Covered deck

We recently had to cover part of the back deck at the cabin in Ellijay. What is so nice is the that it didn't cost much to decorate. Most of the stuff were either things we had or garage sale finds.

All work no play makes this dwarf ...

Another variation of the fairy garden theme. This is my dwarf after a hard days work mining quartz crystals. I love the dwarf lemon cypress!

Frog Prince Chair Garden

This is a fairy garden created in a broken chair. I bought the chair at a flea market for $10. I bought the plants at mountain ridge garden center in ellijay, Georgia. The frog prince and mushroom cost a dollar each.

Abstract flower garden

This was my last piece from the retreat. It was suppse to have mystery, mood, and a story, it started as an abstract, but it slowly transformed into a garden at night. I think I will use it as a sample to make a larger piece that I need for later in the summer.

Blue man thread painting

This was another project from Carol Shin's class. It was done as an image transfer and then the thread painting was done on top of of the transfer.

Fiber forum Retreat with Carol Shin

I just spent the week in Delaware with an amazing group of women. It was the annual fiber Forum retreat, it is the artist group of the Embroidery Guild of America. This year we had Carol Shin, a wonderful and inspiring artist. This is one of my first pieces from the week. Next year will be in Taos with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn.

Snow Storm

This isn't a great picture as the lighting was bad so the whites seem to be yellowish. This is a piece for an exchange with my Fiber art group, Fiber Art Fusion.it is done with gesso, tissue, fabric, and yarn.

Autumn leaf

This leaf was done with inktense again, but instead of using the pencil tips, I used the blocks if I had the color. I was able to get a much more intense color lot easier this way. I also used frisket to keep the light yellow lines while I did the washes.

Fall Leaf

This leaf was done with inktense pencils but I pulled the color off the pencil tip instead of drawing on the paper. The big difference between these and watercolor pencils is that once the inktense are dry they won't mix with the next layer which gies you a totally different effect when blending colors especially complimentaries like the fuchsia and green or the yellow and violet.

Butterfly

Here the emphasis was to creat a glow. I should really have spent more time defining the leaf too.

Still drawing

I realized that I hadn't added a single entry this month. I have continued to sketch, but not worry so much about finished drawings. On this one I was trying to get washes from the tip of my inktense pencils.

Clematis flower

This assignment was to to paint without any drawing first. I pulled the pigment from the pencil tip of the inktense pencils and when I was finished, I added the detail with a pigma pen. I still wanted a stronger image and then added heavier lines with my pentel aqua pen.

Poppy

Flower power

Flowers are such great subjects easy to draw and plenty of great color.

Dragonfly

This one was done with the inktense pencils again. But instead of drawing directly n the paper I mixed the colors on the pencil tip I also used the pentel brush pen which is awesome.. It comes in water soluble and non-water soluble..

More pencil practice

I did this one with inktense pencils. I am really having fun with this class. One of the reasons I signed up for this class was to get back into the practice of practicing. I think it is working as I am really enjoying the doing and not in the finished drawing.

Journal Cover

I made this journal at our Fiber Art group meeting this month.  Fiber Art Fusion met at Rubber Stamp Fantasy in October and the amazing artist (and shop owner) Debbie led us through creating these.  We got to play with Dylusion sprays which I have sooooooo been wanting to try.  The inner swirl piece was done with Claudia Helmouth (is that her name?) sticky canvas.  I love working with them.  I gave this journal to my neighbor in the mountains, Susan!  I hope she likes it.

My new happy place

I bought the cutest picnic table at the Ellijay flea market. I put it on the deck and have been going out and drawing and painting on it. You can see the leaves are starting to change. Is it any surprise that most of my recent work has Fall colors.

Ellijay Apple Festival

The Apple Festival started this weekend up in Ellijay, Georgia, where I have my cabin/art refuge. I came up this weekend to have time to work on an online class that I am taking on Joggles with Dion Fowler. It is on watercolor pencils which I am very out of practice but really I just love her use of color and wanted to learn more of her design process. This is just the first week. To honor Apple festival, I decided to draw an apple tree.

http://mountainridgegardenshop.com/1901.html

I made a scarecrow for the cabin. There is a great garden center in Ellijay on River Road. For $15 they will help you make your own scarecrow. I realize that I probably should have put more thought into it and brought cool clothes to do a fun one, but it was great fun considering that I have never made one before this. This is the same place that taught me to make a vertical garden.