Dropped in a bit more handstitching last night.....more to come!

A photo for inspiration! Seedlings traveling their path....

Was inspired to start some hand stitching and appliqueing on this piece last night. I didn't get very far but really enjoyed the meditative time spent with the needle and thread. My mind just seems to ease as time passes. One of the best drugs in the world!

Today Melanie and I are meeting at the Dia Center in Beacon. We'll take in some art and then spend time over a slow lunch in order to put down on paper the guts of a syllabus for a multi-displinary kids arts program connected to the Hudson River & Hudson Valley. I've already been in touch with Mike & Ruthy and they're in for the folk song segment (think The Power of Song...and if you've never seen this documentary about Pete Seeger, you must!). Exciting stuff.

Did some more work on the pastel painting last night. I use very rough, sanded paper because I add lots and lots of layers that are smudged and rubbed together. I need to use a surface with a lot of bite in order to hold these layers. I'm developing callouses on my finger pads as a result of this - really.

All that remains to be done is to lay in the flowers (darks then lights) and this piece should be finished. Shawn told me she sees a gothic quality about my paintings. I have to say I agree with her....a kind of gothic, primitive feeling...perhaps due, in part, to the dark saturated colors I use. I'd love to hear comments regarding this.

Breakdown printed silk cloth overlaid with dyed organza - with a few painted eggs. I'm toying with the idea of securing this to a painted canvas but I'm not sure. If this piece turns out well it will be go into that show I've committed to doing in March. A few textile pieces, a few pastel paintings and a few acrylic abstracts....what a hodge podge...but I'm working towards tying the whole show together with the theme title 'Glimpses'. Wish me luck.

Today I'm working on a pastel painting that's the largest I've ever done (20x16"). I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how pastels are layered so I decided to post this work in progress. Most pastel artists work from darks to lights, layering colors and smudging them with fingertips. The dark shadow around the window top is going to be a mass of trailing flower vines in pinks and purples. At the bottom of the window will be a box filled with other blooms in reds and yellows.
It's time to get back to work on the dishes in the panes....that are a pain....and taking me a very long time.

I dyed this small piece of cotton cloth over the weekend too. It's about 8x10" and was just the piece of cloth I used to experiment with. Sometimes the rag cloth becomes a ragged treasure.

This is a piece of silk cloth with dyed with breakdown printing, silk screening and overdyeing. Do you see the egg? It's about 20x20" so a nice larger size. I think I'm going leave it as a whole cloth piece and add stitching and enhancements.