Last week's project...conquer the BIG canvas fear

Conquer  the big canvas fear!

Actually I worked on two of my fears last week...big canvas and testing fibers on canvas.

First let me talk about my fear of big canvases.  I have tried doing larger canvases and have hated them and they sit in my closet waiting to be be painted over.  Generally I like to do small works from 3" - 12".  the are nice doable sizes and usually on paper, not canvas.  But if I do a canvas it is small also.  Ok, so I like painting on paper because easy to ship on my Etsy shop and if the don't come out as I like they can go into my scrap box for the one day when I conquer my collage fear (coming soon!)

Canvases on the other side, I am really scared to mess them up.  But this week I went decided to just do it.  So here is my canvas.

 
I prefer the vertical position, but wanted to show up the horizontal too.  I have a hidden signature so it can be hung either way.

So let's talk about size!!  24" x 12", ok as I type that size it sounds small, but it is much larger than my comfort zone.  As you can see in the next photo, it takes up my whole photo light box!

 
Now I need to talk about my second fear/challenge...adding fibers to canvas.  A long time ago, about 11yrs ago I had this dream or desire to create works of art that encompassed me.  What do I mean me?  Well I have tried every so many things like stamping, scrapbooking, beading, sewing, quilting, embroidery, fiber art, and painting.  I knew back them I wanted to create art that incorporated all my skills into one piece.  But, when I told friends they would look at me weird and ask what would you do with it?  Funny thing I heard about mixed media back then, but much of what I was seeing was vintage or grunge, neither was where I wanted to go.  I knew it would be abstract and textured.  Somehow, this week I feel I am getting closer.  Those darn baby steps take so long to get up to running.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this wild, bumpy, crazy ride.

So, take some time to look at some of these yummy textures....

Alright, I have to admit I did enjoy doing that larger of a canvas once it was finished.  In fact today it was hard to go back to the smaller ones for my next project.  This next week I am going to conquer my fear of collage.

See you on my next adventure.

Judy

Whew! 3 months since I posted!

What have I been doing!  I had no idea that it had been so long since I updated the blog. Some days I feel there is not enough hours in the day.

So since I have last posted...my daughter had surgery, my senior dog got sick, hubby went into the hospital and I have been trying to keep up some sort of normal by doing daily paintings and daily walking.  Most days I don't sit down until 8pm!

Here is the good news, I got published in Sew Somerset.  It has taken some time for the publication to come out.  But for all the nay-sayers about Etsy, the magazine found me on Etsy and asked me to to send in some of my work.  I sent in 5 different fiber art pieces and they are all being published!  Very exciting.

I have not received my free copy and my artwork back yet, but I did find this on the shelf at Barnes & Noble.  I think the lady next to me thought I was a little strange to be taking a picture of the magazine on the shelf.

My article is on pages 56-59.

There is a little bonus on page 137 too.

Although right now I am not working too much with the fiber, I still have some on my Etsy shop.

I will try harder to update this blog, but you are more than welcome to follow me on Instagram https://instagram.com/judy_applegarth/ to see what I am working on daily.

Judy

#63 - I need your help/opinion...(Warning lots of photos!)

Happy Wednesday!  I am here with the #63 of 200 painting and I am not sure what to do with it.  So I am asking your opinion.  I took a watercolor collage class this past week-end and I am sharing one of those collages with you today.

But I'm not sure if the painting is done, missing something or just needs to be broken down into smaller works.  The teacher was trying to push me into doing larger pieces, but my comfort zone is minis, as you see on my Etsy shop.  So here goes....WARNING lots of photos.

I thought I would show you the piece if framed as is first (above) and below is how it looks on my kitchen floor.  It is curling a bit but that can be fixed with a little water.

First off, I pushed myself to work with big AND colors I don't normally gravitate to.

So here is where you come into this, I am going to show a bunch of photos to see what it would look like if I cut the large piece into smaller pieces.  Be prepared to be overwhelmed.

It could be cut in half and make these two 11x14's.

Or a 11x14 and an 8x10.

Or go wild and make some 5x5 squares, 4x6 rectangles and whatever little minis?

However this blue square does talk to me because you can see the cheesecloth really well. I did say it was a watercolor collage, and to me collage means anything can be added, like fibers!

I hope to hear some response on what you think.  After writing this post, I think I am leaning towards cutting it up.  And what do you think of this color?

Judy

#55 of 200...Monochromatic

Today is 55 of 200...sounds like a BIG challenge, doesn't it?  I have had some nay-sayers about this challenge.  But this is a new day and I did a great job so far.

The watercolor challenge was to do a monochromatic dream scape.  Dream scape was a little too challenging, so I went with monochromatic.  Here is my sketchbook.

I decided to go with my signature color, orange.  What fun just pull out my red and yellow watercolors.  I wasn't too happy with the sketchbook, but somehow it sort of looked like a cactus and a sun set, so I will go with that.  Just because this is going to be am art journal I added my black lines and left a space for writing.  Georgia O'Keefe has been on my mind this week, so maybe one of her quotes would work in this page.  At the end of the 6 weeks, I will share how I embellished some of these pages, for now you will see the rough watercolor experiments.

Back to the little purple canvas...monochromatic water colored canvas, my pen and ink circles and coated with a was medium. The fiber piece was created by laying fibers and wool between two pieces of water soluble stabilizer and free motion stitching.  They are a blast to make.

Now to decide which direction it should be laying on the easel, but I guess that is up to whom ever purchases it off my Etsy shop of Facebook page.

If you are interested in this piece or want to request a special order, please contact me.

Have an artful day! ~Judy

Day 17 - Happy Doughnut Day

Day 17 of 200...This is how I started my day off...yummy baked chocolate doughnuts that are only 50 calories each!  I had to have two!

Then I had to get creative.  Today is a needle felted red piece.  There is a mix of quilting fabric, silk, fibers and beads.  Left it unframed for easy shipping.

 I had a little bit left over when I was done and created this pendant, looks great with my black tank top that I have on.  I think I will make another for the shop!

So did you get your doughnut today?  I may have to have another chocolate one with a scoop of ice cream on top for dessert.

Happy National Doughnut Day!~ Judy

Day 15 - Black and white felting

Day 15 of 200 paintings...today I actually painted with wool.

I called it painting with wool, it is sort of like water coloring, once you add water you are at the mercy of the fibers.  I love how the hairs expand and the wool becomes nubby.

I was torn between putting it in a frame or on a canvas.  So it is in the frame temporarily.

 Love the side view.  You can really see the texture.

Have a wonderful night, I'm pooped! ~ Judy

day 10 - Exploring Brown

 Day 10 of 200 works...I know this is my 2nd post for today but I am so glad to have caught up.  Plus I have made these needle felted pieces before and I sell them before I actually post them to my blog or shop.

This piece is made up on recycled fabrics...men's silk ties, velvet from on old dress, vintage lace and a few other things I added in.  Usually I don't work with browns, but was fun.

Here is a close up.

Now I wanted to see how it looks on it's side.

 I can't tell you which way I like it.

Now I'm going to sit on the couch and watch TV, night! ~ Judy

day 8 - TEXTURE!!

Day 8 of 200 - I wanted texture today and lots of it!

Part of me being a fiber artist is exploring new or different techniques.  Today I laid 4 pieces of wool yarn on a piece of water soluble interfacing and stitched all over.  Imagine stitching on air. 

After I washed away the stabilizer that was holding the stitches I placed it over a piece of black felt.

 The few stitches from the beading is holding this in place.  As you can see there is texture that I didn't want to capture it between glass.

So it is sitting in a frame without glass.  I'm so excited at how it turned out that I can see a few more of these in my future.

Any color suggestions??? - Judy

Day 6 - A field of flowers

 

Happy Memorial day!  My thoughts are with all those who have severed , serving and their families.  I was born into a military family and I am married to a retired disabled veteran.  I am thankful for their service.
 
I am on day 6 of 200...I wanted to play with my scrap bowl and found lots of yummy greens a fabric, fleece and yarns.  The greens called out for flowers.

Here you can see the canvas that it is mounted to. I have a stack of these canvases and wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  Maybe tomorrow try another!

~ Judy

New year, new goals

I don't believe in New Years Resolutions, just seems silly to have to start something on Jan. 1st, why not anytime of the year?

But I do like to set some mini goals through out the year, or reflect on last year to see what I can do better.  So last year, I lacked on my blog.  Lots of people say blogs are dinosaurs now. That people don't want to take the time to read them.  So what is the new thing?  Facebook? Twitter? Google+? Tumblr? Pinterest? 

Which one do you gravitate to?  Me? Facebook...like to see everything in one spot every morning, it's like reading the newspaper.  I get to find out what's new with friends and many companies.

This next couple of months I want to explore fiber art jewelry.  I have several ideas of what I want to do, some simple and some crazy.  So my first share of fiber art jewelry is my felted pendants.

They have been needle felted and wet felted, then either embroidered or beaded.  These have been beaded, working on two others last night.

I think they are pretty cool, what do you think?

I have listed them on my Etsy shop (see sidebar) and have several more coming.

Please leave me comments as to what you think, would love input.

Have a happy Thursday,

Judy