapsulates what pulls me into any drawing in the first place while outlining a worthy quality to strive for in 2020.

A line is a visual trail of energy that has been drawn across a surface, and is a manifestation of the life energy of the person that made it. ~Mick Maslen*

Rather than switching gears next year, I’m planning to build on the steps I’ve taken so far, while also working toward stronger color and deeper values. My experimentation with varying papers has shown me how much they contribute to the crispness and clarity of both line and color.

*I was interested in learning more about Mick Maslen since I wasn’t at all familiar with his name. Turns out he is a UK artist who taught drawing and painting for many years before retiring from teaching in 2008.

Through the wonder of the internet, I also learned he was a contributor to The Guardian newspaper’s 2009 Free Guide to Drawing, a treasure trove of interviews and tutorials with leading contemporary artists. Check it out! He, together with Jack Southern, wrote the book The Drawing Projects: An Exploration of the Language of Drawing, a major publication on contemporary drawing practice and theory. Boy, would I love to get my hands on a copy of that (!) – but an extensive search revealed it seems to be either out of stock or available at a too steep price. I will have to keep my eyes peeled for a copy in used bookstores — which may be a challenge outside the UK.

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If you’re interested in using learning more about colored pencils, this is a good place to start. The number of options may make your head spin, but it’s worth wading through the info to see what’s best for you.

Caran D'Ache Pablo

I started out with Prismacolor Verithin because I was drawing on vellum and wanted a pencil that was hard and would keep a strong point. But their colors are limited, and since I was moving to other surfaces, I bought a set of Caran D’Ache Pablo which are reasonably priced while giving me the most bang-for-my-buck, color-wise. The Caran D’Ache are much creamier and blend well, allowing for a strong build-up of color. The Verithin are best for seeing individual lines as you layer colors over each other, so I tend to use them in my life drawings where I want to see the hatching. They each react differently depending on the paper used, so lots of experimentation is worth the time.

Verithin

Drawing Ghosts

I’ve been searching online and on Instagram to see how different artists are incorporating graphite into their work. For the most part, what seems to surface leans strongly toward photo-realism. In fact, sometimes you have to look twice to be sure a given image isn’t a photograph.
Frankly, I’m not interested in that approach.

I’m much more intrigued and inspired by the fact that, as a medium, graphite makes it possible to accentuate line for line’s sake. I’m not concerned with achieving a smoothly polished drawing. Rather I prefer immediacy and rawness, qualities that I think make for a far more exciting result. The work of Stefan Zsaitsits is a perfect example. Explore his site to see the scope of his skills in portraying a beautiful image while never letting you forget that it is made from line. Graceina Samosir is another artist whose use of graphite is really exciting.

For the past several months I’ve been using Legion Stonehenge, a paper I bought for its sturdy and smooth surface. The problem is, even with the same tools I’ve been using all along, I’m finding it is much more difficult to get the fuller range of values that was possible on the lesser quality Bienfang heavyweight drawing paper I was using before the Stonehenge. Somedays I feel like I’m drawing ghosts.

I tend to use a .03 lead that leans toward the harder end of the spectrum because I want to maintain a very fine point throughout a concentrated build-up of crosshatching. I need to be sure those individual lines maintain their integrity. But I’m not fond of the resulting washed-out appearance.

I’m going to see what will happen by trying a selection of different papers. Hopefully one will have just enough tooth to get a richer drawing without compromising the sense of line I want to maintain. Our life drawing sessions are on hiatus for the next 6 weeks, which will give me some time to experiment.

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Humor and familiarity. One artist (Gerard Mas of Barcelona), two different bodies of work — both on My Modern Met. See and enjoy for yourself: wooden animals emerging from tree trunks & reimagined Renaissance women.

Colorhue

One of the questions I get asked most often is what kind of dye I use.
I first learned about Colorhue dyes from Glennis Dolce when I took her online shibori course in 2011. I was instantly smitten.

Even though they seem small, these 2oz. -size bottles last me a long time. I’ve learned to stock up during the warmer months so I don’t have to worry about freezing during shipment… a small price to pay for the privilege of living where winter is winter.

I have stayed with Colorhue exclusively since then, and like them for the following reasons:

-They are environmentally friendly
-I get immediate results without a lot of bulky, extraneous equipment
-I can achieve deep, rich colors

Intensely concentrated, Colorhue is an instant-set dye that requires only tap water (no chemical additives, pre-soaks, or heat-setting required). Very little water is used throughout the process. For most projects I probably use a pint to a half-gallon of water total, and since the vast majority of the dye is absorbed directly into the fibers of the silk, there is very little dye remaining to drain into my septic system (unlike the gallons of color-laden water necessary to rinse out excess Procion dye).

This 18″ square area is the heart of my dye set-up, even for large pieces. Yes, it’s really that small. The white mug in the upper middle of this photo contains the eyedroppers I use to apply the dye. I couldn’t ask for a simpler operation, which is exactly the way I want it.

The fact that Colorhue has only 11 colors may be seen as a downside for some. Rather than reaching for a ready-made color, I have to rely on the transparency of those basic eleven, mixing the colors I am looking for from scratch. The benefit is it opens the door to some lovely and unexpected results. This is somewhat reminiscent of the limited palettes many Urban Sketchers prefer in their ongoing quest to trim down the supplies they pack in their traveling sketch kits. (For a fuller idea of the power of limited palettes, read here and here.) And frankly, it’s a task that encourages getting to know one’s colors better; arriving at what you want becomes much easier with experience as you learn how each color interacts with the others.

If you’re selling hand-dyed yardage and need to be able to reliably repeat a color time after time, these are not the dyes for you. And initially they may seem expensive. But because they are so highly concentrated, they stretch a long way – so I wonder if in the end they really do cost much more than other options.

It’s not very glamorous, but having a sink in my studio made me feel like I’d really arrived.

I buy my dyes from Dharma Trading who notes:

“…great when you need fast results and are not too concerned with depth of color. Black is the most difficult color and comes out more of a maroony eggplant. Good silk dyes for beginners, classes, and quick projects.”

While I can see the angle they are aiming for, I think that’s a bit of a bum rap for a great product. As with any medium, time and experimentation are necessary for greater understanding of how far it can be pushed. In fact, I have had no issues with achieving depth of color, or in using black. I think Dharma does these dyes a disservice to imply they are student or beginner grade.

In process. Once the stitching begins I can see the nuances of Colorhue dye up close. The luminescence of the central area in this piece, paired with the arched shape, have put me in mind of stained glass windows. Please note the variation of colors as they mix together, especially around the edges of the arch. It’s rich passages like these which cause me to take issue with the suggestion that these dyes are limited in their depth.

One has to keep in mind they will only work on protein fibers. While they seem perfectly matched for silk, I had very disappointing results trying them on some wool challis. Also, I have only used them for work that is framed and hangs on the wall, never for clothing. With that in mind, I feel like I should supply the disclaimer that the above information is just a window into my personal experience. I make no definitive claims and would encourage you to do your own research to see if they meet your specific needs.

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Operation Night Watch – Live
Did you hear this? The Rijks Museum in Amsterdam has embarked on a huge research/restoration project of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Rather than conducting this process behind closed doors, they have built a glass box around the painting in the gallery, allowing visitors to watch all work taking place. Check out their website for extensive videos, information about the painting itself, and this huge undertaking. Fascinating!

Elizabeth Fram

Eye of the Needle