An Artist Changes Focus



Margaret asked the question, "I am a quilter but I want to change. I've collected other art materials over the years and think it is time to actually use them. How did you decide to give up quilting?" 

I'll bet others are interested in my answer and maybe have their own unique reasons for changing their art focus and questions or advice on how to do it... so here goes.  Warning: this is a long post.



Early embroidery on pillowcases
Jo Reimer, c.1950

I learned to sew seven decades ago. Boy, does that make me feel old! My grandmother taught me to embroider and then my mother taught me to sew my own clothing. I kept it up and still sew though I gave up embroidery a few years ago when my fingers went south and I couldn't hold a small needle comfortably. 

As an adult I approached embroidery as an art form, not something done on pillowcases but as art to hang on the wall. I studied embroidery in London from some of the finest artists of the day and took dozens of local workshops and eventually taught classes and workshops to other women who were interested in applying the basics of art such as color, design, composition to making art using fabric and thread.
 


Zinnia
Jo Reimer, c. 1980
26" x 26"
Mixed Media Embroidery

 

I enjoyed piecing fabrics to serve as interesting backgrounds on which to stitch. I worked by hand and machine and gradually rekindled an interest in quilting, and developed skills in surface design on fabric which involved painting, dying, applique, and printing, thinking I'd use these fabrics in quilts.  My sewing studio in our new home was featured in Dream Sewing Spaces by Lynette Raney Black, page 12.

 

International travel related to business led me to designing patterns for garments with hidden pockets to be worn by women travelers to protect travel papers.

Then I realized I had had enough.  I sold my pattern company, www.saf-t-pockets.com, packed the quilting fabric and the embroidery thread and the roomful of sewing supplies and stored them out of sight, converting my sewing studio into a paint friendly space. I didn't divorce myself from sewing but viewed it as a trial separation, knowing that this new experiment might not work for me.

I had a growing interest in learning to paint and had even traveled in Greece with a group of painters hoping to learn to paint in watercolor. I needed to know more and decided to develop my own art curriculum by taking classes and workshops that would fill in the gaps in my art knowledge. I wasn't methodical about it but the first step was developing my fledgling drawing skills by enrolling in a couple of terms of drawing classes with a good local teacher.  He also taught a beginning painting class and I learned to handle acrylics.

The internet was instrumental in offering support to my art interests. I was an early member of LK Ludwig's artistsjournal group on Yahoo, an early altered books group, and hosted a few online groups of my own - a postcard art exchange and an exchange featuring art and short stories about ancestors. This is how I developed my collage skills, though I had done lots of applique as part of embroidery.  

  (Applique is collage using fabric and stitching instead of paper and glue.)

 

Self Portrait for Ancestor Deck
Jo Reimer, 2003
6" x 10"

 My earliest immersion in watercolor was in 1991, I started painting full time in 1998, and I now work with all sorts of water-based media, primarily acrylic. I have made watercolor paintings but I prefer acrylics. I enjoy mixing media, i.e. watercolor + acrylic + pastels + collage + graphite and ink, and like working in layers.

So, my advice to Margaret was this: you don't have to give up your first love of quilting. Simply fold up your fabrics and put them in temporary storage. Put away your sewing machine and notions and clear your workspace for playing with something new. Don't think of it as turning your back on an old friend. It isn't about giving up quilting so much as it is giving yourself time to explore.

Use the things you already have (pencils, paints, paper, scissors, glue, dye...) and start working with what you own, investing only what you can afford in new supplies. Explore the options. This is an experiment. Take an art class, something basic like drawing, or composition, or color mixing. Visit local galleries, explore art on Pinterest, and figure out what sort of art you like. If you identify a local artist or art teacher see if they might welcome you into their studio.

Above all, WORK.  Set aside studio hours and spend them working. Don't be self critical. Just do the work. Read about art. Write about art, yours and other's. As a quilter you have so many skills already that will transfer directly to painting. Simply apply what you know to another area of art.

With each new media give yourself enough time to explore. By that I mean set a length of time that you will give yourself to studying that particular media. If it's working with acrylic, for instance, give yourself over to working with acrylic for 3 to 6 months, not just a few days, and not for a lifetime. Set limits and do your best to figure out if this is for you or not.

I've done that with oils. I've taken 3 five-day workshops from good teachers concentrating on oil painting and I've worked at home with oils. I like the media, but my studio is open to the rest of my home (sort of a big loft) and the smell eventually permeated the rest of my home, so I gave up on oil. I gave some away but kept some because I might be in a different situation some day. I've chosen to stick with water-based media and anything that will work with water clean-up.

Please leave your comments or ask questions in the comment section below.
Jo

Titles

Interplay
by Jo Reimer
7.5 x 7.5"
Collage on paper

We're home from a visit in Texas with old friends and while I did manage to draw every day I have done little since returning home to good weather and large weeds. Now I'm back to my rather loose attempt to make time every day for art, even if it's something small such as the above collage or smaller greeting card sized pieces or a drawing in my sketchbook. I'm making no excuses. I like working small and finishing fast.

Collage suits me. I've done this sort of work for so long now that it feels like coming home when I sit down to my table and sort through bits of color and pattern, looking for just the right pieces of painted papers to puzzle together.

But I do have a painting that's percolating in my mind. It might be called 10 Days in Texas. Or maybe not. It might turn out to be something un-nameable.  When that happens I go through my lists of names and titles, or even consult the dictionary until I find a word that fits.

Some people are so good with titles. One such artist and wordsmith, the printmaker Anne Moore who uses titles like Approaching Stillness, Driving Force, and Interplay. I'd love to get into her head to see how she comes up with such appropriate ones. Does the work come first or does the work follow the title?

How do YOU come up with your good titles? I'm searching for a better way.

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Collage on Board
16 x 16"

Collage Made From Compost



In the Garden
Collage on paper
8x8"
 

My boxes of compost are my most cherished art supply. I've talked before about how I build compost out of colored papers of all kinds and that I call it compost because as I dig through the piles of papers and stir up the mix new and exciting color combinations and compositions happen naturally.  That's what happened here.


The bright orange is the substrate which I painted by smooshing acrylic paint around on the surface. There's a bit of paper napkin, a photograph of maple leaves, a magazine image, and a color copied strip from an old painting. Simple items and a combination of stripes result in a happy piece.

Then there's this one.



Chaos
Collage on Paper
8 x 8"

It's a similar layout and color combination but to my eyes it isn't as successful as the first one, but who am I to criticize it? I'm always critical of my own work; there's always something that could be improved, especially that strip of orange up the middle.

Let's analye it according to the elements and principles of design:

• Line: vertical and diagonal suggest movement.
• Texture: visual texture of printed vs plain vs translucent invites touch.
• Color: Complementary violet and yellow with an accent of blue green.
• Composition: Cruciform
• Balance: yes, in all directions
• Value: ah, there's my problem with the orange strip. It tipped the scale of value toward equal balance of value. Without the orange strip the dark areas dominate and composition is better. But I just couldn't leave well enough alone.
• Repetition: There's plenty of repetition within each color family as well as repetition of line.
• Contrast: yep, lots of that.
• Dominance, unity, harmony: check.

The list is longer but these will do for today.

Do you ever pull out your list of elements and principles and use them to check your work? I find it's helpful when I'm puzzled about why a piece leaves me with a negative feeling.



Grass and Forest painting

Grass and Forest
acrylic on paper
15" x 11"

Today felt like a painting day but I needed to stay indoors so I pulled out a photo from a hike last year and went to work. I'm just getting a feel for the materials again so I didn't expect to produce a masterpiece but I'm satisfied with the work. I'll probably paint this again and again, and maybe soon I can return to the reserve and paint directly.

I used both fluid and heavy body acrylics, a mix of Golden and Holbein. with lots of water to make the work juicy. I'm leaning strongly toward using the thinner paint because I invaribly like to work thin so I get to play with drips and splatters.

My daughter and her daughter at about the same ages.
From my journal What Matters Most.

Valerie Sjodin of Visual Blessings http://visualblessings.blogspot.com/ has blessed me with the Liebster Award and in the spirit of the award I'm paying it forward. Though I don't usually do blog awards, this one is worthwhile if it helps increase traffic for other blogs and helps you find blogs that are new to you and are worth your time to read and follow.

ABOUT THE AWARD

This award was designed in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to five blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs.

RULES FOR ACCEPTANCE

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

PAY IT FORWARD

I tried to stay within the parameters of the rules but since many people don't include a Followers area on their blog I didn't pay a great deal of attention to that.

Here are my choices of inspiring art blogs that feature lovely artwork and some step-by-step or how-to's. (alphabetical order, of course. how could one rank such a list?)

 

Crystal Neubauer: http://otherpeoplesflowers.blogspot.com/
Donna Zagotta: http://donnazagotta.com/blog/
Laura Lein-Svenener: http://lonecrowart.blogspot.com/

Randall David Tipton: http://randalldavidtipton.blogspot.com/ 
Joyce Washor: http://joycewashorsdailypaintings.blogspot.com/

 

I've found that the internet art-blogging community is supportive and giving in a variety of ways. I hope that you will visit all the blogs that I've listed in my sidebar; there's something there for everyone.
 

 

Studio Table and Watercolor Paint Choices

 

Here it is the end of the week and I haven't posted about this weeks' work in the studio. There hasn't been a lot, and no painting, no collage.  I've been cleaning up the garden instead.  But I have been working in the studio, tossing a full cabinet drawer of files and reorganizing the remaining two drawers. It feels so good to have accomplished that.

With spring coming early to Oregon I decided to spend time on my sketching tools and the various bags I carry.  Here you see an area of my counter with some of the tools of my trade. Granted I'm at the end of the process so it looks tidy but you should have seen the mess.

The black bag on the right stays in the backseat floorboard of my car. The bag was intended to be a cosmetic bag for travel but it works better for sketching and paint tools.  The open palette is a W&N Cotman kit that was a freebie years ago and has seen lots of use. It's cleaned up for the season and mostly filled with my limited palette.

Some basic tools and a book I'm reading.

In this photo the black bag on the left is another cosmetic bag that I carry when I travel. It holds tiny bits of things I might need. I'll show you what's in that in another post if you're interested. Most things on this part of the counter are obvious and good ways to corral pens and pencils that are frequently used. The wire thingie is a vintage flower frog.  It really doesn't work well, prefering to hold flower stems, but I like how it looks so it stays there. The box cutter lives in a vintage glass tray that once held a dentist's picks.



Here's the car paint bag closed.
10" x 7" x 3"
nylon

I added D-rings on each side at the top and clipped a shoulder strap to the rings. There's also a metal shower curtain ring hanging on one of the handles so I can hang the case using an S-hook that lives inside. I've used this on an airplane quite successfully.

Opened partially, showing the handy compartments.

Opened all the way.

Check your local drugstore to see if you can find this Basics Cosmetics case. It's a dandy.

Watercolor, Collage, Journaling Table

This table is 30 x 60" and is a workhorse, used for all kinds of things, but this week it's where I've been testing watercolors in combination to see which I want to use in early spring.  The basic six that will help me capture the clear bright spring colors are Azo yellow, New gamboge, Winsor Blue GS, Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, and Winsor red.  Of course I'll modify and add to these basics, but for now that's what I'll play with.

For testing I gathered a stack of small pieces watercolor paper scraps and proceeded to test. I don't really know how to approach this so I just winged it. I first chose 3 blues and painted large spots of each down one side of the paper (see upper middle of picture) and then chose one yellow and painted beside and into each blue to see what sort of green the combination would give me. And that's how I approached each color in turn.

If you have a better way, please let me know.

I know I'll be painting with acrylics again and wanted to see how complete is my collection of Holbein Acryla acrylics. (The long narrow strip in the lower left of the picture is my record of colors I own.) Holbein uses such odd color names. For example, Flame red is really Napthol, PR9, but the only way to know that is to find the tiny paint number on the back of the tube.  So I hightailed it to Blick downtown and wrote the paint number on my Holbein chart so I'll know what to order in the future and bought a replacement since that's a frequently used one. 

Or maybe I'll revert to slinging paint based on what it looks like.  Probably will. Being organized takes the fun out of it for me.  So why go to this trouble? I need to know how to mix paint properly before I have the confidence to work with abandon. Otherwise I'm sure I'd just make ugly messes... like I've done too many times already.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  I hope you all have a great weekend.  Make something pretty.

Prairie Grass - Oklahoma

Prairie Grass - Oklahoma
collage on paper
16 x 20"

Although my focus has been elsewhere lately I'm still managing some studio time, working on the mapping series of collage paintings.

My husband and I met in college, in Stillwater, OK. He was raised in southwestern Oklahoma and after college we lived and worked in the state until moving to Oregon. Being from Arkansas I knew little about Oklahoma history and the required coursework about my adopted state was fascinating.

I read tales of the five civilized tribes, early white settlers, the Sooners who jumped into the land rush too soon, and of womens struggles to make a home on the prairie where conditions were harsh. Many, including my husbands relatives, scraped back the prairie grasses and dug homes into the red soil, using what precious wood they could find to build the upper walls, roof and door on their dugout home.

The Oklahoma prairie was beautiful before the farmers settled the land and changed the landscape forever. The grasses were tall, the skies vast, the bison plentiful. Some settlers recognized the value of the prairie grass as cattle feed but much of it was plowed and planted with crops, contributing to the horrors of the Dust Bowl era.  Now several land conservancy groups are returning portions of the land to its natural state.

There are incredible photographs of prairie grass online here.

As I thought about images of Oklahoma the most striking to me are those of grass and giant blue skies. The thin slices of paper which indicate prairie grass are proportionally too wide for the scale of the composition, indicating the immensitiy of the prairie. My art is about my emotionalal response to the location, not a photo-realistic representation. There's a dichotomy here of nature vs. present day infrastructure, a land which only 100 years ago was prairie and bison and is now criss-crossed with highways and dotted with cities. The prairies are growing back and the bison are thriving on preserves. It's about time.

Ochoco Forest - mapping series

by Jo Reimer


Ochoco Forest
14 x 18
Collage on Canvas
by Jo Reimer

The Ochoco Forest and its neighbor, the Malheur Forest, is located in central Oregon. The area is one of immense beauty and teems with wildlife especially migratory birds which call it home.

And there are BIG trees, all over Oregon.

I was lucky to have a map large enough to cover the lower part of my canvas and from there it was a matter of finding the right combination of greens and browns in my paper stash to make the statement I intended.

Small Town Oregon... mapping

by Jo Reimer



Small Town Oregon
Collage Painting
14" x 18"

Like many of you I often being my day with quiet meditation and writing in my journal, morphing from what has been into plans for the coming day in the studio. I explore ideas about current work during this time and jot down sketchy ideas about what I'll do with my studio time. 

I'm continuing to explore ways to use my connection with maps in my artwork and am finding even more excitement in working through this series.  This journey via my old maps just gets more interesting.

I've shredded maps; I've cut maps with scissors; I've torn maps; I've drawn the lines of highways, roads, and streets on paper and canvas; I've used maps as the substrate upon which I paint; I've glued maps onto just about anything that will hold still...  

....and the ideas keep coming.

Small Town Oregon began as an atmospheric landscape painting in acrylic.  It needed something more interesting than soft color so I asked the What If questions and decided to lift the maps of small towns upright as though the maps were being projected onto the sky.

Before I go much further I'll write a statement about the series so that it become clearer in my mind, not that this will be the final statement. It'll be refined as I work, but simply stating some of my intentions should help me leap ahead. It's one of the things I remember from Journalism 101... answer the questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How... and and my own mantra, What If...  what could I do next because of what's been done.