Registration is NOW OPEN for Basic Blues!

Confused over which Indigo Dye Vat to use?  In this Five Week Online Class we will explore five different methods to creating, and maintaining, an Indigo Dye Vat!

~ Registration is Now Open ~ Class Begins March 20th, 2017 Learn More Here!!!

Cretacolor Colored Charcoal Sticks

These arrived yesterday. I was stunned at how well the colors match my earth pigment, ocher, and clay painted fabrics.

My only regret is I wish I had ordered them sooner. Tis okay I shall be streaming in the very near future using these beasts to color fabric and paper, along with my earth pigments and soy emulsion!

Reds, Oranges, and Golds, are the Colors of My Soul!

Join me in my latest online creation Colors of the Earth! We will paint cloth and paper using earth pigments, clays, and ochers/ochres!!! Unleash the colors of your soul in this one week class!!!

Colors of the Earth

Begins October 17th!!!

Register Today!!!

FREE eBook Give Away Happening Now!!!

FREE Rust and Clay Dyeing eBook Give Away

Now through Tuesday the 16th!!!

Click HERE for details!

Junkin in June

More washi tape, from my favorite source Pixi's in Gilbert, IA. I have to admit that keeping a personal journal has become a lot more fun now that I've started incorporating all of those elements I've been collecting, but had no place in my regular artwork!  

Picked these up from one of the vendors at JB Knacker in Gilbert, IA this afternoon during their annual Junkin in June event!  

My watercolor issue resolved now that I've been reminded that I own sets of Caran D'Ache's Aquarelle watercolor crayons as I wasn't looking forward to replacing 20 year old dried up tubes of watercolor paints anytime soon!  Now that I'm using my aquarelle's again I can take my time and buy the colors I need preferably on sale as sets or as single tubes.

Studio Purge and Color Wheels

On Purging and Creating: I decided to take the month of June off from creating, etc., with the exception of the Art Walk here in Ames on June 6th, to focus on paring down my studio.  I've already started lining up local artists that are interested in my excess fabric, wool and silk fibers, oh and the yarn!  I have to say it's exciting, very exciting.

I had hit the wall and that wall was I cannot create anymore until I get rid of the excess in my studio it is weighing me down.  So out it goes so that I can move forward with my new Canyonland Series, and my collections for licensing.

Watercolor on Bristol board with Sumi Brush

On Color Wheels:  I love certain colors, and I tend to work ONLY with those colors in my work.  After twenty years of producing work I've decided that this is ok and these are my signature colors.  So I've been busy making color wheels in watercolor, acrylic paint, and with natural dyes, and how I achieved those colors so that they are repeatable.

On Planning:  Something I got from Lisa Call a couple of weeks ago that has lit a fire under my can is this:  "Planning is Defining the Dream!"  I started working on my business plan again, laying out the road map to where I want to go and have began planning how I want/hope to get there, and doing so has lit a new fire within me.

Birds and More

Getting ready for my Open Studio, for Art Crawl Iowa, in October. 
Ink on watercolor paper.

And then some down time with some hand carved and mounted stamps.

Ink on watercolor paper.

Beading Resumes

Was starting to make mistakes so decided to take the rest of the day off from writing and started beading instead.  Am working on the branch portion now, trying to integrate it as part of the whole piece.

More bead soups, this time greens, browns, and brownish purples so as to look like an actual branch in my crabapple tree.

Ok I know I've shown this last one before, multiple times actually, but I sooooooo love this color combination!  The only colors that make me even more happy are sage greens, purple sages, and golden greens.  It's hard to explain... except to tell you to go hang out on the open prairie in the fall.

Experiments in Sketching

Layers of ink, water color, and pen on watercolor paper. Inspired by Lascaux.

En Plein Air Painting

I spent some time on the porch capturing the colors of the crabapple trees.

Artist Date

It snowed, it's cold and slippery out, and we are down to one vehicle which John has at the moment so this weeks artist date was spent finding a cool container, in the house, to put my crayons in, and time spent coloring because... well I can!  Mindless fun at  it's finest.

Angel Toes

Studio Redux 062511

Color pencil tin.  Organizing my new studio space, bought a new tin today... well actually have been waiting a year for Dakota Junction to open up and have their annual flea market sale... It is short enough that I can find my stubby pencils once again.

Color Pencil Redux

I moved my watercolor pencils out of their larger tin and seperated them by color ways into tin mugs, I'm not sure if I like this set up yet or not, well I do for the greens and yellows.

Angel

Favorite Colors

Just a few of my favorite copic colors!  The marker in the middle is the colorless blender.

WIP - Girls of Summer

New Fall Colors

New Fall Colors - Silk Cocoons

Man's Best Friend!

John and Angel

Drying

Painted watercolor paper that has been glued, with gel medium, to a piece of ordinary plywood.  I may come to regret having used ordinary plywood in the future but for today's sample it will be fine.

I'm waiting for the gel medium to dry! Dry times are the hardest part about mixed media and my work shelf is currently unavailable, its one of those black wire shelves, actually dh combined two of them for me, that has 9 shelves that are approximately 7 inches apart.  So now I wait for this piece, and several others I have in progress, to dry.