A Post for January - Time Flies

        Not only does time fly, my fire painting has objects soaring from the house, belongings/lives disappearing to dumpsters, things coming unscrewed.  Just last night I was needing my camera to photograph the paintings for a show and I realized my two digital cameras got lost in the fire. I am amazed I got out of 48 Stults Road with my purse which I sometimes search for.

        HouseFire1 and HouseFire2 will eventually have more pointed names. They may not be art but were therapeutic. When distressed by the bad things, I discovered drawing/painting helped. I stole from Medieval paintings and El Greco to express. They still aren't finished but I love them. Little jewels for me. I hinted at the angels and the grace we experienced amid the unpleasant.

        The fire paintings are 14" x 11", oils, Winsor Newton Griffin Alkyds. I used Gamsol for my thinner and Galkyd Lite for my medium. No smell in my temporary 4 x 6 foot studio. Fast drying all. Alkyds are a genuine oil color made with pigments that are modified with alkyd resin. They can be mixed with traditional oils and thinned with usual solvents. They dry to the touch in 18 to 24 hours and can usually be varnished in 30 days. Blick art store says the colors remain workable for 4 - 8 hours and dry at the same rate to a uniform semi-gloss finish. I love alkyd oil paints which I have used for years! Click to enlarge.

Medieval Quilt: a daughter's desire finished!

     Beware giving your children a choice of what quilt they would like you to make! Times have changed. Many of us still love traditional quilts with patterns to follow. Now that more painters and the art world have moved to quilts, the love of freedom to design one's own is liberating. It is sometimes tiresome to quilt another person's patterns.

Click to enlarge.

    Nevertheless, Donna Jean, good friend and mentor, just completed daughter Nicole's beautiful quilt (fragment above, with the book). Nicole, a college student, several years ago was intrigued by the possibilities in the book U is for Unicorn: Medieval designs for applique by Eileen Campbell. Who wouldn't be!

     I bought the book immediately on seeing it.  I remember young son Jim's looking in the local library for Beowulf in the Old English. Such designs might be something he would take to...a comforter or throw after a hard day at the office. I found this paperback book of designs at Amazon (probably "used-very good"). So beautiful, I wanted to possess it! I love applique and looking at the letters of the alphabet, the animals worked into the patterns. Although there is plenty to trace or to copy, there is also inspiration to make it your own. DJD survived and finished. D for Dragon could have motivated!