Eyes wide open: faces in my sketchbook

V is my favorite letter; you can see it in my drawings.

Azaleas

Azaleas

21 1/2" x 21 1/2"

Cotton, tulle, flowers, silk, gilt

stitch, paint

Azaleas detail

Center of large flower is an azalea blossom from our garden

Azaleas process

I started with some azalea drawings I made in my big sketchbook. I enlarged this one (on the right),  traced it, and made a model from buckram, and cut the flower from an old silk shirt.  Eventually this flower was abandoned!

Azaleas process

3 strips of cotton at ratio 1.6:1: 1.6

Paint, print, stencil with acrylics

Testing paint colors and fabric for flowers

Playing with color and placement of flowers

Testing color for backing

You can see a light purple at the top and right edge. Didn't like it!

Attaching Mistyfuse to back of fabric. Flaws are because I removed the ironing cloth 

before cotton was cool

Azaleas process

Backing is Timtex, a stiff support that shows about 1/2" on each side. 

Cut Timtex the same size as completed art. The dark purple Kona cotton is 2” more, so it can wrap around the Timtex and leave a 1" "border" on the back. I added a piece of muslin over this. Before attaching, I put Fray-check on the edges and attached a rod pocket and a label. For adhesive on the back, I used Mistyfuse. 

Eyes wide open: Panacea & Phipps Park

If it looks like a beginner drew these, that's right. These are "assignments" from the great Susan Shie drawing class I took online last month. I'm going to keep on drawing! It suits my voyeuristic inclinations. 

Panacea, FL, is an unincorporated community that shows a rather tacky public face and keeps its sudden beauty quiet. Down a sandy road, past untended yards and simple houses needing paint, you can drive straight into a heavenly bay. Hoist a sail upon your car and you will soon be in the Gulf of Mexico.

 The story is that a Yankee bought some land here after the Civil War and named it Panacea, trading on the supposed healing powers of nearby springs. The name stuck, although they say a few old-timers refuse to use it, even today. 

Now some people want to make Panacea an incorporated city. But that is far from a sure thing. Florida House Bill 593 would allow the residents to vote on whether to be incorporated or not. The bill unanimously passed one House subcommittee in March, but it has two more committees to go. There are those who say it wouldn't be right, because some landowners live elsewhere, so they can't vote here. Others say the residents should control their destiny--especially their miles of coastline. 

 Panacea's population is about 800. The signs that are going up on lawns and in stores around town say: "Yes. Panacea Incorporation. Opportunity. Self-government. No New Regulations/Taxes" and also a great big NO sign over the words "Panacea Incorporation."

Zing! and I like to run in Phipps Park. We take the same trail every time, yet it's always new. We had not seen a butterfly all winter. This is the first of the season. Sometimes we go the whole way without seeing another dog or human. This day this man didn't see us. He was lost in a book. 

Susan Shie: More rowdy joy

Thread chasing scissors

10-minute morning draw

I got so much from Susan Shie’s online  drawing class, which ended this week.  Here is one of her final emails to me. It was a response to my question about using text with image, but it applies to all of us all the time! 

 Susan said, "I believe that whatever an artist feels naturally, that she wants to do with her work, is what matters. Not style or correctness, but desire to communicate in whatever way she feels like doing it. I think what I want my students all to aim at is feeling free to express yourselves openly, without hesitation, in whatever way you feel the strongest hunger to make art. This comes back to my opinion that we did this the very best at about age 5 or 6, when we had developed enough motor skills to make images that people understand, and yet, were not yet aware that good and bad, right and wrong exist in art making. So it comes down to wanting you to regain your innocence and joy in making art! We adults are pretty boring in general, caught up in our first concern for propriety. We need more rowdy joy and connection to our free spirits, who are definitely still in there, patiently waiting to be set free again. I hope this class helps make that happen. And taking this class in the same way we take yoga class, helps people stay in that state of openness, I hope. I cannot go long without my yoga class, because I don't like just doing it on my own, and I need the discipline and sharing I find in that class, which is a support group with a focused leader. Both yoga and drawing are ways to help us keep our soul-self close to the surface in our lives."

The next class is April 14- May 11. Learn about it here.