New Waterways Paintings: Show at Prairie Title

Des Plaines River at Chicago Avenue
July 2009
9" x 12"
Oil on Canvas mounted on board
Matted and framed -Final size 16" x 20"
$200.00

This is the latest painting to get framed and delivered today.PHEW. The show is ready for the opening and I'd cordially like to invite anyone in the area to attend the opening on Thursday July July 16Th from 6PM-8PM
At Prairie Title
6821 W. North Avenue
Oak Park, IL


It's been a very busy week here at Non-Linear-Arts with preparations for the show, and working on the marketing aspects for my Tools of the Trade work. I'm considering moving the work off the blog and on to a static web site. What do you think? So far there has not been much traffic on the blog so I'm wondering if my time would be better spent in setting up a static web page and leaving it at that. Advice welcome!


Invitation Front

I'd also like to take this opportunity to make a little public service announcement:

Of all the many commandments of computer use, one that we ignore at our peril, is to BACK UP THY HARD DRIVE. Imagine how sad you'd feel loosing years of images. :>(




Here's a link for more information.

Before PS and After PS

Before



After

A while back, onmyTools Blog I did a post on a recent drawing that I'd worked on dealing with foresnics. When I arrived at the shop to have all the drawings scanned, Franklyn took one look at the mixed media on this one and said it would be damaged in the scanner. Hum. Visions of a very expensive trip to the photographer were not exactly dancing in my head.

This morning I found this post on the famous Katherine's site about how to do color corrections in Photo Shop Elements. (This is a much cheaper version of the expensive Photo Shop and seems to be all the PS I need!) What a huge difference this very easy corrections makes! Try this on any drawing or painting before posting and watch how saturated all the colors become.

Canoe Trip On The Lower Fox River

Lower Fox River # 2

Recently, Craig and I along with 6 other people had a chance to revisit the Lower Fox River. A sunny day for a change, we faced a different challenge this day. Gusting winds buffeted the bow of the canoe (30 miles an hour!) and under these conditions, it's the front person (me) who has to keep the boat on course. Usually, I'm not encouraged to do any steering. Much like dancing, only one person can lead. This leaves plenty of time for me to get good use out of the floating studio.

This day, however, I was really trying hard to attend to my steering responsibilities while dipping the brush in the paint pot occasionally. These were very fast sketches executed with some fancy paddling in between.


This is a dangerous situation for the inexperienced paddler. Any downed tree forces the current to be funneled into a much narrower channel and the water really picks up speed. One boat in our party swamped right in front of this beautiful sycamore tree. Fortunately, no one was hurt and several of the guys rolled the canoe over and righted her in 2 minutes! The two women were real troopers and were not discouraged about going out again.


River Weeds


Lower Fox River #4


Lower Fox Rive #1

And Yet More Rain

Thatcher Pond, Dead Tree, More Rain Arriving
10" x 10"
oil on canvas panel

I've been working hard to prepare for a Waterways show in my village next week. I wanted to frame some of my recent plein air paintings. All the days I went out to paint, the light was flat and the weather threatening. They all hang together if for no other reason that they were all done in flat light! Hopefully, I'll have a chance to work on some paintings with good, strong light this month.

Waterways on Tony Moffit's Site!

Waterways Project
DesPlaines River,Lake Street Bridge, November 2009
Mixed media on paper
22" x 24"

I'd like to thank Tony Moffitt, for highlighting my Waterways Project on his blog today. He's running his blog to help artist sell and market their work. Please check out his very sensible and generous site.

Inundated Trees

9" x 12"
oil on canvas
Thatcher Innudated. June 2009

More rain has swelled all the creeks and rivers. We have had an unusual amount of rain this summer. This was the first sunny day we had in along time.

Four Needle Coptic Bound Journal

Coptic Journal bound with canvas paper
Matte Board covers


I wanted to share with you how I make my hand made Coptic bound journals. I bind books out of necessity, not necessarily a love of book binding. Some of my techniques are a bit unorthodox but the resulting books are sturdy work horses.

Supplies

4 needles - if you have curved sewing needles these will work best but you can use straight needles. Just make sure the eye is big enough to accommodate your chosen binding thread.


Bone folder or back of a wooden spoon. Helps to really crease the pages and reduce swell in the book.

Waxed linen or other sturdy thread. I tried using crochet cotton on a bunch of journals and it just does not hold up. The waxed linen thread is really best

Paper torn down to the spread you want. I'm making a landscape book so my spread is 8" high x 20.5" wide and I folded the pages in half. Nesting several pages together makes a "signature". The signatures will be sewn together later.

2 Covers cut 1/4" higher and 1/8" longer than your folded signatures

An awl is hand, but you can use a nail too

A mallet is optional. A regular hammer will do too.



I'm making a book that will be an oil painting sketchbook so I cut down paper in a canvas pad for my signatures. You can use ANY paper and even mix and match the papers so you can have drawing papers, printing papers and watercolor papers. You can use the book to test drive lots of new papers too.



Cut your pages. Use the bone folder or the back of a wooden spoon to crease your paper. If you use heavy paper, nest 3 sheets to make your signature. Lighter paper can accommodate more pages in the signature.


This flimsy piece of paper is called a jig. Omit this step at you own peril. What you are making is a tool to help you mark consistent stitching holes in your signature and your covers. Make this paper as tall as the spine and 2" wide. Fold it in half. Then mark your sewing holes. You want the top and bottom holes to be about 5/8" of an inch in from edge. Place the other two holes where you want them.(Four holes in total...hence the name "Four Needle Coptic"). Use you awl to poke gentle holes in the jig.



Now you are ready to use the jig to transfer holes to the spines of the signatures. Mark them on the inside fold. Then use the awl to poke holes in the signature.






Using your jig again, mark the holes on the 2 covers. Leave about 3/8" distance between the holes and the spine.If you like you can stack the covers on on top of the other to make sure the holes are in the right place. Use the nail or awl and a hammer or mallet to punch the holes.



Now you are ready to prepare the needles and threads for sewing. Count the number of signatures and 2 covers. Measure using the thread, the length of spine. Multiply this amount of thread times the number of signatures plus 2 covers. Add 4 more cover lengths.(Just in case! You don't want to run out of thread at the end!) Fold (do not cut) the length of thread in half and make a book binders not on the end of the thread. Repeat this so you have 2 long threads with a total of 4 needles, one on each end.



OK, now you a ready to sew your book together. Stack you signatures and covers near by. Set up the first signature (not starting with the cover yet) by threading one of your double needle threads from the inside of the signature.Do the other thread too. Four needles should be dangling on equal lengths of thread from the outside of the first signature. Now grab the cover and stitch each needle into the outside hole of the cover.


Sew back though the first section and crisscross the threads inside the signature fold and bring the needles outside again.
Kettle stitch all four threads.

/>

Continue crisscrossing and kettle stitching for each signature. Use the wooden spoon or bone folder to crease the spines of all signatures. This reduces swell.

Stitch through the inside hole of the remaining cover piece. Kettle stitch through the last section and sew back with the last signature. Tie off with a square knot.

And there you have a Coptic book bound with your own paper. If you make one, please leave me your link and I'll post everyone's book.

In Search Of Greens

Study 5" x 7"
I'm continuing my green studies and this time used the following colors:
Light Red
Cerulean Blue
Cad Yellow Light
White
Burnt Umber and because I was a chicken, a touch of
Thalo Blue

This was a difficult triad to work with. The tinting strength of the red was very weak and the blue was very transparent. If I want olive, there are easier, more potent pigments to work with.





Green Study 1
5" x 7"
oil on canvas

Painting in the summer requires lots of GREEN and I'm feeling like I need more practice making them. I'd like the painting to hold together through my use of color so I'm learning what each blue will do with the other colors on my pallet. Here I'm keeping it simple and wanted to see if I could tilt the greens to warm or cool depending on what other colors are blended with them.

Cadmium Red Light
Cadmium Yellow Light
Prussian Blue
Titanium White
Burnt Umber
All Windsor Newton Alkyds




Green Study 1
5" x 7"
oil on canvas


I'm also experimenting with grounds. The top one is a piece of Blick's pre primed canvas. I really enjoyed painting on this surface. The gesso is thin and the weave of the canvas is small. It has just the right amount of drag on the brush and I don't have to work aggressively to fill in the weave.

If I make something I like, I'm going to adhear the canvas to a board and frame it. This also mades for a light plein air surface. Less weight to carry ;>)


The bottom one is in my sketchbook with the usual 75lb paper.

Sketchbook Nerd

Same books, different background. I like both photos so I'm posting both

I also have instructions for making a Four Needle Coptic Journal on a different page. Not hard at all!




One of the wonderful parts of being an artist is keeping a sketchbook. I love mine and these are three of my favorite. I learned how to make books last spring and it gave me the power to have any paper I desire.
These books are bound with a Coptic stitch which requires no special tools. The travel journal has printmaking paper from Utrecht. I think it's their house brand "American Masters". I really like the tooth in the surface and it even takes a light watercolor wash. It's perfect for oil pastels.

The sturdy red journals are bound with Fabriano Watercolor paper and work for most media.

I'm very hard on my sketchbooks and as you can see, the binding has held up very well.

Last year, I posted a tutorial on how to make a concertina book that's pretty easy and allows you to use many different kinds of paper. You can read the post here if you'd like to check this out.

Seduced By Light And Color

Millennium Park's Lurie Garden

Tempted to think this would be fun to paint? I certainly was.

I arrived in downtown Chicago having successfully navigated the CTA with my bike set up for plein air painting. Check.


I located the security person to obtain permission and learned all the do's and don'ts. (Lots and lots and lots of these. If you go, bring many drop cloths.Must protect even the tiny pebbles.The gardeners reign supreme in this domain. Even security obeys them.) Check

I squeeze in with my set up on the narrow lime stone path,having been told not to block the path. Check.

Forgot bug spray again. Check and add note to self.

I make a nice sketch plan in the book, transfer it to the canvas and attack with brush and paint. Check

That was when several large summer camp groups arrived and also what felt like waves of tourists. Little children are really cute but they don't look where they are walking. Much bumping of both the easel and my tightly pulled in painting arm. Much adult inanities about so and so being a favorite artist. (:-*) I really don't want to even say his name here but his work belongs on sappy Hallmark cards.

My corner of the garden really heats up at this point. Rivers of sweat are dripping down my back. Not getting any benefit of the lake breezes in this location.

The painting is not going well. And I'm getting annoyed by the constant crunching sound of feet on the path. I've used too may colors and become confused. I've totally lost my original value pattern and I'm my ability to concentrate is slipping.

A garden tour guide stops with 30 people inches from my set up and block the view. Ok, time to regroup, have sip of water and figure out what to do. Trying not to feel annoyed.Feel breathing on my neck.

The overwhelming message arising from my soul is that it's time to go home.

You would be forgiven for believing that I'm giving up on plein air painting. However, you would be mistaken. That days lesson? I'm a nature girl. I like my peace and quiet and though I'm not shy about working among the masses, I appreciate having only the occasional passer by. Believe it or not, I even love the cool river mud too. I missed the sound of moving water and the grunting of the bull frogs.