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.

Sunday''s subject: Composition

Sunday's subject at LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts  was Composition: the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio, and the 1:1.6 ratio. The last two are related.

Here's a succinct video that explains the first two terms.  

Amanda Wilke, our teacher, showed us how the Golden Ratio applies to Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Here's an explanation of that and lots of other mathematics Leonardo knew and used. If you read The Da Vinci Code it might ring a bell.
Next week we’re talking about line and pattern. The following week is color and the final week is a wrap-up of all and any questions/special interests we bring up. 

At the end of the class we applied what we’d learned, using pages from magazines. That's mine, above. I did the division into threes, all right, but when I got home I saw the demon that haunts me: I'll work and work and think a piece is finished, only to discover I've inadvertently placed a bullseye in the center, like that black splotch in this piece. Never noticed it as I was working, but it sticks out taunting me now.

Chocolate sauce and a delicious dinner

I have so many recipes that I never know where to find the one I want. Like now -- I know I made a great chocolate sauce once; we're having company for dinner next week.* I'd love to have poached pears, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce. I need that very recipe!

****Dinner was Saturday, and it was a great time with wonderful friends. All along I was taking notes so that I will have the recipes and the whole plan for next time. This is one good dinner party!
Here is the plan, hopefully without too many details missing, so you and I can follow along next time. Without freaking out about missing recipes.

Menu

crudités
little toasts
Sriracha aoli and olive tapenade

Fish in the oven
garlic bread
slaw
poached pears
vanilla ice cream
warm chocolate sauce


Chocolate sauce

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate -- I use Kallebut or Trader Joe's 72% cacao dark chocolate.
3/4 C. heavy cream
Sugar to taste.
vanilla extract

Put the chocolate and the cream in a heavy pan and warm over low heat until chocolate is melted. Don't let it boil. Remove from heat and stir. Add sugar and vanilla to taste.

Recipe above 3x

a 17.6 ounce bar chocolate
2 1/4 C. cream
sugar and vanilla to taste

Poached pears
for 3 pears
1/4 C. orange juice
4 C. water
1 1/2 C. sugar
grated rind of one lemon
cinnamon stick
4 cloves

Cook all but pears until sugar dissolves. Add pears, whole but peeled (Leave stem on, if possible.) Simmer until pears are tender but not falling apart, about 15 minutes. maybe we'll see. Can do pears ahead and refrigerate in poaching liquid. Saturday bring them back to room temperature.


Fish in the oven

Red snapper at Southern Seafood fish store
(Snapper works fine. This time I used gag grouper -- no photo of that one!)

Butter a large piece of foil, 1 1/2 times length of the fish.
Lay fish on top. I used gag grouper. I've also used other grouper and red snapper. All good.
Fan tomato slices over the fish.
Scatter 2 chopped shallots over top.
Add herbs and dot with black olives.
Season with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle with lemon juice and parsley.
Butter another piece of foil to cover the fish.
Fold the edges.
Put in pan.
Cook at 410° for 45 minutes. This is for a thick fish. I cooked 3 1/2 pounds this time, cut into thinner steaks. It took 25-30 minutes. It's important to watch the fish.
Open one end of foil and test at thickest part of fish to make sure it is done.
Serve in foil, with top of foil removed.

Here's another way to cook fish in the oven

Rub grouper fillets with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper; add small tomatoes, lemon juice, parsley and dill, and black olives and maybe a little hot pepper.  Wrap in heavy duty foil and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until done.

Garlic bread
(Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics, p. 184)
(for one loaf)
Preheat oven to 350°
Process 6 garlic cloves
1/4 c. parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Heat 1/2 C. olive oil over low heat.
Add garlic mixture.
Cook 3 min. Cut ciabatta in half horizontally.
Spoon garlic mixture onto bottom half.
Spread 2 T. butter on top.
Place together.
Wrap in foil.
Place on pan.
Bake at 350° for five minutes. (I followed this timing, but I like it better when it's cooked a little longer. It's crisper and hotter.)
Discard foil. (That's what the Contessa says. I just fold the top of the foil back so I can serve it in foil.)
Bake five more minutes.
Slice crosswise.
Serve warm.

Rachel's slaw
Mix all ingredients:

• 1/2 head small (5-inch diameter) green cabbage
• 2 T. to 1/4 C. mayonnaise
• a couple drops Tabasco sauce, or use a little Sriracha mayo along with the regular kind
• 3/4 teaspoon fresh lime juice
• salt to taste
• honey to taste

Here's another similar slaw

Slaw like I made by accident, before I got Rachel's recipe

Mix all ingredients:

• 14 ounces prepared slaw
• juice of 1 1/2 limes -- or to taste
• 1/2 C. sugar, or to taste
• 2 tsp. cumin seed toasted and ground
• a few coriander seeds, toasted and ground
• olive oil as desired

Appetizer

Olive tapenade and Sriracha aoli (from Fresh Market)

crudité of choice
peppers
little tomatoes

cooked carrots

cooked little potatoes
and

little toasts

Shopping list

• grouper 3 pounds
• black olives 
• lemons
• limes
• garlic
• parsley for fish and bread
• vegetables for appetizer (I used a red and a yellow pepper.)
• pears -- 6 pears
• slaw, prepared 
• small tomatoes -- two pints
• 2 shallots
• ciabatta -- 2 loaves Ciabatta from Fresh Market
• butter
• ice cream
• sugar
• heavy cream-- 2 1/4 C.
• appetizer crackers
• chocolate (Kallebut or 72% bittersweet from Trader Joe's)

Schedule
Monday

• Shop for all groceries, except fish and slaw and some fresh appetizer thing.
• Prepare ciabatta for baking, wrap in foil and freeze it.
• Wash and iron napkins or make sure you have nice big paper napkins.
• Polish silverware (or not!)
• Find candles, candle-holders, small vases for flowers

Thursday

• Shop for fish and cabbage for slaw

Friday

• Cook pears
• Make chocolate sauce
• Fish waiting on ice in refrigerator
• Cut foil and prepare herbs, etc., for fish tomorrow
• Flowers -- coffee table, bathroom, hall, dining room

Saturday

• Make slaw
• Tidy bathrooms and sweep the floor

Quick and good: Mary's Brownies

I'm counting moments; I want to make art and I want to eat deliciousness. I used to make great things and lose them in a maelstrom of recipe clippings, never to be seen again. And many times I would add this or that -- make changes and improvements without noting it. I am learning -- late indeed! -- to get organized.  I'm really paying attention to recipes we love. I'm going to add the label Quick for good food that is quick. Now, I'm going to draw!

Mary's brownies

Melt together:
1 C. butter
2/3 C. cocoa

Mix in:
4 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
*May also add 1 tsp. instant espresso.

Then mix in:
2 C. sugar
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix just until combined. Pour into 9" x 13" pan or two 8" x 8" pans. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

Variations:
1. Mix the brownie dough with 1 C. salted, roasted peanuts, or more -- to taste. When brownies are cool, top with 1 C. peanut butter mixed with 1/2 C. powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Let that cool and harden and then top with 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate melted with 2 T. butter and then mixed with 2 T. cream.
2. When cool, ice with 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted with 2 T. butter and then mixed with about 1/2 C. powdered sugar and a little cream -- enough to make it spread easily.
3.When brownies are cool, top with cream cheese filling:

Mix together:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 C. confectioners' sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 t. cinnamon

Chill, then top with the glaze in # 1. 

Ask the Word Bird

Maybe the Word Bird knows.
I copied  a magnified bird (chickadee?)
then added detail using words I heard around me

At a workshop on drawing birds last week at Thomasville Center for the Arts,  I sat next to a fellow artist. She told me she does watercolors. I told her I make art quilts. Her face grew quizzical. She asked me something like, "You mean you make a big quilt and hang it on the wall?"

"No," I said, 'not exactly."

She doesn't speak my language. I'm beginning to realize hardly anyone does. When a professional artist doesn't have an inkling of what an art quilt is, it's time to pay attention.

"Be sure to come to the opening of the next show at Grassroots," I told her. "I'll show you." (I hope to have a piece accepted in the next Thomasville show ... but if I don't, I'll take some art quilts and show her anyhow.)

Some artists call it "the Q-word." Quilt. They prefer to describe their work as fabric collage, or mixed media. Indeed, that's what quilting is. But I had stubbornly convinced myself to continue saying I make art quilts; thanks to my new artist friend, I see that most people wonder what an art quilt could possibly be. And I'm afraid they will turn away before I have a chance to explain.

Susan Shie of Wooster, Ohio, calls her quilts  "soft art." She emphasizes she's artist first, quilter second. Yet she, and many others, proudly sew their art.

I'm a language person. I pride myself on clarity. Yet I have been insisting on using a confusing term -- not making any sense in the important issue of self-definition. How could I be so slow? And what am I, Word Bird?