Sunset Gate

Done on Lama li using Holbein paints. The paints are in a seminar palette put together by Holbein for Tom Lynch -- pretty neat little set that I'd not used since the workshop I took in September. This is my very first attempt at painting the Sun. I found the reference photo at Yotophoto. I usually don't paint this dark, so that's a couple of new things for me. I don't know if it's the Holbein paints or if it was because of the pigment rich mixes, but it sure took a long time for each section to dry!

Gate 7

Off Kilter Gate. Lama li paper and DS paints. I used DS Kyanite Genuine over a mix of sepia, UM, and Quin Red to get the blackish asphalt and deep shadows inside the fence. There were several challenges with this painting. I masked the gate and the top of the fence and discovered that masking does NOT work well with Lama li - the paper pulled off with the mask. What a mess that was!! Rather than trashing the piece, I decided to just fix it as best I could. I have a limited palette of DS so many mixes were made! I don't mind mixing, actually I enjoy it, but I found that I'm lacking in some basic pigments that would've made mixing much more effective, if not easier. Hmmm, I wonder if DS has "after Christmas sales." I like DS paints, but find that I still favor WN so not sure if I should invest in more DS or not. And truly, there is no reason why I shouldn't mix the two!! LOL!

Gate 6 - Rusted Gate

Done on Lama li with WN paints. The barn came out too dark and I tried to lift some pigment. Lama li doesn't lift too well, it starts to peel! This was done very quickly, I'm trying to get a looser look and not fuss with it too much. I like how the posts and the gate came out. . . well, except for the scroll work on the top of the gate, not crazy about that part!! I'm still enjoying working on this series.

Gate 5 - Winter Gate

This is my first attempt at anything "snow." It was actually more work than it looks -- very difficult trying to define the shapes of the snow clinging to the branches of the tree was a challenge. For a first attempt, I'm pretty happy with it. I'd like to try some more snow scenes. I used Cerulean VERY WATERED DOWN and then did some outlines in a cool gray that I mixed. Now to decide on the next gate.

Gate 4

I really liked the reference photo for this (found on Yotophoto), but it's one of those where the painting didn't live up to what was in my mind. It just seems "flat" to me and I'm not sure why. I'm not going to try to fix this, I'm just going to "keep on keeping on," and I'm real inspired to start the next gate in my series. This was done on Lama li (I think I'm going to do all of these gates in my Lama li book) and I used all WN paints.

Easy - No Sew Throws for Christmas!

I've made four of these for Christmas gift giving and plan on doing at least two more. Here's how!

Purchase 1 1/2 yards each of fleece in a print and a solid OR you can do two coordinating prints or two solids -- doesn't have to be a Christmas print. Trim the selvages off of each piece of fleece. Lay out the the pieces with wrong sides together and make sure they are the same size - some trimming may be in order. Using a piece of 2" x 4" cardboard for a template, cut through both pieces of fleece making 2 inch wide and 4 inch length "fringes." On the corners, you will cut out a 4" x 4 " square. Tie the front to the back by tieing each "fringe" into a square knot. I cut one side and tied it and then cut the next side and tied it and so on -- it broke up the cutting and tieing and helped to rest my fingers. The finished size is approx. 46" square and it took me right at 1 hour from start to finish!