Update

Heading into the art season with lots of optimism.   I have my first solo show in Oshkosh Wisconsin at the Evergreen Retirement complex's gallery.  I am working hard to complete 35 pieces in total.  I added some smaller needle felt pictures last year and they sold well.   The birch from my last post has won a Wisconsin Regional Artist Program award and will be in the state wide competition in September.   I will be posting my summer schedule as time goes on but thought you might be interested in seeing some of the newest pieces.

New Felt pieces

Working on new felt pieces for the next art fair as I sold seven rather large pieces recently.    These two were just completed. The birch is still wet.  The colors should brighten even more as it dries and you will see more variation of color especially within the darks.  The trick with felt is to keep the fibers in place where you need a clean line ... edge of barn or shape of birch tree... while allowing other fibers to roam as you can see from the birch leaves and the back ground and from the foreground in the barn.  If I can, I avoid needle felt.  The barn has more needle felt because I had to sharpen edges and add some sharpness to the tree.  It looks like the birch tree will be ok as is.   The birch is large 24x28.  The barn is about 22 x 24.   I would like to get one more large piece completed before the next art fair July 18th.  If you are near Mt. Horeb Wisconsin on that date, come out and see me.

It has been awhile since I have posted.  Been traveling and also working on producing new work.   The art fair schedule for the summer has been set.  I expect to be at Art in the Wright Place in the fall.     I am attaching some photos of new work.    The chicken is fun but needs to  be on an appropriate size canvas.  Just seems a little overwhelmed by the current canvas.  The new purses need to be lined but not sure that will happen tomorrow.   We need to load the van for the Cambridge art fair tomorrow and with all of that happening I may not get to the sewing machine.  We shall see..    Looking forward to Spring Green, Wisconsin.

New Flowers

I started out thinking the dark green/navy background would be a base layer with lighter layers over it but when I saw the bright flowers agains the dark colors they just popped.   Needless to say, I ended up leaving them as is.

Someone once asked me whether felting or the desire to produce a particular image came first.  They were looking at a bison titled "King of the Prairie".   It seemed to them that I may have been looking at a bison and thinking that felt would be the perfect medium to create a bison but for me it is actually the opposite.   I will look at a delicate flower and wonder if I can create it in felt and still retain the delicacy.  After all, felt is really considered a delicate material.   On the other had, a beautifully constructed felt picture will behave like water color.   In the felting process the fibers roam, lock together and shrink to produce water color like effects.  Sometimes I can hold a hard edge and sometimes I prefer to let the fibers roam.   You can also decide to felt to hard felt or a softer felt which also produces a different texture.   It is the mastery of the ancient art of felting that intrigues me and using it as a fine art rather than as a craft.  

Working on this landscape.  As with all my felt there is a deckle edge.  The golds/yellows picked up the darker color from the backing so it wasn't as yellow as I thought it would be.  Felting always offers pleasant surprises!

In the midst of creating this week.  Working in more rolling hills and countryside.  I hope to complete some flowers and perhaps some of the scenery from our hikes in the old growth forests of the Northwest.   I always seem stumped until I begin applying to create and then the painting seems to take on a life of it's own.  I do need to find a way to keep my finished product in a rectangular shape.  It is much easier to made reproductions in standard sizes.    Keep an eye out!!!   I will be publishing photos as I go.