"Loose and Raw Painting" with Sue Pelletier

I recently took an online workshop from Sue Pelletier and loved it! The workshop was "Loose and Raw Painting" at a more than reasonable price, and Sue teaches a lot of stuff in it. There is a video about the class on the link.

Below are a few pics in progress and the finished painting, which I love, and someone wanted to buy (a high compliment), but it's not for sale, and I have it hanging over my couch in the living room, right next to my pink Christmas tree.

I didn't have some of the supplies that Sue used, so I improvised with what I did have, my intuition, and patience, with some fearlessness thrown in, and I had so much fun with the process!

I started with an idea page in my sketchbook...

or two...

Wait! I thought of something else!...

A little collage with various textures on a 24" x 30" stretched cotton canvas...

Played with some modeling paste in a syringe and some ink on some light weight denim and added to the collage...

Put it all together and came out with this! It got a little busy on me, and the color isn't as vibrant here as it really is (bad lighting and not great photography), but I love it, and the images all have sentimental meaning for me. In a way, it is a mixed media life portrait of me, my parents, and both sets of grandparents.

The little flour sack dress was made for me by my paternal grandmother, and I still have it. In fact I laid it on the canvas and loosely drew around it, so it's the actual size. I was not a skinny baby! Still not! lol 

The house is the old home place where my maternal grandpa grew up and much of the time I was growing up, he and my grandma lived there. My parents lived just a very short distance away so I, too, have grown up on the same little farm and spent a lot of time at this house as a child. When I married, my husband and I also built a house nearby, so this old house, which is now falling down, has been a part of my life for longer than I can remember.

The teddy bear, not actual size, represents my mama's love for me. She picked cotton to buy it for me for my tenth birthday. It was one of my best friends and slept with me, protecting me from scary things for several years of my childhood. I am 64 years old now and gratefully still have both it and my mama.

My dad liked tulips, and since we lost him suddenly in 2004, I gave the painting tulips. The teardrops represent the million tears I've shed since loosing him. Loosing a parent at any age is a very traumatic thing, especially if you were really close and spent a lot of time together.

The shoe is a saddle oxford, which I had to wear with a shoe brace for fourteen years of my childhood, due to a bout of polio at age two. At age 16 I was given permission by the doctor to wear other kinds of shoes and no brace!

The bunny in the heart represents the little community of Rabbit Hop, where I've lived all but two of my 64 years. I was an only child, but I grew up with great neighbors who were like family, with children to play with, and lots of love. This place is my heart.

The cross represents my faith in God and has my fingerprint in the center.

The dark spots above the dress are my adult fingerprints, and the rest are doodles and scribbles. It is intended to look loose, raw, and gritty.

The writing says, "She wore flour sack dresses made with love." I did too, very proudly! 

There are many layers on this painting under the top layer of paint,  just as my life has many layers underneath the person I am at this moment. This painting is finished, but life will keep adding layers onto me until eternity claims me, and beyond...

I really enjoyed the process of this painting, and already have another small one in progress. I hope you enjoyed my attempt and the story behind the images.

Happy creating! :)

Playing with Photo Images for Memory Portraits

 

Trying out random photos of much loved relatives on canvases to use in mixed media portraits! I think I have one ready to start the process on! Stay tuned! :)

 

Quirky Doodle Sketch...

 

A quick quirky doodle sketch made by drawing an image out of a lot of lines I made on paper with my eyes closed. What do you suppose they've been up to?

4 Projects On My Table Right Now

On my small Cricket loom- a scarf using Bamboo crochet thread in coral and plain stitch with a row of the Brooks Bouquet stitch for interest...

A large king sized headboard canvas in mixed media...

The second step of a mixed media "Loose and Raw Painting" online class on canvas that I'm taking from Sue Pelletier...

Images and canvases for another mixed media memory portrait, which I learned from Heather Murray...



Plus several other things laying around. :o

 

Sometimes, I think I should just focus on one thing at a time and get really good at that one thing, but then, I think how bored I would get. I love jumping around from one thing to the other, depending on how much time I have or what else is going on at the time. Life happens, and I have to squeeze in creative time on something or I can't cope. So thankful for creative stuff to take my mind off things I can do nothing about. :)

Second Rug on the Kromski Harp

Not nearly as much trouble, weaving OR wrestling, on this rug! It was sheer pleasure!

 

In the first place, I ordered an 8 dent reed to use, and I used cotton warp thread. The sett is 8, and the rug is 24" wide and 45" long in a plain weave. No pattern/draft. The weft is Lion Brand Homespun Stripe. The Kromski Harp stand is also a big plus, as far as the wrestling goes! Much better than the TV trays! And I paid close attention to the tension, so I didn't have to separate the warp threads in the sheds every time. Yay! 

 

 

The finished rug beside my bed. My furniture isn't actually black. It's hunter green with light coral walls. I found out that I should have packed the weft harder than I did on the rug, but it's not in a heavy traffic area and usually only bare feet touch it, so I think it'll be ok. I LOVE the look and feel of it, so I'm happy. :)

 

Next project is a coral and sage green cotton rug for the bathroom in front of the shower! Just waiting to get the yarn!

First Woven Rug On A Kromski Harp

So I still love my Schacht Cricket for smaller projects, but I wanted to weave larger things, like rugs and blankies without having to stitch them together in blocks or panels. Hence the Kromski Harp 32" loom (I was warned that one loom is never enough) situated on two side by side TV trays (above), which was not working out at all for me. A lot of wrestling and intimidation going on here! :/

 

Hence the stand was also purchased, along with an 8 dent reed, because the loom came with a 10 dent reed, which didn't exactly cater to the Peaches and Cream cotton yarn I had planned to use for my first rug warp...

 



 

I had one heck of a time getting used to the larger rigid heddle loom, mainly because I didn't know what I was doing and couldn't hold it in my lap. Pulling the cotton thread through the too small holes and slots, which I re-started about 3x, was frustrating. I didn't know to skip slots and holes, so I put a thread in every one for almost the width of the loom. Above is what the warp looked liked when I got done. Waaaay too dense! But I couldn't bare to unravel it. :(

 

I wove a header (turquoise), then started weaving with the Lions Brand Homespun yarn that I REALLY wanted the rug made of. This is as far as I got. It didn't look right, plus the cotton warp was sticking and I was having to separate every shed with my pick up stick.

 

I didn't want to waste the Homespun, so I unraveled it and picked out some navy, denim blue, and red cotton yarn from my stash and decided to make this adventure a learning experience. I made up the pattern stripes and started weaving. I still had to separate every shed, which made it take a lot longer, and there are two unintentional stripes lengthways where I skipped one hole and forced two threads through another hole. The other side has some different yarn in the warp because I ran out of the solid, plus there are a few skipped threads. It's all good! I learned a lot about rugs and wrestling. Besides, it has character, I think! lol

 

 

Here it is finished! Not happy that it looks "netted", but I can live with it, and we've already thought of several uses for it. Chalking it up to a great, but frustrating, first experience with rug weaving!

 

Now on to the rug I intended to weave in the first place! I already have it warped and ready to go! :)

Woven Towels

Okay, sometimes it pays to have a draft/pattern to go by. I decided to make some dish towels to practice making stripes, checks, etc. I just guessed at the size and for some reason thought a 12" length would be enough for a drying towel. NOT! 

So what I have is four dish cloths, but that's okay! They will be used and next time I'll remember to make them longer! Mistakes are the best teachers! :)

 

I used Sugar and Cream cotton yarn in both warp and weave on a Schacht Cricket rigid heddle loom with an 8 dent reed, except for the gold stripes. They are rug warp cotton. I would have sworn that I made one of them denim blue. Guess not! They are all on the same warp in a plain weave and haven't been cut apart in this picture. I also practiced hem stitching on them.

 

Someone mentioned that I could use them for gifts as bath cloths with bars of soap. Good idea, but I think I'll chalk these up to learning practice and use them myself. What fun!

 

Maybe I'll get some more done for Christmas gifts!