Catherine Parkinson: September 2011

Thursday, 29 September 2011

Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for Sept 21st

Unfurled: Layers

Entry for Sept 22nd

Unfurled: Layers

Entry for Sept 23rd

Unfurled: Layers

Entry for Sept 24th

Unfurled: Layers

Entry for Sept 25th

Unfurled: Layers

Entry for Sept 26th

Unfurled: Layers

Entry for Sept 27th

Unfurled: Layers

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

New attitude to time management

I'm back from a lovely but exhausting weekend away. My daughter has decided that she loves Massey university and is keen to do the horticulture programme there. So it was well worth the trip.

It was a time for me to also reflect and have to time to re evaluate where I am going in my life especially in my art work. My life seems to run away into now where. I feel I am often just chasing my tale and not really accomplishing much. So after attending a time management for farming women workshop last week I decided it was time to look at how I use my time. The principles of the evening where to make goals and then plan your time to meet these goals. It was a very simple and efficient way to organise time.

I spent a bit of time thinking through what I want in my life. I have decided on these goals

To continue drawing everyday in my sketchbook
To practice machine quilting 2 times a week
To spend time playing and experimenting with equipment I already have in my studio.

I am going to try to also

To exercise daily so I have more energy to work at my art
To listen to an play music daily to re energise my soul
To study the scriptures more to re energize my spirit

My family and I are going to try

Spend a little more time together
I am going to have a date with my husband at least 1 time a fortnight (rather than monthly)
To be more organised at home so I can get on with my art more

I know this will not be easy but it will be worth it.

When I started to place appointments and purposeful planning to meet these goals I found that I have a few pockets of time I can use to improve relationships and improve my art. Evaluating time this way has helped me to see how well I think through what I do and how well I take time to rest and to re charge.

Now all I have to do is stick to my plan!

Thursday, 22 September 2011

Going away

I am going away for a few days with one of my daughters. We are going to check out one of her university options for next year. So I will catch up with you all again next week. Have a nice few days everyone and keep making wonderful art :) xxxx

Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for Sept 14th

Unfurled layers of paint

Entry for Sept 15th

Unfurled layers of paint

Entry for Sept 16th

Unfurled layers of paint

Entry for Sept 17th

Unfurled layers of paint

Entry for Sept 18th

Unfurled layers of paint

Entry for Sept 19th

Unfurled layers of paint

Entry for Sept 20th

Unfurled layers of paint

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Printing objects for art work

Many people spend a lot of money on printing plates and fancy tools for surface design on fabric and to make sketchbook pages. I don't...I use objects found at home or make my own stamps out of erasers and stencils out of card lying around. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to produce my own designs and it certainly saves the wallet.

Try these objects

Cookie cutters printed into wet paint or dab on paint to use as a stamp.

Use cookie cutters that can be used for multi purposes ie. hearts can be made into flowers, hearts (obviously) and new shape configurations

Tops of plastic containers

Make simple stencils from card

Sequin waste and metal mesh make great objects to stencil though

End of cotton reels for stamping.

Use lids for different size circles

Corks make great stamps.

Objects found at a emporium. 10 for $1.00 NZ!

Make a roller stamp. String makes a wonderful texture.

Home made stamps form erasers

Simple and cheap commercial stamps. Buy stamps that are multi purpose

The end of kitchen objects

The end of straws make great tiny circles. (try spaghetti pasta for even smaller circles!)

Have fun and play and experiment.

Saturday, 17 September 2011

Sketchbook tutorial

Finished page :Unfurling browns and golds

My sketchbook page today started different to the way I have been working over the past few weeks.

First I put watered down glue onto the page from a seed report book. I smeared it all over with my fingers. FUN!

I then tore up small pieces of scrapbooking paper and stuck them all over the page. I love using text on my page as a background as it adds a wonderful texture to a page. I layered glue over the top of the paper to keep it all flat.

I smeared red brown, mid brown, and chocolate brown all over the page, until I was happy with the effect. I took a towel and wiped a little paint off in selected areas to see more of the papers underneath. I used a circle shape and a flower stamp in the wet paint for added texture.

When it was dry I printed part of a flower stencil in yellow brown on the page and added a tear drop cookie cutter print in brown red on the page.

I used gold paint on a commercial flower stamp. I love gold paint!!! The took some sequin waste and using a stencil brush I added more texture with red brown paint.

I used the stencil brush around the edges of ta maple leaf stencil to create more texture. I used red brown and mid brown for this.

Using a mixture of gold and red brown paint I stencilled a curly flower over the top of the page.

Finally details were added with a gold pen.

Photography this week

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about formal portraits today I want to talk about informal shots.

Informal portraits are shapshot of people taken without posing them first. Usually they capture the personality of the person really well and because they are caught unawares they are often very spontanious.

I love this type of portrait. To me it tells more about the subject and gives me more to work with for art work.