Happy Hour

Just a quick post to show a batik that I did a few years ago...not very large...maybe 8 x 10 on gallery wrapped canvas.  It is called 

"Happy Hour" and is based on a photo taken by my friend Mary Warren (see Flicker).  She took the reference photo in an upscale bar in Boston some years ago and I just loved the photo. I think I may offer it at the gallery in September.  

Robin Zimmerman: Amazing Batik

Today I helped to judge at the Arbor Vitae Arts and Crafts show. Very fun!

Lots of nice art to see and enjoy with everything from fine art to soap and woodcarving and jewelry and wearable arts, etc etc.

This is Robin Zimmerman who won an award of excellence in the show. Her batiks were lovely and you might enjoy going to look at her work online. Click here. She has a lovely gallery of work to view. AND if you live up north you can see her work again at several art fairs including Loon Days in Mercer on Aug 3 and Musky Days in Boulder Jct on August 7.

Here I am awarding an honorable mention to a delightful quilter. I am so sorry I didn't write her full name down. I think her name is Kathy.

This is Charlie and he does macrame folding chairs and they are just amazing. Look for him at north woods art fairs this summer. He will do commission chairs if you wish.

It sure was an enlightening experience to do "judging"...my first time. Although I had "expert" assistance. We looked a creativity, originality, composition, design, and presentation.

18 Paintings at Howard Young Medical Center for August

One short note to end Friday...I don't think I've ever had this many paintings hanging together in one place ever!  Well, I did a one woman in the library once and it might have come close.  But I have 18 in this show at the Medical Center in Minocqua, Wisconsin for the whole month of August.  It's very cool and they have a lovely long couple of hall ways for the art.  I was lucky to get a really sunny one!  On the table I put my bio, my cards, and my guest book as well as fliers about the upcoming class in September and a little info how what a batik is.  You can see the batiks are small compared to the 16 x 20 acrylic called "Upsa Daisy".  But I know enough to start small with a new technique!!!  

If you are local and can stop by, come to the newest entrance (to the left of ER) and turn left and you'll be right there.  If you come on weekends, you will need to come in the front entrance and ask at the desk which way to go.  

Chairs Chairs Chairs

Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE chairs.  I have painted probably 50 chairs over the years from adirondack to overstuffed to beach chairs to stools.  

This comfy inviting RED chair was found at a nice little tearoom in Leesburg one spring afternoon.  

It is a watercolor batik done on rice paper glued on to a gallery canvas. The numbers on the first sketch help me to remember which area to paint with wax first and which last.

It's 8 x 10.  

Having FUN in the really messy part of this project...

Here I have come to a REALLY messy part of the project.  It's not a bad idea to wear rubber gloves in this section.  After the final coat of wax goes on you put it in the freezer for a few minutes and then crack it gently.  What a mess it looks like then.  You are about ready to give up!  Hahahaha.  After all that work?  No way.  So then you brush on diluted sumi black ink (or you can use really dark watercolor).  You need to really almost pour on the darks.  I used a foam brush to work it into the cracks and get it down through to the rice paper.  Then you use Kleenex to blot it off really well.  Ironing off the wax is a the time when you find out if you have anything worth keeping!!!  Then I put a coat of liquid mat medium on a canvas and dropped (very carefully) the piece over it wrapping it around the sides and.....

The LONGEST part of the batik process come next...

These two photos show the painting "in progress".  This is the longest part of the procedure and could be spread over several days if you wished.  I tend to need to keep on going. The waxing and the painting are alternated back and forth and the dry time is essential in between. The paint must be dry before you put on another layer of wax.  So if you have 5 layers of value then you need to do this 5 times.  You can always do another project in the drying time!  Which I did and I will show you that later.  

Batik on Unryu paper: Another try

 This time I decided to try using Unryu paper instead of Masa paper.  A VERY different experience, by the way.  Unryu is very transparent and is very much like trying to put your work on a piece of tissue paper!  I will give you some of my steps but if you really want more detail on this you can go to 

Sandy Maudlin's blog for last week (around June 18 or 19 I think) and she has a lot more info. And if you scan back down to my first batik project you will  also see a link to her explain in Wet Canvas.  I am using both of these to help me get started.  I decided to draw the image on the freezer paper (shiny side) rather than try to draw on the rice paper which I would find almost impossible!  

The second photo (sorry it got so yellow for some odd reason)...I just put in to show that I am using a potpourri pot for melting the wax.  I put water in it and then a tin can and put the paraffin in that.  Sandy uses a small fry pan for her's but I couldn't find one.  This seems to work really well for me as it uses very little space but I don't have much control over the temp.  So I am REALLY careful.  I would never melt this directly in the pot.  Now for those of you interested in getting a small electric fry pan such as Sandy shows on her blog that will regulate the heat as you melt the wax, you can go to Carol Write's catalog and order it on sale for $19.99. 

Part three of the batik first try

After struggling with finding something to melt wax in, finding freezer paper (who uses this anymore?) and digging up a piece of Masa paper (which is not really the first choice of rice papers) I decided to "give it a trial".  A little 8 x 10 small one.  I had a lot of trouble with the last step after cracking but I think now that I can do that better next time.  Can't wait to start on that!  As I keep learning I will share what happens.

First step in trying out Sandy Maudlin's batik instructions

It's always so much fun to try something totally outside the limits of what you've tried before.  So when Sandy's started to talk about batik with watercolor on rice paper recently...my interested in this was really heightened!  I went to her Wet Canvas post and downloaded 5 pages of instructions!  Sandy really has been supportive by putting out so much information.  How does that woman find time to paint and blog and lead workshops???  Anyway...I started with his image of a simple line drawing and made it very small (about 8 x 10).  Then I made a copy of this on my printer for the next step.  The step with the numbers on it is a second copy...not the original.