Designing Storm Warning rug

 During a workshop with Susan Feller at the Green Mountain Rug School in Montpelier, Vermont, I started to design a new textile piece. Inspired by the Weather Network's storm watches and warnings of the day, I began to collect weather references such as symbols used by meteorologists, cloud photos, morse code, poems by Mary Oliver and a wonderful illustrated book by Eric Sloane called "Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather".

Once some of the material was gathered, I began by making some quick thumbnail sketches to work through my initial ideas and to play with symbols. I have always loved the drama of thunderstorms and quickly decided that I needed some cumulonimbus  clouds as well as some dramatic elements. Did I mention that I am a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society?

As I worked with the drawing materials, I began to combine the symbols related to meteorology with the dots and dashes of morse code. 

I moved on to working with pastel on a large scale and really started to enjoy myself!

I finally added some lines to suggest lightning and interference. Those all got me to remember my father who also loved thunderstorms. We used to call each other to say "On va n'avoir une maudite!" which was our code for "Watch out, we're going to have a big storm!"

This is where I stopped with the drawing and preparation for this hooked piece. I chose to work with wool in a traditional rug hooking technique using a fairly fine cut of wool because I do intend to have more detail in the cloud portion which is now simply depicted using grey pastel in the drawing.

Latch Hook Selfies

Here are some images of the latch hook selfies created by my grade 6 students this year. They started by taking photos of each other. They then uploaded their image to a website called leftsource.com. You can use this site to create gridded patterns for free. You can use up to 64 colours. I limited the colour choices to 7 but some used fewer. The website even generated a shopping list depending on the company we order our latch hooking supplies from! The rugs measure approximately 9x12 inches. We worked on them at school for a couple of classes and then worked at home. We had a monthly hookin during which I photographed progress. Students completed these over 6 months. 

Here is our whole display of finished rugs. We had many encouraging comments about this project!

Students brainstormed this list once the project was finished:

SOME THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED BY WORKING ON A LONG-TERM PROJECT LIKE THIS:

·      To not procrastinate.

·      That listening to music helps with concentration for this kind of project.

·      That practice improves skill.

·      To work on the project regularly otherwise you might forget how to do it.

·      To follow our instructions/chart carefully.

·      That working with wool is a calming activity.

·      Working from the bottom up was easier because the ends weren’t in the way.

·      Working on this project can help deal with sadness, stress and other emotions.

·      That it takes a lot of patience to finish something like this.

·      That being impatient can lead to making mistakes.

·      That leaving things until the last minute is stressful. It also leaves no time to correct,   or to get more materials...

Blue Heron

Blue Heron, hooked rug, 9x12 inches

Blue Heron, detail

Blue Heron, detail

This is a rug I was inspired to make after a Green Mountains Hooked Rugs workshop with Jon Ciemiewicz. During his classes with us, Jon shared slideshows of his work, inspiring images, some riddles and prizes. He also covered several of his methods for dyeing wool using one single slow cooker! I have since used many of his ideas when hooking and dyeing. Thanks Jon!

The heron and the tree were hooked with many bits of wool hiding in my bag of "noodles". I dyed the water and background of trees using one single piece of Dorr wool. I measured how long my horizontal strips needed to be in order to hook a full line. I then measured a piece of wool that wide and as tall as the background. Using various values and tints of blue and green dye, I "painted" the background wool as one piece in a large metal casserole dish. In order to keep the painted strips in order, I cut 4 of them at a time horizontally as I hooked and taped the pieces together with masking tape until I was ready to use them.

Hands and Crocus

Hands and Crocus, hooked rug, 9x12 inches

Hands and Crocus (detail)

Hands and Crocus (detail)

I designed and hooked this piece during a workshop with Jon Ciemiewicz at the Green Mountain rug hooking school. Although Jon's specialty is hooking animals, he didn't mind my choice of subject. I had recently heard Sarah MacLachlan's song "Ordinary Miracle", which is the theme song in  "Charlotte's Web", the week crocuses were blooming in my garden.  After a cold winter these flowers always seem miraculous when they pop through the snow.

 Inspired by Jon's work, I did hook a blue heron not long after.

Waiting for the Storm

Watercolour is somewhat unpredictable. It can be lots of fun to put down a lot of water on the paper, leaving some forms dry (as was the case here for the birds and branches), and dropping selected colours freely to let them wander and blend. It sometimes doesn't work out but I liked this sky a lot!

Town rug

A rug I designed and punch hooked for my partner. It represents some of the buildings which have had their addresses on our main street over the past hundred years.

L'aube sur la glace / Sunset on Ice

Les tonalitées de bleu, mauve, rose contrastantes avec les silhouettes 

foncées d'un paysage Laurentien.

A peaceful scene of dark tree silhouettes, setting sun and reflections on melting ice. 

Worked from a photo but I wish I was there!

Winter Shadows / Silhouettes sur la neige

Les couleurs de l'hiver et la qualité de la lumière sont des sujets se prêtant bien à l'aquarelle.

The soft qualities of winter colours on snow and the dramatic shadows of late afternoon are wonderful to create in flowing watercolour.

Snow Day / Pas d'école!

De la neige, une pelle, un tapis pour glisser. Les simples joies de l'hiver! 

Snow, a shovel and a crazy carpet, these are the simple joys of winter!

Windswept Farm

I was captivated by the "s" shape in the snow, the shadows, the stark quality of the landscape and, as always, the ever changing sky.

Drawing on Canvas

5x7 inches (Not for sale)

This is an experiment in drawing on canvas. I love drawing and am always trying new ways of using drawing media in my work. It was inspired by the work of artist Robert Kogge. Most of the work is done using coloured pencils over a wash of burnt umber watercolour mixed with pumice. If you are interested in learning more about this artist and his technique, he has a great tutorial available on Craftsy

Heleborus Flower

Ballpoint pen drawing is tricky. There is no erasing, one must work using soft and light layers to build up a variety of values. Hours of fun!

Couronne / Winter Wreath

Voici toutes les plantes des jours précédents dessinées ensembles.

The previous drawings all assembled into a wreath.

Still Safe from the Snow

Érable/Maple

    

Tilleul/Linden

Lors de mes promenades de la semaine dernière, j'ai trouvé plusieurs fruits qui restait de l'étè toujours attachés aux arbres et arbustes. Je les ai peints pour terminer 4 petites aquarelles. J'ai eu l'idée de créer un dessin d'une couronne qui sera terminée bientôt!

Cerise/Cherry

During my walks last week, I came across seeds and fruit which were still clinging to trees and bushes. After making several small watercolours, I decided to combine them to paint a winter wreath. It will be posted soon!

Stillness

I haven't posted much lately but here's one I painted a couple of weeks ago. In addition to holiday preparations, I've been experimenting with coloured pencil on canvas. I might have a photo of that one up soon. Drawing on canvas is a more labour intensive process. Joyeuses fêtes tout le monde!

Yellow Reflection

(Private Collection)

I spent a long time working on this small painting. I wanted the yellow reflection of the pear in the reddish mug to show up well. Again, looking for the small details is one of the joys and challenges of still life painting!

Green Spot

(Private Collection)

Looking for and capturing reflected light on objects is an intriguing part of painting transparent  objects in still life painting. For example the colours mix as the light passes through the green bottle onto the yellow pear to create a new lovely green. Taking the time to see and record this kind of thing is what keeps me coming back to paint every day. 

New Tea Cup

Things have a funny way of ending up on my shelves of still life objects. Every morning I wait for the bus in front of a shop which sells collectibles. Last week they had an array of porcelain tea cups. I don't really use them for drinking but, this morning, their possibilities for still life painting were very obvious. I stopped in after work and bought a few! It seems the price of collectible tea cups has dropped drastically lately, making them affordable for my purposes!

Classical

The shapes and colours of this painting remind me of Classical Greek architecture.

Morning Light

Using artificial light can be very liberating as it allows me to paint at any time of day.

It can, however, limit the drama which can be achieved by using natural light at 

certain times of day. With this in mind, I intentionally created more 

contrast while working on this painting.