Almost Wordless Wednesday

The poppies are gracing the garden again...

Time Away in California

Thanks to my mom who came out from Chicago, I flew to California last Thursday. My husband had business to conduct that day, but had most of Friday and the entire weekend free, resulting in our first time away without our children in sixteen years.  It was wonderful.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our three days.  I'm sure more photos will be appearing over the coming weeks.

An obliging butterfly who looked grand in the yellow flowers

Here's one of the beautiful views in Garrapata State Park

One of the beaches filled with all the wonderful things that eventually become sand.  There wasn't a smooth surface to walk on and I was glad I had on shoes.

Who'd have thought there would be cacti by the ocean?

This was prime harbor seal pup time and I thrilled seeing them lounging about with their mothers and nursing.

The wild poppies were blooming, too.  How could I end my post with anything but this?

There's a Super-Secret Project Afoot

HOLY SMOKES!  It's been ages since I lasted posted.  The time just flew by as I checked things off my ever-growing to-do list.  I devoted a lot of time to one particular super-secret project that will be revealed in a few months.  Until I can speak of it, I leave you with this teaser:

You're right; that's a very unsatisfying photo.   Fortunately, it's not the only thing I've been working on these last few weeks.  I also worked on my kimono-inspired piece for the Fiberarts Northeast (FANE) special group exhibition that's on display this weekend at the Northern Star Quilt Guild show in Somers, New York.  Our artwork will be displayed on a T-stand that allows our works to be presented in shapes reminiscent of kimonos.  My piece is pretty different from other works of mine and did not photograph well on the design wall.  So instead I'll share two detail images: the first is a view of the patterns I drew for the side panels of my kimono, and the other is a close-up of part of my center panel that I screen printed.  My kimono is called, "Shards".

Pattern close-ups

"Shards" detail

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I think I'm beginning to like the potential and quality of the iPhone camera....

Another dance weekend....

....  for my daughter (photos courtesy of PLATOON).

Summer's Kiss

You saw my poppies in my previous post, inspired by Francis Thompson's poem, The Poppy. (Read the whole poem here.)  I have a love affair with the poppies that grow in my garden and I can never seem to have enough poppy photos.

Upon reflection, I realize it's probably no surprise that I was inspired by this poem; spring is in the air and the season of the poppy is approaching.  And thus it was, after my failed autumn-inspired piece, that I started work on Summer's Kiss, my new piece for our FANE exhibition, Poetic Fragments.  Aside having to be inspired by a line (or two) of poetry, our artwork also had to be created of more than one part and fit into a 14" square, adhered to an 18" square canvas.  My individual poppies certainly meet that requirement, but I took it a step further and made four separate background pieces.  I was in full watercolor crayon mode and all the fabrics for the piece were created using the crayons.

Summer's Kiss, 14" x 14"

To see this and all the others pieces by members of our group, please go to the Mahopac Public Library Gallery any time from April 28th through May 30th.

Trial and Error

There's been a lot of trial and error in my studio these last two weeks.  Lots and lots of errors.  Some weren't even exciting mistakes.  For example, it took me three tries to paint the canvas for a new small piece I made. I just couldn't get the color right.   I don't know why it was so hard to do, but it was.

But I worked through it.   Now I have a new piece for my small work series available through Galleribba:

I also started on a new direction on my piece for our upcoming Fiber Art Northeast (FANE) exhibition.  All the pieces were to reference poetry as inspiration and I had something wonderful to use, one I've used before:  "Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it!" (George Eliot)  Somehow though, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my piece to work.

So I scrapped what I was doing and began anew, this time using poetry by Francis Thompson as my starting point:
                          Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare, 
                         And left the flush'd print in a poppy there

Now I have some flowers that are going to be elements in my new piece, scheduled to be part of the FANE exhibition next month.

Yes, I must keep on working....