Watercolor 7, Teapot

Another assignment posted in the hallway display at PCC -- in this one, we were to paint the same object and its shadow three times...

Watercolor 6, Rocks

Our Watercolor class at PCC had a display in the hallway, which just came down last week. Here are some paintings that were included.

Random Loom Illustrations

I recently crossed paths with Eric Broudy's "The Book of Looms," covering many centuries of weaving technology. Here are a few images borrowed from his lush collection of illustrations:

Poor Odysseus...

This loom reminds me of one used (4,000 years later) by nomadic weavers shown in the Iranian film, Gabbeh

Lovely drawing!

This loom appears to use the weighted warp technique (still in use in Scandinavia today)

Watercolor 5

This week's w/c class assignment is to paint in the style of a contemporary artist. I chose Adrian Perdomo, who mixes abstract painting, collage, and realistic drawing to explore consumerism and urban environments. (You can see his fascinating work at adrianrperdomo.com.)

The exercise certainly made me realize what a great deal there is to learn!

Quick watercolor/collage/drawing after viewing Adrian Podermo's wonderful paintings

Initial layout to determine composition for "artist of influence" assignment

Watercolor 4

Last week's watercolor class featured a guest speaker, Rachel Davis, who pointed out that we are fortunate to live in a country where art is not censored. This weekend we saw a play, The Left Hand of Darkness, touching on a similar theme:  stories-about-important-stuff being squelched by those in power.

Our assignment for the upcoming class was to use alternative w/c methods and include abstraction, so I decided to try to depict imaginary scenes seen "with" and "without" a totalitarian "veil" in the way.

Putting the box (shown below) over one's head and looking out through a "veil" will hopefully prove successful when presented in class.

One of the "veils" (mounted on a cardboard box so you can look through it)

The sort of thing you might find if you didn't have to look through a (figurative) veil. Torn paper at top is raised "veil."

The veil covering the picture of leaves shown above

Two of five sides of the "veil box" -- represents uncensored art-making

More sides of the box -- below is program cover for a play dealing with squelched stories.

Two sides of the box -- third "veil" is to the right.

Watercolor 3

More classwork -- I'm so pleased to live within walking distance of a great community college!

Assignment was to show depth while developing negative space

Composition is weak, but this was a good exercise in blossom-making

Watercolor 2

More class assignments:

Watercolor Class 1

Since assisting with "Memories in the Making" last winter (see "Watercolors and Alzheimer's Disease" posted 1/19/13), it seemed time to acquire some basic watercolor skills.

Here are some early attempts from my community college class begun this Spring.

The Next Blanket

Despite a kitchen remodel in progress and three college classes, knitting and spinning continue. Simple yarn-work is soothing after a day of planning and executing...

18" squares are a good medium for experimenting and when sewn together will make another blanket.

Mosaic knitting

A few skeins spun last month in hopes of pepping up a plain green blanket square