Needle and Thread

the name of my new series of paintings for my solo show

The Joy of Making is the name of my solo show in May. I not only wanted to highlight my love of painting and making art but I also wanted to pay tribute to my family’s talents and the things that my Mom taught me when I was younger. From a very young age my Mom taught me how to make doll clothes with hand stitching and later how to use a sewing machine. She also taught me how to mend socks and sew on buttons.

As I got older I taught Family Studies and taught 11 to 13 year olds how to cook and sew. They learned how to embroider, quilt and sew clothes. I continued to learn and practise other needle crafts such as knitting, cross stitch, weaving, basketmaking and more. In my 50s I learned how to use watercolour and later I ventured into abstract painting using acrylics and collage.

Here are the first three pieces of my Needle and Thread series.

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Mending a Broken Heart
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Those ‘Darn’ Holes
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Mom’s Button Box

Bookmaking and Botanical Lines in Ink

results of yesterday’s free on-line class

I’m always getting offers for free on-line classes to make art. Some of them are good and some have way too much talking and not enough ‘making’. Yesterday’s class was one of the good ones. It was hosted by two artists, Amy Maricle and Ali Manning. I’ve taken classes with Amy before called Inchies but this was my first class with Ali. Ali instructed us on how to make books. I’ve done this before but it was a good refresher and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I may make more books over the weekend.

After the books were made, Amy took us through a process of using India ink and a bamboo brush to make botanical marks in our new books. It was a way to experiment with ink and diluted ink. In the past I’ve used Micron Pens in her classes, which is much more controlled. I enjoyed learning from both artists. Here are the results of the hour spent with these two lovely ladies.

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Weekly Prompts Weekend Edition – Easy

thanks to Sue W. and GC for hosting Weekly Prompts https://weeklyprompts.com/2022/11/19/weekly-prompts-weekend-challenge-easy/

When I need to take it ‘easy’ I like to doodle or paint. This particular painting was ‘easy’ to do and helped me momentarily to take my mind off of our health issues. Thankfully we are both fully recovering.

I call it The North Shore After the Storm

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Wishing the World Peace and Harmony

….difficult to paint when I’m seeing so many negative images on TV

I continue make art every day but on Day 6 of my March Art Challenge I needed some positive symbols of peace. For my warm-up activity I found these Chinese characters of Peace and Harmony.

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A Bright Idea

before drawing butterflies in my next art piece I decided that maybe I should do some practice drawings first

Here is my first attempt at a butterfly. I think it is a bright idea to practise first. I discovered that adding colour after using my new fountain pen could be a problem because the ink from the pen bleeds when it comes in contact with water.

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Thanks to Becky B for hosting BrightSquare for the month of April https://beckybofwinchester.com/2021/04/09/bright-square-9/