More Fun with Portraits

"Aubrey in Abstract"

I recently purchased a new laptop computer. New computers come with Windows 7, Windows 7 requires Photoshop 8. All this means you learn everything all over again. Photoshop is a lot more fun than Windows to play with.

That is how I happened upon playing with this photo of my granddaughter, Aubrey. I was trying out some of the applications and came up with this abstract. I had been wanting to see if I could come up with a more angular design and found this.

I am having the most fun playing with the possibilities. More to come.

More Fun with Portraits

"Aubrey Highlighted" or "Ohm"

When I was working on this photo in Photoshop and adjusting the lighting my finger got heavy and this happened. I love it! I think I know how to recreate this technique but haven't had time yet to explore. I am wishing more and more I knew more about Photoshop.

More Fun with Portraits

I haven't pressed this piece yet because there is a problem with the eyes. I had trouble figuring out what was wrong until I actually put the photo and the portrait together. I knew the left eye wasn't right but couldn't see what the problem was until I put the two side by side.

I am going to continue working on this piece and will post photos later.

AQS Paducah

I had plans this morning to post some new portraits I've been working on. I may get to that later today but wanted to let you know that my new piece "Love" has been accepted in the show at AQS Paducah.
Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to attend the show because I will be teaching the following week at JC Campbell, in Brasstown, NC.
Hope you will look at it for me and maybe take a photo.

"500 Art Quilts"

500 Art Quilts

The long awaited release of "500 Art Quilts" published by lark Books is this week. I almost didn't enter any of my art for this book but finally decided, "What have I got to lose". They accepted two of my pieces. Below I talk about each quilt and give a little insight into the making of each.

This is a beautiful, beautifully edited book. One that I think you would never get tired of picking up and looking through. Check it out on Amazon.com

"500 Art Quilts"

"A Touch of Red"

This quilt was born out of my desire to step "out of my box" a little.

If you follow my blog you know that I love, love bright colored fabric. When I drew up this Oriental lily design I decided that I would use only black & white fabrics in the design.

I had tried this once before when I was working with a whonky Drunkard's Path pattern but wasn't successful. I was a little hesitant but decided to attack the project with all I had. After auditioning my b & w fabrics, a small stash I might add, I started cutting. There were several petals that just weren't working with my fabric choices so I discarded them and tried another fabric. Finally I felt I had the right fabrics.

I asked my friend and fellow quilter, Diana Pickens if she would quilt this piece for me and we decided to do a collaboration. This allowed us to be able to enter the quilt in computation. It was accepted at IQA, Houston, TX and AQS, Paducah, KY.

After discussion with Diana about the idea of the quilt we both decided that it had an Oriental flavor. Trusting her judgment I left the quilting design up to Diana. After studying a book on Japanese wood blocks Diana came up with the designs she used in the quilt.

When I received the quilt back from Diana, very satisfied with the quilting, there was still something not quite right. It was then that I decided to add the red beads to the stamen and the Chinese characters for lily. I did some research on the characters but finally relied on a friend, who had lived in China for quite a few year's to write them for me.

Finally I felt the piece was finished.

"500 Art Quilts"

"Peacockiness"

After I finished "A Touch of Red" I decided that I wanted to go back into my box and recreate the same design/pattern in my usual bright fabric colors. While the Oriental lilies in my garden are pink I decided to use an orange/blue palate of colors.

After I finished the lily, I create my flower first off of the background, I couldn't find a piece of fabric large enough to accomplish what I wanted to do. I didn't want a background with straight seams. The solution for this was to cut my fabrics into gentle curves and piece the background. Obviously, when you mess with curves the fabric sometimes ends up on the bias. I had a hard time getting this thing square. I had to remove the binding several times but it now hangs square.

My good friend and fellow quilter, Diana Pickens also machine quilted this for me. This quilt was accepted at both IQA, Houston, TX and AQS, Paducah, Ky.

Machine Quilting Unlimited Magazine

Several months ago I was the featured artist on the blog Subversive Stitch, Women Armed with needles. As a result of that article Kit Robinson, editor of "Machine Quilting Unlimited" asked me to submit some photos for the Note Worthy pages of that magazine. I happily did so. Kit chose "Love" to be included in this months issue.

Below is my page and the story of this quilt.

Thanks Kit.

Machine Quilting Unlimited Magazine

This is the page devoted to my quilt "Love".

This piece has a special meaning to me. I don't know this young girl's name or her daughter's name but the hour or so I spent with her left a lasting impression.

Our tour group, visiting the Copper Canyon in Mexico, had stopped in a small village to see a spectacular waterfall in the area. Normally the bus would have taken us right to the waterfall.

The area had experienced unseasonable cold and snowy weather and the road was icy. The driver would not chance taking the bus up the dirt road. Our guide made arrangements for those not wanting or able to hike to stay on the porch of a rustic lodge. I had experienced some medical problems during the trip and opted to stay at the lodge.

The women in this region made lovely double-sided baskets. As in all the areas we stopped, the local women and children set up shop with their hand-crafts. This young girl, age 17, came over to the steps of the lodge and sat working on a basket. One of our guides came back to make sure we were all doing well and struck up a conversation with the girl. After a bit she asked us if we would be interested in seeing this girls home.

About four of the women, myself included, said "yes". The house was in a field next to the lodge. When we entered there were about six people sitting around a metal barrel with a fire inside. The house was one room with five beds. (mattress' on a board lifted of the floor by post). Seventeen people lived in that one room. The floor was dirt and rock and the wooden walls had as much as one to two inches of light showing through.

Yet, when this young girl picked up her baby there was nothing but love in her face. I tried to capture that look of love in this piece. I also wanted to show them in a beautiful environment. Since the waterfall was near their home I chose to use it as a backdrop.

This beautiful young Mexican girl and her baby's image has stayed with me for three years waiting to find its way into my art work. I hope I have achieved what I started out to do.

BottleTree

My NEW laptop computer is in the shop and with it are the folders I have most of my photos stored. Hopefully the problem is minor and I will get it back soon. This photo of the bottle tree was taken by our neighbor, Tom while we were in CA. While I hate cold weather I do love a beautiful snow fall. According to Tom this was the best kind. They woke up Sat. morning to a beautiful light snow covering everything. By noon you could drive anywhere you wanted to. I really hate I missed this one especially the photo opportunities.

This past summer my son, Lee constructed a bottle tree for me in the front circle of our drive way. I wanted the tree to be covered with blue bottles with an occasional pop color. Obviously I started with what ever bottles I had, and most wine bottles are green, but between my neighbors, the convenience station, near our house, and an occasional blue bottle of our own the tree is now covered with blue bottles. We have one brilliant red bottle compliments of our neighbor.

Tom and Kaye are wonderful neighbors and they go beyond the call of duty. They visited the liquor store soon after my tree was installed. Not being big fans of white wine they asked the clerk if she had a good wine in brightly colored bottles. That is where the red bottle came from. They have also contributed a few blue bottles as well. Thanks to Tom for taking this beautiful photo for me.