Australia Pigments Book Getting Companions

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I like this arrangement for the table. It started a couple of weeks ago for the art group dinner. Each small pot got some mountain laurel. Now I am on to whatever I can pick in the garden. This morning yarrow and whatever this little maroon and golden bloom is, and just a bit of mint for green. It is nice to have them spaced along the center of the table instead of one larger bouquet.

The last of the coreopsis is in there as well.

And I decided to make the folios for another book of small illustrations about Australia. The edges of them were sanded to make them compatible with the pigments book by absorbing more of the watercolors from down under. I made over one hundred of them. Then I scored and folded each one at the spine. I learned to fold in both directions to make the creases work better for opening.

Then after just putting images on a page or two, I got out the Australian Bird Book. It was given to me by a book dealer in Asheville several years ago. She told me, “No one else will want it.” I loved her generosity and I love this book.

Originally I thought that the pages would all be coptic stitched together like the pigments one. But after doing the drawings/paintings on all four sides of each folio, I thought the fun of these is to be able to turn the pages. That would be impossible with a long string of folios.

So I decided to make fourteen (one for each trip to Australia) separate books of eight folios each.

Naturally the first page of book one is a Eucalyptus branch and leaves. Here are some of the illustrations on pages in between the leaves and the hopping away kangaroo.

A couple of pages for the basket makers and a nod to why I was first hired to teach there in 1997.

And of course the cane toad.

I am also learning or at least trying to learn not to put each illustration in the middle of the page. It makes the book more active.

And I must say that it feels lovely and intimate in the hands. This is going to be a fun project for me to work on. And once eight folios are finished, just thread those needles and stitch them up. No covers necessary as I want the feeling of things spotted along the way in my travels down under.

And here it is tucked in next to the pigments book. When the fourteen small illustrated books are finished I think they would look good in a box just tumbling around the soft undulating pigments book.

Both pieces are very inviting to the hand. Both make me feel like I am there.

In the meantime the only parts of the novella Kind Gestures to put on the website are the final chapter and epilogue. By Friday I think it will all be there. Then if I am not escaping to Australia, I can go back to Oliver, North Carolina and see how the “girls” are doing. For now I am taking my distances where I find them.

Til next time.

Broadening Horizons

Posted on by Sandy Webster

The tree man opening up views that used to be there before so much growth.

Until we ended up with this on one side of the house.

He pushed it back and cut it into small pieces into the woods and out of sight. The house is brighter now inside.

I am thinking of the next small coptic long book and have decided to make the same size pages but in a paper to be painted on. Small illustrations of the things that have caught my eye in Australia. There will be lots of small drawings/paintings needed to fill the book but it should keep me busy.

In the meantime I was impressed with a friend’s photography and the adjustments she makes to give such impact. So this morning I took several of the images of my work and played with how using my photo apps can make me think of the work in new ways. Not sure what yet, but playing around is something I seldom do.

Here is some of that “playing”.

 

Lee and I are going to go to the Folk School Auction this evening. We don’t want to buy anything unless it is just the right gift. The reason I want to go is it that it is the only time we see some local residents and I do not want to cook dinner. By the end of the day my foot is begging to be put up and not holding me up in front of the stove. Besides the event comes with sufficient and delicious hors d’ouevres to fill us up.

I miss the tearing out of napkin wrappers on Sunday mornings. But the food was simply not that good and keeping off my foot and not being able to drive for a couple of weeks was excuse enough to stop going there. Now we are waiting for our old closer diner to start offering breakfasts so we can give it a go. Nothing like the promise offered with new management/new owners.

My fit bit is nagging me constantly to “go for a stroll”. It has been trained to expect a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. We are both having withdrawal.

Okay that’s it. Back to folding folios, lunch and later the auction.

Til later.

 

Finished Australia Pigments Book

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Okay it is all stitched. Each folio of color coptic stitched to the next. I used a soft cotton loose thread made in France but purchased in Australia. It comes in lovely colors in the thread shops there and once you touch it and feel the softness, why not just buy it.

Anyway here is another view.

And another.

And now it is raising the question of “what next?”

So I am thinking that I will make another one the same size. The pages will be thai kozo but I will paint the dots representing travels through the country with watercolors made from the soils of my own home. Then I might just flip them through and/or around each other. Just thinking here.

This is the piece using those same watercolors that is going on display at the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Exhibition at the South Australia Museum in Adelaide starting this next week.

It was made by cutting the pages of Robert Hughes’ book, Fatal Shore into Eucalyptus leaf shapes, coloring with my watercolors made from Australian soils and then burning them to represent the effects of global warming on an already pretty warm country. This is a detail of them sitting in the dustbin.

And I still have more of those colors to use up.

On another topic, the window washers came on a dreary day yesterday and got the job done.

The tree man came as well and agrees that lots of this encroaching green needs to go.

Even these crepe myrtles are spurting branches way too high. Tree man says he will trim them all back come winter, but not now.

He starts tomorrow hacking and sawing and dragging the bits into the woods.

We just want to sit on the porch and not feel all this green is going to invade. This has been a very fertile season here in western North Carolina. Lots and lots of rain lately.

Til later.

Back in the Studio

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I am back in the studio…even sleeping down here now. Lee needed his own bed and one time on that couch I could see why. So for now things are going good.

Stitching did not work on these small folios because the stitches had to be too far apart to keep the paper from tearing. In other words it was a dumb idea. So I got out my Japanese hole punch and picked the proportionately right size to make tracking marks on every one of the one hundred ninety-two folios. I was careful to make sure that no holes were punched in the fold.

Here are just the red ones.

The coptic bound book will start with this top one as it goes through all the colors of Australian soils that I have made over the years.

I am hoping that when all bound, the book will be hard to hold in my hands…..much like the memories and strong feelings for my time spent in that country.  Sort of thinking impossible to hold and always showing me something else as it flips about.

It took a while to do each page and then get the colors flowing nicely as they change from one section to another.

I think this is the order that they will be stitched. Probably a white thread but a soft green waxed linen might work better to support and not tear at the folds. After each page was painted I gave it a coating to help keep it strong. It was only a Thai kozo paper that I love working with.

Here is the punch with the color dots that I could not part with.

So they ended up here for now.

I am finalizing the trip back to Australia next year. I like getting the details all taken care of well ahead of time. Starting in Newcastle doing a workshop for Timeless Textiles in early March, then onto a few days in a Melbourne hotel for sightseeing. Catch the train to Halls Gap, stay on with friends when the workshop finishes, back toward Melbourne and Baldessin Press for those special few days of printmaking and book arts before catching the train down to Geelong to do a final workshop there in white line printmaking. All of this will take just under a month and I am so looking forward to being back in the midst of good times with good friends and super students.

Sadie is glad to see me back in the studio. She stacked a few stones from Australia. The two largest ones were given to me by an artist I met while staying at Baldessin Press last March. She had read my book and thought I should have some from her. Kim Evans is her name and her fantasy type drawings/paintings are simply stunning. Some are part of an exhibition going on now in Seattle.

Here is Kim’s view from her studio. Very lucky girl!

A beautiful wild parrot, a crimson rosella I think, flies into an open window of her studio to watch her work. Amazing and I was thrilled to be invited for dinner with Kim, her husband and another artist working at Baldessin Press before she was taking off to walk the Camino in Spain. Good times, good company, good memories.

And here is Sadie.

I think I will start stitching the folios tomorrow. It is a holiday weekend through Monday and Tuesday the window washers and a tree man come in the morning. Too much green too close to the house feels oppressive…..so some thinning is needed.

Later today I will have a single malt and visit with a good friend. For now I will return to Jon Meachum’s new book on “The Soul of America.” We survived McCarthyism before and he feels we can do it again. This time we have so much to clean up. The mess is getting worse each day with the selfish incompetency in government.

I sold this small boat after it came home from exhibition. It is going to a very good home to someone who really loves it. Can’t ask for more.

Til later when I get something done.