Dolores Quilts

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Some of My Favorite Artists

People always want to know who is your favorite artist, or which artist inspires you the most. I have always said there are way too many to list. Well, here is a list of some of my favorite artists, mostly famous ones. This is by no means an exclusive list. It does not even touch on fiber artists, but I will say the first fiber artist to inspire me was Hollis Chapman. I learned about pen and ink from books by Claudia Nice and about 3-D drawling from Mark Kistler. Okay admit it, how many of you watched his Secret City series growing up.

I just love art. You can always find beauty, inspiration or truth in most works. You may not like a piece but can admire the colors, the texture, the brush strokes, the movement etc.

Anyway here is my partial list

Claude Monet - French Impressionist Painter, 1840-1926
Vincent van Gogh - Dutch Post-Impressionist Painter, 1853-1890
Yaacov Agam.- A pioneer of kinetic art in the 50s,
Salvador Dali - Spanish Surrealist Painter, 1904-1989
            Growing up we had his painting of the last supper in our kitchen
Georgia O'Keeffe -American Painter, 1887-1986
Edgar Degas -French Realist/Impressionist Painter and Sculptor, 1834-1917
Pierre-Auguste Renoir -French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919
Janet Fish -American Contemporary Realist Painter, born in 1938
            (especially Raspberries and Gold Fish)
Paul Cézanne - French Post-Impressionist Painter, 1839-1906
Ansel Adams – American Photographer , 1982-1984
Patssi Valdez – Hispanic California Artist born in 1951
Henri Matisse -The French painter and sculptor 1869-1954
Edward Hopper -American Scene Painter, 1882-1967
                Love the simplicity of his lines yet how realistic they are.
Wassily Kandinsky - Russian-born French Expressionist Painter, 1866-1944
Childe Hassam - American painter, 1859-1935
Mary Cassatt -American Impressionist Painter, 1844-1926
Paul Gauguin - French Post-Impressionist Painter, 1848-1903
Yves Tanguy - French American painter, 1900-1955
Jeff Fiorvanti -American Painter, 1958
       Girl with a Watering Can – my earliest memory of a painting - still love it.
Andrew Wyeth - American Contemporary Realist Painter, 1917-2009
Andy Goldsworthy - British Environmental Artist, born in 1956
Red Grooms -American Pop Artist, born in 1937
Jacob Lawrence - African-American Harlem Renaissance Painter, 1917-2000
Joan Miró - Spanish Surrealist Painter and Sculptor, 1893-1983
Pablo Picasso -Spanish Cubist Painter and Sculptor, 1881-1973
Paul Klee - Swiss Expressionist Painter, 1879-1940
Ito Jakuchu -Japanese Painter, 1715-1800
James Amos Porter - African American painter, 1905-1970
Préfète Duffaut - Haitian painter, born in 1923

            I love the light captured in the work of the Hudson River School artists
Robert W. Weir -American Hudson River School Painter, 1803-1889
Albert Bierstadt - German-born American Hudson River School Painter, 1830-1902
Paul Weber - German-born American Hudson River School Painter, 1823-1916
Thomas Cole - English-born American Hudson River School Painter, 1801-1848

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day 8 -Zentangle Journey

Today is my 8th day for exploring Zentangles. I think this Mandela tangle is better than the first one. It has some shading that gives it dimension, but other parts are still too flat.

I think tomorrow I will use some quilt squares for the base.

Duck Tape Manikin and New Dress

My duck tape manikin has worked out great. The only hit was the top of the mic stand is bendable. I asked my husband to make a new stand. He just pulled the torso of the stand, adjusted the height and removed the bendable part. Who knew? Now it is just right. Well, I really should tape up the lower arms to hid the hideous T- shirt from a very old dye mishap.

I thought the dress looked a little plain after adding a zipper so I put an insert of a batik in the front, then i thought about a belt. Not to sure, what do you think?

I had a second idea, I would use the batik for the godets that have not yet been added. I barely had enough fabric to make all seven and then accidentally cut a chunk from both ends of the front panel. Thank goodness for 5/8" seems. It worked.

Will have to finish another day, am out of interfacing. Will line the bodice, add cap sleeves and finish all the edges. Does it still need a belt or sash?

Snow Dyeing -silk scarf

So yesterday told about the predye process. Today I will show you pictures of my silk scarf from start to finish. I used the same soaking for the silk as I did for all my fabric. I only had two racks so i squished this piece up on a Styrofoam bowl set it in a leftover cover from McD's and packed snow on top.

Waiting

Pouring on fuchsia , then the turquoise

snow melting

These pictures did not turn out that well, the scarf is transparent. I 'd get better pictures but I gave it to my son's fiancee and it is now in Florida. Tomorrow I'll post about my favorite piece.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Snow Dyeing

I tried snow dyeing with the last snow we had. It wasn't much but managed to scrape some up.
I first soaked my fabric in soda ash water. I used PFD cotton, synthetic satin, a silk scarf, pale eco dyed pieces, scape white with stains.

I used 1/2 tsp. of powdered dye, 1 tsp salt dissolved in 6oz of water for my dye bases.

I placed my fabric on a wire rack over a plastic tray and packed on the snow. Next step was squirting on the dye.
I will show the before and after pictures for each fabric step by step in the next couple of posts.

The Wonders of Duck Tape - upcycling

Duck tape : you gotta love this stuff!
Here is my money saving up-cycled dress manikin, and yes it is made of duck tape. My husband put in a movie Friday night and wrapped me in duck tape. Then he cut the back in a zigzag and after removing it we taped up the back. I used cardboard to close the neck ( from a the box our heated came in.. I started to stuff it with plastic bags, but alas I remembered to return all my plastic bags and took my reusable cloth bags with me to the store. :0( New idea, I'd stuff it with the paper in the shredder. Not quite enough so I stole the bag of shredded paper my daughter was saving for her guinea pigs. To finish off I cut cardboard to seal the bottom and duck taped it in place. Then I cut a small hole in the bottom and slowly Tugged my manikin over an extra mic stand. Yeah, it worked!