Adventurous Dogs

WATERCOLOUR SERIES: THE LIVES DOGS LEAD

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman - SOLD

'The Sheriff and the Bandit'

Painting on Location at Valley of the Swans

The Creston Valley has also been known as Valley of the Swans. Fortunately a friend alerted me that there were Trumpeter Swans feeding in the farmer's fields on the 'Creston Flats'. This was the first time I was able to see them so close. The first day I went to see them, it was sunny and the water sparkled and the geese appeared so very white.

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman 7 1/2" X 10"

The next day, I went back and set up for painting on location. It wasn't as bright but I wanted to capture what was still in my mind from the day before.

New Year, New Techniques: Mark Making in Ink and Heavy Thread



Mark Making in Watercolour:

 

A new year inspires one to try new things. So at drawing session, I've been using a dip pen with acrylic ink. It dries fast and if I am quick I can add some values in watercolour. The poses last from a minute, at warm up, to about 20 minutes for the longer seated poses so there is no time to get too fussy. It forces you to make decisions about what you will include in your drawing and what you don't have time for.





 

 With having to dip the pen to replenish the ink, it causes a sketchy look. I find because I work with textiles, when I am painting I am often focused on depicting the fabrics. This chiffon skirt below, draped marvelously and the dots were spell binding. The colour in the background was from a commissioned watercolour I started but abandoned as the composition wasn't to my liking. It could be an interesting start for some added watercolour paint. 



 Look at those side buttons on that jumper. Who could resist focusing on those? Notice I was using fuchsia ink. Feeling colourful that day I guess.

 







In summary, I like the combination of the ink and watercolour. The acrylic ink which dries quickly seems more suited to this technique than India Ink which I have found has a tendency to bleed. 

 Mark Making with Thread:

When free motion stitching on my hand (dye) painted fabrics I generally use a regular weight polyester thread. Out of the blue I decided to try a heavier weight in the upper thread. The bobbin thread remained the same regular weight thread. I did need to adjust the thread tension slightly. The thread line is NOT smooth (likely due to the differences in thread weights between the bobbin and upper thread) but I like the textural nature of the line.



Cherry tree in Bloom using a heavier weight thread.



Who is peaking out the screen door?

More wrought iron and a hanging basket.

For my friends in Yuma, "Is this the gate to your yard?"

This heavier thread weight worked really well for these flowers.

Something for the recycle bin. Too much of a contrast between the heavy black line of the thread and the light value of the hand dyed fabric for my liking.   

In summary, I think the heavier weight thread suits the more organic images but when thread painting buildings, for instance, I prefer the standard weight sewing thread. Also consider using a lighter thread when the dyed fabric is of a light value.

Pink in Watercolour and Textile Art

Watercolour Painting Lesson: Two Coloured Background Wash

At our Friday painting group, I gave this lesson last week. Here are some directions if you would like to try it:

• Wet the paper
• When the shine is starting to go off of the paper, start at the top and add a very rich strip of your chosen colour. Add successively lighter strips of colour until about a third of the way down the paper. Keep your board slightly tilted to allow the colour to run down.
• While the paper is still wet, turn your board 180 degrees and add a strip of another colour at the top. Continue as with the first colour. Allow the two colours to move close together in the middle of the paper.
• When you are satisfied with the blending, lay flat and allow to dry completely.
• Add a silhouette of your choice to the top of the background.  
• On this sample piece, I lifted out a few highlights in the water at the end.

For the year end review, I had a look back at some art work in watercolour and in textile for 2014. Here are some PINK samples.

 Some work from the first online art course I have taken. If you have ever thought of taking one of Jane Lafazio's courses, I would recommend it. http://janelafazio.com/online-classes/

Joan, added pieced squares to my hand painted hollyhock squares. I am still thrilled with this wall hanging.

 Click here for more information on painting with dyes on cotton fabric.

 For this watercolour technique I used pen and ink. It has a nostalgic look, don't you think? 

Fabric painting with a Gelli Plate.  Win was the instructor for this fun workshop I took this spring. Click here for several excellent mixed media tutorials http://windinnart.blogspot.com/

I had fun quilting on a 40 + year old Bernia sewing machine.

Over-painting a Mono Print with Watercolour

On Friday after being away from painting for a bit, I found the need to warm up so I pulled out a mono print from my stack of watercolour papers and started adding watercolour paint. The printing of the original botanical print, in brown, was printed using acrylic paint. That layer then stays adhered to the paper and watercolour paint can be added at will. Because the acrylic paint was thinned with mat medium and was in a thin layer, the second layer with the watercolour paint seemed to adhere on top of it well.

For information on making the botanical mono print below, click here .

Mono printing with a Gelli Plate onto hard press 90 lb watercolour paper using acrylic paint as the print medium. This is the mono print I used.

If you would like to see gelli plate monoprinting onto fabric, click here .

I enjoyed the mixed media play time using a mono print to paint on with watercolour. Again, the Gelli Plate mono prints was made with acrylic as the printing medium. Glazing medium thinned the acrylic paint.

The pros I found were:

• the first layer stayed put
• lots of texture could easily be achieved with the monoprint
• it was fun to negative paint around this texture and create new shapes

The cons I found were:

• the piece was rather dark and I had no way of lightening it up without adding additional mediums such as gauche or acrylic paint
• I had to work within the composition of the mono print

Here are sections of the over-painted mono print. I am in love with the texture on the leaves that were printed and the leaves that I created through negative painting. Little things like this can excite a painter well at least it does me.

The whole piece in its entirety. Note the glazing of cerulean blue across the top to suggest leaves in the background. There are likely lots of applications for this technique. What can you think up?

 

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

 

Watercolour: Kaslo Series

Kaslo Series: Title???
watercolour by me, Eileen Gidman
7 1/2" x 11"
contact me at egidman@kootenay.com for purchase information

The fruit tree blossoms are always so jaw dropping gorgeous in the Kootenays at time of year. Kaslo, is a little gem on Kootenay Lake and as we were driving north from the village, last year in May, I called out to my husband to stop. I just had to spend a few minutes there soaking up the scene for future painting. An artist doesn't just use their sense of sight when developing a painting. I can still sense the aloneness on this quiet highway and feel the warmth of that spring day. I wish you could have been there as it was breath taking.

It's funny I didn't think to paint the scene this winter but when blossom time rolled around again, my thoughts returned to those memories and I felt compelled to put brush to paper. 

 

'Kootenay Lodge and Farm' is an obvious choice for a title, but I wonder what the name of that mountain is? Do any of you a suggestion for a title?

 

Flowers in Watercolour

'Bougainvillea'
watercolour by Eileen Gidman

As February contains Valentine's Day, I couldn't resist painting flowers and I seemed to be drawn to painting them in pinks. Although the Shasta Daisy is white, surrounding it with pink gives it a soft and romantic feel. With the Bougainvillea flowers, I did both a detailed study as well as a grouping of them. By keeping the upper flowers light, the focus remains on the lower more detailed image.

Although Bougainvillea are beautiful, the vines contain a lot of thorns. The flowers are actually the 3 little white clusters that are surrounded by the pink bracts as shown in the image in the lower left corner. Other plant colours include magenta, purple, red, orange, white or yellow.

'Daisy'

watercolour by Eileen Gidman

While the Oxeye Daisy is the native plant, the above is a cultivated Shasta Daisy which has larger flower heads. It was lots of fun to draw with the many varied shapes to the petals.


Chinese Painting and Plein Air Painting

What a great few days it has been of painting. On Friday, our painting club had lesson two from Linda Lashbrook, on Oriental Painting. It might not be something I pursue full time, but to stay fresh in my own work I find it important to challenge myself with different painting styles and techniques. That is just how I work but you may tackle your own art work differently. I guess that is what makes art work so personal.

 

In the workshop we practiced our fish and bamboo from lesson one. Let me tell you it was definitely necessary to refresh ourselves with the specific strokes. Later in the morning we learnt some techniques for flowers and we focused on the chrysanthemum. I am looking forward to practicing  flowers more.

 

Who doesn't like panda's and someday I hope to have the pleasure of painting them plein air but for this workshop we relied on photos our instructor provided. Too much fun!!! I only wish I had a photo of the cardinal birds Joyce painted to show you. She captured them in a few strokes so they had so much movement.

San Diego Zoo Pandas

I also had an afternoon to plein air sketch and paint. The drawing was done in ink without pencil drawing first, so it was a challenge. Sometimes if leaves or blossoms were missed, you just had to keep going and make it up a little.

Plein air Journal Sketching
'Pot of Petunias'

Watercolour painting from an online course plus Quilted things

'Lemon'
Watercolour by Eileen Gidman
completed for
Jane LaFazio's online class



 

'Design Strip'
Watercolour by Eileen Gidman
completed for
Jane LaFazio's online class

'Cut Lemon'
Watercolour by Eileen Gidman
completed for
Jane LaFazio's online class



As I mentioned last post, I am taking an online Sketching and Watercolour Course. I work best to deadlines so taking this online course is perfect for my goal of getting more sketching time in this Jan and Feb. Click here to check out the course, and other lovely textile and watercolor things Jane LaFazio does http://janeville.blogspot.com/

 

The following quilted pieces are by members of my Winter Quilt Group. I always love the 'Show and Tell' part of the  weekly program.

Fayetta's Crazy Quilted Jacket

The back is as pretty and fun as the front!

 

 

The center paper pieced portion of Joanne's quilt was to be a wall hanging but it is perfectly suited as the 'center of interest' in a large quilt. That center piece is very eye catching!

Sharon made a bed runner for her daughter's Christmas present as something different. Over the past years she has made her several Christmas wall hangings. When she told her daughter what it was, Sharon's daughter said no, she wanted it as a wall hanging! Lovely hand embroidered 'Red Work'.

 

Sketching and Watercolour Course online by Jane LaFazio

Lesson 1 of my first on-line course from Jane LaFazio



 



I am so stoked with completing my first lesson from Jane LaFazio's online course. Click here Jane LaFazio  to see the online course: Sketching and Watercolor Journal Style.   

Sometimes you just need a commitment to reach the goals you want to achieve. This is going to be a lot of fun while I focus on sketching regularly. My ultimate goal is to create some new designs for fabric painting. I have an idea of what direction I want to head in but having the commitment of weekly lessons will help me to focus.  Have you ever taken an online course? Jane LaFazio gives clear directions with this course and so far it seems like it will be motivating and fun. Check it out.

Fruit Still Life with Strong Directional Light

Oriental Painting Lesson by Linda Lashbrook

What fun to attend a workshop on Oriental Painting on Friday. Below are a few of the samples our instructor, Linda Lashbrook brought for us. The samples definitely inspired us.  

In the morning we worked on perfecting painting fish. Notice I said worked on. It takes years to master the complexities within the simple brush strokes. Loading the brush with several strengths of pigment at once results in brush markets that flow from light to dark. For us beginners we loaded our brushes with a medium strength of colour and tipped it with a thicker strength. Even this gave us a little variation within the brush stroke!

After painting schools and schools of fish, we felt more confident to attempt the bamboo, of course only after we had had  step by step instructions from Linda.

Oriental Painting Lesson
Instructor: Linda Lashbrook

 

Linda Lashbrook giving us a demonstration of the various brush strokes.

At the end of the day Linda demonstrated a blossoming tree. Something for us to aspire to painting.

My attempt at bamboo on rice paper.

Although Oriental Painting is traditionally done on rice paper or silk fabric, I thought as I mostly paint with dyes on cotton fabric, I would try that at home the next day. Below are two samples one in black and one in dark blue. I love painting the fish tails! The following were painted on soda soaked fabric and are now curing in plastic sheeting. After rinsing, I am imagining them quilted with some echo stitching of the same motifs.

At home I practiced the Oriental Painting on Cotton Fabric.

 


Six small blocks with fish and bamboo motifs on Cotton Fabric. Note the brushes with the thickened dye on the plate palette.