Painted Warm and Natural

Well, today’s distraction is this tiny (about 7w x 8h) piece of painted warm and natural. A couple of months ago I saw an article about painting warm and natural and one day I spent about 10min painting a scrap. I used regular craft paint so nothing fancy, I think when I do this again I will use a fabric paint since it seems a little stiff. I found this today in one of my piles and of course thought I needed to immediately start to thread paint it. I should be working on my black and white piece or my peak performance piece but of course I got totally involved in this little rectangle After heavy thread painting it was a little distorted but I steamed it and it went right back in place. Here are the results. I think I need to beef it up a little with more contrast. Maybe Shiva paint sticks or something. Check back for the final results.

It's All Relatives

OK. This is my one claim to fame so far. I am a published artist! This quilt is a winner in the 2009 Quilting Arts Calendar contests. I must admit that I was really surprised and delighted. Especially since this is my first abstract piece.

The theme of this years contest was Celebrating Home. When I think of "home" many memories come to mind. It is not so much about a place but thoughts of my family that make a house a home. In creating this piece, I tried to think of a way I could show family and relationships. When you look at the shapes you can see that they are related even though each one is unique just like the members of a family. Each could stand-alone but they work better together and each has something special about it.

I painted the swirls using puff paint straight from the bottle on a single piece of fabric. Once dried and expanded, I applied several types of paint randomly over the surface. After quilting, I used Misty Fuse to add areas of Angelina fiber. Finally I added different yarns, threads and beads trying to add something to each shape to give it its own interest and beauty but not so overstated to upset the balance of the quilt. You can see the entire calendar at http://quiltingarts.com/shop/2009calendar.html,

Artist That Has Influenced Me The Most

Since this is my first blog post I thought I would start with something personal about me and my art. Recently I was asked what artist has influenced me the most in my life. I have never really thought about this but when I did I realized that it would have to be my Dad. He was not famous but he loved to paint. Most of his paintings were given away to pay for things that our family needed. When my brother broke his leg, the doctor was paid with a painting. I remember going to his office as a child and being very proud that my Dad’s painting was hanging there.

Working mostly in pastels and oils, he did incredible landscapes (gee..Wonder why I love landscapes...) He was 52 when I was born and I would get so angry when all of the kids at school called him my grandfather. He used to take me to the closest woods and we would spend hours looking at trees and plants. He especially liked orange milkweed and we would dig it up and take it home to plant in the yard. I remember sitting at the kitchen table and watching him paint. I even remember when he showed me how to draw a tree ...I still do really good trees :).

He was always telling me to look at the sky, birds, plants, trees and all of the beautiful things around me. I still get teased by my family for always talking about how beautiful everything is. I am following his lead and am constantly telling my 5 yr old granddaughter to look at the beautiful things around us. I think only about eight paintings are still in the family, I have two plus his sketch book.

He was a barber by trade and had to retire at 60 because he developed Parkinson disease. After a few years he could no longer paint and we had to sell our car since we could no longer afford it. He never complained and always had a positive attitude. He died at 72 when I was 19 (39 yrs ago). He also played five musical instruments and had his own band in the 40's. Writing this has made me a little sad since I haven’t thought about my Dad like this is quit a while . . .