ImagineandCreate

Recent good things

A latte, a pile of magazines to snip inspiring pictures from, and a sketchbook to glue them in.

Arctic Ocean with moon and clouds.

How I Stretch My Watercolor Paper

Stretching your watercolor paper prevents it from buckling and getting wavy. I use a staple gun, staples, staple remover, watercolor paper and a wooden board. My favorite board is the Watercolor Board from DickBlick. It is lightweight but takes the staples nicely and doesn't splinter or warp. The staple remover is for after you've finished your painting and are ready to take the paper off the board.

I fill the bathtub with about an inch of room temperature water, just enough so the paper can float freely and be totally submerged in the water. I soak it for about 5 minutes or so. I've forgotten about it at times and let it soak for much longer and it still turned out ok- but it doesn't need that much time. Just enough so that the entire paper is wet and there are no uneven dry spots. Take the paper out,  holding it by a corner. Let the water drain off for a minute. Lay the paper carefully onto your surface.

I let the paper rest until the sheen has gone from the surface. The time for this step depends on how humid it is where you are. It's very dry here so it only takes a couple of minutes. Waiting for this step will keep the paper from pulling too much on the staples and allow a more even stretch.

Finally, place your board on the floor or table and staple two corners, then the other two corners. Fill in the rest with staples about 2.5 inches apart all the way around. Wait for the paper to dry completely before beginning work. (Unless you are going for an abstract wet in wet technique- you could start right away).

After about a week atleast of blowing snow and wind, today the sun was out, the wind was rather calm and it's marks were left on the snow.

I cut out some parts that I liked from illustrations that did not work out. They looked pretty in the sunlight.

I don't think I will be posting anything more for a couple weeks, but then plan on posting regularly again. Thank you for visiting! Here's an interview with Camilla Engman that I enjoyed.

I'm still here! I'm making illustrations and working, working, working. I'm just about finished with another picture and my art table is messy and full.  I sometimes feel like a chemist mixing colors and experimenting with techniques. Having fun. It's amazing how my mood is directly tied to how a painting is going and if it's going well, everything else in life seems to fall into place, sort of like falling in love.

And we've been enjoying the above zero temps, playing out in our big snowy backyard world. I made a you-tube video! You can hear the neighbor's dog barking in the background. I think I need a pair of snow shoes to stop sinking in the snow.

Fairytale Museum~Villa Fridheim

Today I mailed my illustrations from this book back to Norway to be part of a summer exhibit at Villa Frideheim, a fairytale museum. The exhibit will showcase the book's artwork from many of the 70+ illustrators who contributed to it. So if you are in Norway, hope you can check it out! I sure wish I could twitch my nose and be there.

I found this shirt at jcrew, and since they call it 'rhubarb' I just had to post a picture of it. Gina commented on the last photo I posted of my rhubarb pudding that there should be a paint or crayon named after it. So I was happy to see a shirt, atleast!

Pink

Our local store had two things in stock that we rarely ever get here in the Alaska Bush: rhubarb and roses. So, naturally I had to have them both. This tea rose smells just as pretty as she looks. I have her sitting under the kitchen window where she's out of Isabelle's reach, and  we can look while we do dishes. I made my Danish grandmother's rhubarb pudding, which is just chopped rhubarb boiled in a little bit of water, with sugar added to taste, until it turns sort of thick and all the pieces are cooked. It's best with cream but I don't have any so I substituted with strawberry yogurt which worked just fine!

2 Years Old!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my little girl! You are growing too fast!

lllustration Friday- 'Pet Peeves'

Not all germs are bad, but when they come from sick people who should be at home and not out in the world infecting everyone else, those germs are my pet peeve. And then there is that paintbrush that suddenly doesn't want to hold a point when I'm trying to do detail work...

Happy Easter!

These two lil fellas were born at my mom's place in Idaho last night on Easter eve. They are called Tennessee Fainting Goats.

How reassuring  and comforting it is to read words spoken by Trina Schart Hyman on the subject of motherhood,work, and being an artist.

Trina said:

“I’m a nest-maker. I have had this conversation with every woman artist I know: How do you do your work and your home and your children and your relationships? And we’ve all come to the conclusion that that’s why there aren’t more women artists; it’s why all the really big creative forces were men—because women are split; they’re just schizophrenic about [how] they’ve got to take care of home, children, meals, their husbands or lovers. How to put that all in perspective—how to slot your life—takes up a lot of energy that you could be putting into your work, should be putting into your work. We all feel it and we don’t know what to do about it.”

“If you want to paint, I don’t think you can be a mom, be a waitress to make money, and paint. It’s hard enough to be a mom and paint. I think you need help with your children, even if you only have one child.”

“There are lots of women who have their children and say, “Well, I’ll wait till the children are grown, and then I’ll go back to my career.’ They just suffer agonies. You can’t put being an artist on hold; you have to do it every day.”

“On the other hand, if you’re a woman, how can you not have children? I don’t mean that to be as flip as it sounds; I mean, it’s an opportunity, it’s such an immense experience. It’s one of the ultimate acts of creation, and I wouldn’t have not done that for the world. But it sure makes your life as an artist difficult.’

You can read the full article here

Saturday

Nuq and I went for a walk today. It was so bright I couldn't see the camera's screen but some of the pics turned out nice. He wants to run free so badly but he doesn't come back when called, usually, so it's for his own good that he stay on the leash. We had fun though.

Say Something

I worked in our local library for 5 years, so I have pretty much seen all of the children's books in the collection- but once in a while I discover one that I don't recall seeing before. Like this one, called Say Something by Mary Stolz, illustrated by Alexander Koshkin, Harper Collins, 1993. It's a beautiful, poetic story and the illustrations are so inspiring! I can't find a website for Mr. Koshkin, but he was a nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2004.