Will Spring ever arrive? Usually by this time of year, our Texas Hill Country is blanketed with flowers and sprouting green grass. Some years we're even seeing the tomato plants starting to blossom. This year, between prolonged gusts of wintry weather every couple of days and the drought (we've had less than an inch of rain since January 1) the land looks as bleak as midwinter.
So, like other artists I know, I've had to make spring time happen in the studio, on the iPad and on the design table. I hope you are doing the same!
My inspirations: photos from previous trips and at-home excursions. The files of flowers I've shot over the years. And, at least here this year, I can look out the window and enjoy the rosemary blooms filled with bees and the bright chartreuse of the hardy euphorbia that has naturalized in the garden.
This plant is a botanical example of true grit. It endures ice storms and no water for weeks, and each spring the stalks from last year erupt in this riot of amazing color. Then, just in the hottest part of the year, tiny blue-grey spikes poke up around the mother plants and take over another territory. From a single spiky stalk bought at a roadside sale, I now celebrate early spring with about 10 hardy plants, and I have given dozens away to friends as well. What grit!
As I come into the studio after a week filled with family meals, parries, conversations, a day of poking around in the antique shops of Comfort and Boerne, I sit again sending out this newsletter, my own true test of grit. In January of 2013 I vowed to make a monthly post to communicate with friends, students, family and blog readers in a more formal and scheduled manner. I haven't always succeeded. But, as I look back over my file of entries, I have managed to post 14 editions, in an almost regular fashion. Believe me, it would not have happened without two important components: intention and grit.
So what is on your gritty list today?
Flowers on the iPad
The design below, altered with MegaPhoto filter.
When it seems particularly grey, drought-stricken and chilly these days, I turn to a drawing my own wild flower images. Then I take a favorite image through as many transformations as I can using the iPad! This collage above started with two source images -- one a Paper by 53 app sketch of flowers using the watercolor brush, the other a oil pastel and water color resist drawing that I photographed with the iPad. I used the app MegaPhoto to transform each of them into a wildly different images, then collaged my favorite blooms into this grid using PicCollage. By the time I finished it felt like spring, even though we were in the middle of another gusty Norther blowing up the side of the ridge.
The original Paper by 53 drawing. This design, printed on fabric is also coming soon to my Spoonflower shop.
Here's the work flow:
Start simple.
Find a tool you like, electronic or in "real" life
Draw some circles to start, then add petals, vines, details with the brightest most outlandish colors you can imagine
Take a photo, if you made a drawing on paper
Take the original image into a photo editing program or any other app that you use. Draw on top of it, alter the colors, add filters, use anything you already know how to use!.
Save your experiments to the Photo Gallery, without judgement.
Then make a photo collage with three or more images, (now's the time to edit and make judgements) either with a special collage app like PicCollage or on your computer using your word processing or design software. Send me a copy! (susiemonday@gmail.com) I want to see your version of spring!
(P.S. If you'd like a personal step-by-step introduction to these and other apps, as well as how to make your art life happen on the iPad in lots of interesting ways, sign up for one of my workshops either in San Antonio or at El Cielo Studio. (http://susiemonday.com/#/workshops/)
Save the Date: May 4
The springtime experiments I've been making will end up in one shape or another on the walls of a gallery space in my friends' Hill Country estate for an exhibition of my work and one other fiber artist (arrangements still in the works!). I'm planning some on-paper prints, fabric yardage and large and small textile paintings, some of which will make use of the original fabric designs created through Spoonflower.
The opening artist reception will be Sunday, May 4, 2:00 - 6:00 pm between Pipe Creek and Medina Lake (well, former lake). We'll have music, fun, wine, food and festivity, so I hope you will keep the date open to attend. The exhibit will be open for groups and individual viewing by appointment through the months of May and June. Be sure to join the mailing list for this newsletter, as that is one I will use to send the invitations.
The textile painting shown here is one of a series of new work that I'll be showing at the exhibit. The piece was inspired by two "stories," the work of Rudolfo Morales and Linda's and my experiences walking the last stretch of the Camino de Santiago in 2012.
Workshops this Spring
Former Fearless Sketchers hold up their viewers.
One more workshop is scheduled at El Cielo this spring: Fearless Sketching with artist Sarah Jones and myself. If you've ever wanted to get over a tremulous approach to sketching, to approach drawing with joy instead of trepidation, or just to develop further skills in your eye-to-hand exploring on paper, this workshop is perfect for you. Give me an call at 210-643-2128, email me at susiemonday@gmail.com or check the website for more information.
Two more iPad for Artists workshops are scheduled at the San Antonio studio, 539 Senisa (also for short-term rent on AirBNB). The introductory iPad for Artists, is this coming Friday May 21 ($85) and there is room for two more participants. An intermediate iPad for Artists will be held on May 5 in San Antonio -- focused on collage and taking your images into digital printing at Spoonflower.
