The brochures for CAA's Studio Tour on Mother's Day...May 8,9, and 10.....are here and ready to go. Thousands of them in very heavy boxes are in Rhonda's garage and needed to be attended to...so we gathered to bundle them into packages of 25, 50 and 100 for easy distribution to the membership. April 1 they will be on their way to the many stores and businesses around the county and beyond. The poster is very nice!! It is going to sell like hot cakes! I'm very excited to a part of this event this year. Mark your calendars!
Finally we have arrived at the fun part of this project. This is Laurie's experiment with a piece of vinyl that she had left after redoing the floors in her laundry room. We used the colors and ideas from a painting in her family room to make a "rug" that will go under a bench in front of that painting. It should look really neat and the vinyl hugs the floor real nice and flat! We have five others in the works. After a couple of coats of varnish they will be ready for the patio.
Mine has flick paint all over it surprise, surprise!
What a great idea... an art gallery in the entrance way to the Harman Eye Clinic! All the patients coming and going are greeted with some bright cheerful color and some very interesting and exciting art work from the members of the Arlingon Arts Council. Every two months Barbara Aliaga changes out the display to give a fresh new look to the hallway.
For the next two months I will have seven of my pieces in this display. Ms. Aliaga has compiled a really cool gallery notebook which includes information about the artists as well as their art. What a wonderful way to enhance an entrance way while offering an opportunity for artists to display their work. Thank you to the Harman Eye Clinic and to their very creative adminstrator!!
You can see more of the art work at www.20better.com and learn about all the Harman Eye Clinic in Arlingon, Washington
Now that the canvas rug is primed on both sides you need to hem it or finish off the edges. We used double backed carpet tape. This caused us some problems even though we measured carefully....getting those corners to come together perfectly is tricky. Then we primed the last raw hem edge and laid them out flat to "settle." Soooo..now it is March 1st and I have 3 canvas rugs to paint! Do I use my ususal style or try something new? Now the fun really starts!!
We have three more to complete as I'm working on this project with my neighbor Laurie...famous for the concrete leaf making episode last Spring.
Hopefully, we will have completed some painting in a few days...after that is the varnishing and we're done!!
To the great outdoors for the priming...it looks like summer doesn't it? It was 39 degrees and a little chilly in the shade, but we hung the two finished frames in the sun and they dried within the hour. The back side of the rug gets one coat..the top side gets two. I have a shot of John smoking his cigar and watching the paint dry but this How To is getting a little tedious so I'll just let you imagine his smirk as he sits ...again in the sunshine....having a great time comtemplating our to be masterpieces!!
The frame was already made....that was John's step two..mine is stretching the canvas on it. It is a real help to have such an able and willing assistant! Not all of the directions I found called for this step. We are experimenting with leaving it out as it is a real pain to have a frame for every size you want to make and so far it's not looking like it makes much of a difference. Again note the sunshine!! Makes the new cabinets really glow...the workers as well. Because each side needs to be primed this requires stretching the canvas twice...fun. We have two frames so we set up an assembly line in the kitchen.
The first real step is going on line and getting a bunch of directions on how to make a canvas rug or floorcloth. You'll get your list of materials and find that the first thing you have to do is find the canvas. We called around to several types of stores and then John located a wonderful source in Anacortes...Canvas Outfitters....360-293-0542..Steve ordered us the widths we wanted and had it delivered right to our house!! What a deal!! We have the added bonus of living close to the sea and boatbuilding suppliers!!
Now we have our canvas...need to figure out how many rugs it will make....measurements..and more measuremets...this is why John is involved. I just like to cut!! You will notice the sunlight streaming through the windows as I am cutting the canvas!! This was done two days ago in February....the sun was out along with the mountain!! If you don't live here you just don't understand.
Helen's Originals showcases abstract acrylic mixed media, printmaking with monotypes, dry point and gyotaku, figurative collage, and informative blog entries.
