Where to begin? Fall is here, kicking and screaming and I finally feel like I've had a chance to come up for air.
Studio Expansion: My garage is now officially a core component to my studio practice. Late July, we welcomed a third press to our family: a Chandler and Price Old Style platen floor model. Some good friends helped us load and move this along with a paper cabinet, composing table, type cabinet and full sized paper cutter. I am truly blessed. The flip side to this is making room and extra clean up. Almost all of my open studio time in August has been spent puttering away in my garage doing glamorous jobs like scraping old labels, sanding, painting and degreasing. We are in the homestretch now which is good - winter is coming and my car needs it's shelter for parking! On a side note, paper cabinets are a beautiful thing. With 25 shallow drawers, this is for my art supplies like what the wardrobe is for Narnia. Things feel so in reach and organized! Current Projects: I'm in the early stages of some small still life and landscapes for the upcoming Christmas season. I am also busy printing all sorts of letterpress goodies for market as well. Add in some collaboration involving a laser engraver, block printing more flour sack cloths, instructing as well as the aforementioned studio expansion and I am a busy girl. Website Update: I've cleaned things up and added some greater detail on events and workshops. I've been planning this out in my head for a while and finally sat down long enough to get it all up on the web. I still have loads more pictures and details to add, but this should suffice for the moment. I have a love hate relationship with digital tinkering. Plein Air Postponement: My deepest apologies to all of you who have expressed interest in further plein air meetups - this has been on my mind constantly. I had a domino effect happen with that equipment acquisition that affected too many areas of my household. Add in multiple extra weekend bookings for August and I couldn't make it happen. Stay tuned for spring though - I have some alternate ideas I'd like to try out with plein air! Leighton Art Centre will be having a printmaking show from June 24th - September 24th and I am really excited that they have chosen all three of the pieces I submitted for consideration!
As some of you know, I'm working through this plates theme in my paintings lately and it seems to have jumped the barrier into my printmaking. I really enjoyed taking the time to carve out the patterns that have been so familiar to paint. Stripping away the colour, texture and tone to focus solely on the graphic nature of these pieces of china was immensely satisfying. These are all printed in their own limited edition of 10. The first of each will be framed and available for sale at the Leighton Centre, the others in the edition will be for sale unframed (at the moment). Please send me an email if you are interested in knowing more about these pieces! It's been a busy time of making in my little studio! I have a number of projects on the go - painting, linocut printmaking, letterpress, lesson prep and then I've had a couple of orders for flour sack cloths. I am very relieved I have moved on from the season of endless paperwork and can instead focus on getting my hands dirty every day!
I recently had to change suppliers for my flour sacks. Man, are these new ones ever nice! These are very thick and thirsty and they take the dye and ink beautifully. They are larger than my other flour sack cloths, they measure 30" x 36". Like any flour sack cloth, they get better and softer with age. These are heat treated so the ink is permanently bonded with the cloth. It's been neat that people have been ordering batches of these, a lot of them destined to be gifts. They are pretty versatile, they can be used as tea towels, receiving blankets, scarves or bread basket liners or whatever else you can think of! This batch was a mixture of deep blue, light blue, tan, orange, deep pink, and light pink (the 2 light pink ones are still available). I will be printing more deep blue, deep pink and tan ones in the coming weeks as well as dying some fresh batches (I just have to decide what my new favourite colours are!!) If you are interested in a custom order, just shoot me an email and I can let you know about price and shipping. Usually I can have an order ready to ship in a week or two depending on quantity and if you have specific colour/design requests. I feel very behind the scenes this past few weeks. I've been busy working on a couple of orders, writing proposals and getting all my paperwork in order for tax time. I'm ready to be posting some new work at the end of this week. I have to laugh sometimes because an artist is usually measured by their social media output and so when I slack off on putting fresh work up online, I feel like people think I'm probably busy reading romance novels or something!
I have a couple of demonstrations and classes I am excited about in the next few weeks - all centered around linocut printmaking. I have a particular fondness for working with people who are new to a particular art form. The opportunity to empower someone to step out of their comfort zone and build a new skill (and work with sharp tools) gets me quite excited. These are usually my favorite kinds of classes to teach. March 24th - Visiting artist to the Cochrane Ranchehouse In conjunction with my show upstairs at the Ranchehouse, I will be set up in the main foyer with my tools and ink demonstrating printmaking from 1pm - 3pm. This is a beautiful location and I'm looking forward to sharing my art with the locals. Find out more here. March 25th - Leighton Art Centre, Calgary Basic Linocut Printmaking This will be a one day workshop where beginner and intermediate students will be walked through cutting, inking and printing thier own linocut blocks. You can register here. April 1st and 2nd - Kelowna Art Gallery Basic Linocut Printmaking This is a two day intensive workshop where we will explore all sorts of the possiblilites of linocut from craft to fine art. Class size is limited so registering soon is recommended, You can do that here. Looking forward to getting out of the studio in the next few weeks. I'll also be posting some new work in the coming days so stay tuned! |
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