No, I haven’t taken up smoking…

July 7, 2008

…but I’ve been collecting retro melamine ashtrays that make great brush/water holders for painting. And they come in great colors (I have bigger yellow and green ones at my studio.)

This is a small one, which is good for travel, especially on a boat where your brushes might roll overboard. The watercolor pencils roll also, but at least they float when they hit the water, so you have time to dive in and retrieve them.

Also for travel, I like using old watercolor tins to carry small brushes. They work better than anything new I can find, and add a nice flavor to the process.

Filed Under journeys, painting, process | 6 Comments

Acrylic Ink Sketches

June 30, 2008

Doing some sketches for new ideas. I love using these acrylic inks by Daler-Rowney, especially the pearlescent ones. And who could resist with great names for colors like Waterfall Green, Galactic Blue, or Hot Mama Red?

Filed Under drawings, mixed media, painting, process | 2 Comments

Monoprinting and Dye Painting

February 21, 2008

Maybe everything happens for a reason. That week that I laid in bed and read dye painting books really soaked in (my brain, not the bed). So I got out the dye powders I had ordered last year, and weird tools I don’t remember ordering, and started to fool around. This was done with a sponge brush and syringe.

I have an old chipped glass table top that I got cheap at some auction, and it worked really well when I started to try out monoprinting with dyes as per Melanie Testa’s inspiring article in this month’s Quilting Arts Magazine.

Actually this one is part monoprinting, and part mistake with a lopsided sponge roller, but a happy mistake.

Once I got a feel for working with the dyes and the right music (jazz is best), it became really fun. My biggest mistake was not letting some of these cure long enough, and when I washed them too soon, some of the intensity was lost. Oh well… live, learn, and happiness through chemicals!

Filed Under dye, painting, process | 13 Comments

Illustration Friday: Zoo School for Big Cats

November 28, 2007

The Illustration Friday theme this week is Zoo, but I kept thinking about the new Leopard operating system on my Mac. Then I remembered that all the previous Mac OS X operating systems were named for big cats, and I thought the big cats might have to go to school to learn the difference between a mouse and mouse. So this is my Zoo School for Big Cats. (click on it for a bigger version).The big cats in class from left to right are: Leopard, Cheetah, Tiger, Puma, and Jaguar. Now it probably makes sense why I was drawing big cats in my last post.

Filed Under drawings, illustration friday, painting | 12 Comments

The Design Ramblings of Pam RuBert

November 8, 2007

Haven’t done much creative work in the last couple of weeks other than draw my brain with my sewing machine. Then I drew/painted it with my new Caran D’ache watercolor crayons as recommended by Joanie (actually she recommended the crayons, not drawing my brain.) I was thinking of calling this “Radioactive Brain” or maybe “Thinking of You.”

So since there isn’t much new material here, sort of like when the screenwriters go on strike, we have to either go to reruns or do a highlights of last season recap. Well, Gwen Magee has done it for me. Amazingly, she waded through my blog archives and interviews and complied a big selection of my design rambling she calls The Design Process of Pam RuBert on the Textile Arts Resource blog. She also links back to my forgotten slide-show of a quilt in progress. She’s got a lot of other good stuff there too, so check it out. Thanks Gwen!

Filed Under drawings, painting, process, quilts | 19 Comments

Yellow

August 28, 2007

Isn’t it great fun, going to the store and looking through about 70 color chips to find just the right one? Except I never seem to pick just the right one. Maybe I’m swayed too much by the names, but when it comes down to it… what would you rather have on your walls? “Grasshopper” or “Gecko”?

And here’s the resident Mixologist at work. I think the name of this color is “I missed the school bus again.”

Filed Under painting, studio | 6 Comments

Faux Painting

August 10, 2007

Changing gears again! I haven’t mentioned for a while that we’re still in the process of remodeling due to the disaster at our studio last January. After getting a new roof, new ceilings and lighting, we’re finally getting to the point where I can lend a hand — repainting the walls that were damaged by water.

The room where the sprinkler system exploded used to be bright yellow, but now I’m painting it with a green-blue combination — a light green base, layered with periwinkle blue and two variations of green glaze. The layered glazing gives the hand-textured plaster a kind of rich, aged patina.

Faux painting is a great calorie-burning activity because I have to run up and down the ladder three times as often — once for each paint!

The photo below is from my scrapbook of other unique projects. There were five metallic colors layered on top of black walls. The brass tiles were all hand-polished with circular designs by Russ, I think there were thousands…

Oddly enough, some things I’ve learned from faux painting large surfaces seamlessly has helped me to develop some techniques to cover big areas in my quilts with stitch patterns. Some day I hope to also use some of this paint experience to design cloth for my quilts, but for now I’d just be happy to get our studio back together and looking good!

Filed Under painting, studio | 13 Comments

Working for Inspiration

August 7, 2007

Jane posted a great quote by Henri Matisse after one of my recent posts: “Don’t wait for inspiration, it comes while working.” I should have that tattooed on my forehead so I’d see it every morning when I look in the mirror.

This is a mixed media collage on vintage columnar paper. I started this because I’ve been thinking about using Lisa’s technique of making an art goals spreadsheet (but more about techniques I want to try and images I want to create) but as you can see, I painted it so much that you can’t really see the lines on the background paper.

Filed Under drawings, painting | 6 Comments

A Small Painting

August 4, 2007

Here’s the finished acrylic painting, and it’s small — only 8″ by 10″. For some reason right now I have the urge to make some small, intimate pieces. And the way I’m currently constructing my quilts, I can’t make something this small with detail. Maybe later I’ll play with painting on fabric, but for now I like using a small edge-wrapped canvas.

Filed Under painting | 9 Comments

Lesson from a Writer

August 2, 2007

Where have you been? you’re probably asking… I don’t know really, just bouncing off the ceiling like a silly thing. Seems lately I’ve either had the opportunity to meet creative people or just take a big bath in the wash of their creations.

In the studio, it’s been hot hot HOT, so I have had little inclination to fire up an iron or turn on a sewing machine. In the meantime, I’ve been playing with paints. In the photo on the left you see a gouache experiment and on the right an acrylic. Also just got back from an Uncommon Threads retreat where I played around (and already washed some essential parts down the sink drain) with my new Airpen. I’ve also just finished revamping my Quilts and Drawing webpages, so check them out and send me some feedback, please!

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by children’s author David Harrison, who has published 73 books. It was inspiring to learn the story of how he’s structured his business life around his writing habit. One of his points that caught my attention — when he was younger he said he chased every single idea. Then as he became a more seasoned writer, he realized writing was a lot of work — so he only pursued ideas that he was really enamored with and were solid, going somewhere kind of projects.

Part of being an artist is play and experimentation. I’m a firm believer in that. But artists can also take his advice to heart, and knowing when to use it is the key.

Filed Under painting, writing | 6 Comments

No, I haven’t taken up smoking…

Acrylic Ink Sketches

Monoprinting and Dye Painting

Illustration Friday: Zoo School for Big Cats

The Design Ramblings of Pam RuBert

Yellow

Faux Painting

Working for Inspiration

A Small Painting

Lesson from a Writer

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