Thinking Backward (and Forward)

While sorting through yet another pile of stuff I collected during my spring cleaning, I found these two watercolors tucked away in a folder:

I painted these eight years ago when I took an online class in metallic watercolors. On a whim I went to see if my slideshow of the work I did for the class was still on Flickr, and it is (click here if you want to watch it.)

I'm never going to set the art world on fire, of course, but I enjoyed it for the most part, and I learned some tricks. While taking the class I also came up with my own technique to transfer the pattern of an abstract lace with the watercolor, which is what made the background for this piece:

Once I finished the class and did my final project I went back to doing my own thing art-wise. I find I'm happier learning on my own from books.

I also found these stashed away in another closet:

Ice Cathedrals, 1996

Jax (character painting), 2004

Mattias (character painting), 2004

What I realized when I looked at these old paintings was how little I've diversified since getting into art quilting and slow stitch. Quilting is really all the art I do now, and while that's okay (it makes me the happiest) I do miss painting.

So now I'm rethinking what I want to do with my art this year. I'll stay focused on quilting, of course, but I need to pick up a paint brush again, too. No more excuses!

Comments

nightsmusic said…

I actually love your paintings. You're multi talented in my book. I think the top castle that's fantasy like, I like that one best :)

Hope you're staying safe.

March 23, 2020 at 6:45 AM

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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