Projects in an Artist's Studio

Mixed media artist and Blogger Win Dinn asked readers to post a link to show what was going on in their studios. Photographing for this blog post made me realize how many projects an artist may have going on at once. For this post, I didn't include what was happening in the office regarding the selling of art. I know I spent sometime in the office yesterday printing off labels for cards and fabric packaging, as well as researching 'Made in Canada' labels, and ordering a maple leaf stamp through Creston Card and Stationery.

Check out what's happening in my studio below.

Developing a new card design. Hand painted textile bookmarks. I am trying out a removable glue for attaching them to a card. So far so good. (this is the only thing I moved in my studio for this photo shoot as I had just placed these on a shelf the day before)

Bookmark backing pieces left over from the 50 bookmarks already made.

Ironing interfacing onto my hand (dye) painted fabric for textile cards.

Sewing details on the card tops.

Threads from fraying the edges of the cards and bookmarks. What a tedious job!

Folding card stock for the textile cards.

  

Gluing the textile card fronts to the folded cardstock.

Weighting the cards down for the glue to dry

I couldn't resist showing you my favorite card from this group. As a matter of fact my husband liked it so much he removed it from the stack headed for sale at Creston Card and Stationery.

And my favorite 'Art' dog. If you look closely at the photo, with the sewing machine in it, you will see her treat jar in the background. I think the cool floor as much as the treat jar is what is keeping her happy in the studio.

 

A sewing project from a family member to make two scarves out of this one large one, one for her and one for me.

I dug this book out when I grabbed books for weighting the cards. I need to review bird anatomy for a community project I am involved in, teaching a group to paint birds in watercolour.

Fabric from my recent Indigo dyeing that is waiting for to me to price.

Hand painted sky and designed material waiting to be trimmed, pressed and priced. I am working towards two Quilt shows where I will be a vendor. One in Nelson, BC and one in Canmore, AB in Oct. I have to be organized ahead because the highlight of my year, art wise is coming up in Sept, well actually all of Sept and I am going to be busy painting in watercolour. I look forward to telling you all about it. It's going to be fabulous.

 

Well there you have an example of one person's studio. Feel free to send me a photo or an email about what you have going on. egidman@kootenay.com

Watercolour Tutorial: Berries

Do you know the blog '...And Then We Set It On Fire'? You've got to love that title. I am honored to have two photos of my fabric shown on today's post. Click here  to see samples of depicting texture on fabric.

Watercolour Painting: Arrow Creek Saskatoon Berries
by Eileen Gidman

 

 

 

Today I thought I would go into a little more detail with my second attempt at painting Saskatoon berries this year. This session, painted in the studio, was a little more controlled than when I painted the Saskatoon berries on location which you can look at here .

On a walk with my Border Collie, I collected one sprig of Saskatoon berries. Later in the studio I sketched it onto 140 lb cold press, Arches watercolor paper using a light F pencil. I turned the branch twice more and created a composition across the page. When I was satisfied with the sketch, using a pigma .05 black pen I went over the graphite lines with different pressures to create a variety of lines for interest.

A few light washes of colour.

Using a colour tool, I selected the colour scheme for the painting: a string of harmonious colours from blue-purple to a purple-red with a complementary chartreuse.

The background was washed in with a graduated wash going from light on the bottom to darker at the top using  a variety of purples. After that was dry, details were added to the background using a light purple mix applied with a round brush.

Additional layers were added in the background including painting around some leaf shapes (negative painting). To draw your eye through the painting, the colour of certain berries were deepened. Am I satisfied? Another watercolourist once said to me, "It is good to exaggerate your center of interest" so for the next berry picture, I would like to try enlarging the berries.

 

Just for fun, I have included two photos of textile pieces I have done. One uses the same colour scheme as I did with the saskatoons, and the other just the reverse with the harmonious string of colours in green and the complementary one colour in the purple.

 

Hand dye painted textile by Eileen Gidman

Hand dye painted textile by Eileen Gidman