Saturday, June 26, 2010

Custom Silk Painting of Karo the Dog

The latest silk painting that I was commissioned to paint was picked up yesterday. I had gotten used to having it around the studio and I think I shall miss seeing it. It was a painting of Karo the dog who apparently is a woodsy girl, perhaps even a bit of a tom boy. Her owner tells me that she has a fascination with all things that move and rustle in the leaves of the forest floor.

Here are some photos of the painting as it was created. The first photo is the sketch on paper. I went over the drawing with black marker so I could trace it onto the silk.
In the photo below The drawing has been transferred onto the silk with quilters water soluble pencil.
I use the tiny air compressor below to apply the thick black resist lines to the silk
Once the resist has been added to all of the lines in the drawing I will take the silk off of the stretcher and roll it between sheets of paper and steam it for 2 hours to set the resist lines. Once this resist is steamed it becomes very wax-like in it's ability to hold the dyes.
Here I am adding layers of dye and drying the silk with a heat gun in between layers to get the desired effect
Getting closer, still need to pain Karo!
The photo below shows the painting after all of the dyes have been applied. The painting looks dull and a little muddy before it is steamed but after it is steamed and the dye molecules join with the silk molecules the excess surface dye will rinse away and the silk and colors will be bright and shiny.
Below is the finished silk painting after it has been steamed the second time.
The second steaming is for 3 hours.
The last day of having Karo in the studio. She has been mounted, matted and shrinkwrapped for protection until she gets framed by her new owner.
I will miss having her cute face gazing at me in the studio while I work.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Creating Screen Printing Stencils

My health has not improved to the point I had hoped it would this summer so things have been progressing slowly in the studio and I have been terrible at blogging. I dream about and long to create these big awesome projects but it seems that "The Spirit is willing but the body is weak". I do still hold out hope for improvement and I am working on my meditation practice as a means to manage pain.

I have been able to spend some time in the studio and I have completed a couple of big custom orders created some art cloth to have sewn into handbags and now I am finally getting around to playing with screen printing again which is what I have been itching to do since early spring!

Yesterday I transferred some of my sketches onto interfacing so I can make stencils and I got the first layer of paint on them. I asked Don if he had any leftover latex paint and he found a can of bright orange semi-gloss in the basement which perfectly suited my needs. Don also built me some new stretchers and I bought some window sheering so that I could stretch some new screens. I woke up excited to dig back into my project but my pain level is quite high today so I am not sure if I will be able to get much done. Below are some photos of the stencils with the first of three layers of paint on them. The paint will act as a resist and the thickened dye will print through the white areas.


Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Jazz Silk Paintings at VT Artisan Desings for Strolling of the Heifers Weekend

This weekend is Strolling of the Heifers Weekend! The theme is Milk'n Jazz. so be sure to check out the Jazz themed silk paintings by Linda Marcille at Vermont Artisan Designs on Main Street!!!

Parade starts off with scores of young cows colorfully bedecked and led by future farmers, followed by a jazz-themed agricultural parade of farmers, tractors, more farm animals, bands, floats, clowns and more.When it’s over the crowd follows the parade to the Stroll’s Green Expo and Dairy Festival for food, entertainment, demonstrations, exhibits and fun.



http://www.whofish.org/events/Brattleboro/VT/The_Strolling_of_the_Heifers/809855.aspx

http://www.strollingoftheheifers.com/v2/

http://www.crowhousestudio.com/