The Littles

Here, at long last, are the little pieces that rose from the ashes (dust?) of the studio cleaning:

The dish and spoon stayed pretty simple: they're running away on a background drawn with watercolor pencils. Their line from the nursery rhyme, torn from a tattered story book, has been added to the canvas.

The little flower fellow is a bit more complicated: He got a silver crescent moon and a brass #2. I also decided to put a small keyhole on his canvas and I wanted some to be peering through the keyhole. I chose a photo of a very dear friend who has taught me much about the flora and fauna of Florida. I just happened to have a great picture of her taken when she was a child. It seemed appropriate to use Clauda's picture on this piece and when I reduced her to an extremely small size she fit perfectly inside the keyhole! I attached a vintage key to the copper wire on the flower.

I finished both pieces with simple wooden frames, a great technique from Claudine Hellmuth's book, "Collage Discovery Workshop" that I use a lot.

What do you think?

Winter Cleaning

I know, we're supposed to do spring cleaning, not winter cleaning. But since moving to Florida eight years ago winter seems to be a better time to do deep cleaning. It's when the weather's mild - usually - and the windows can be open. It just feels like the right time down here.

I've been doing a bit of winter cleaning in the studio, sorting through shelves and storage bins, weeding out things I can give way or list for sale on etsy.

One happy result of deep cleaning in the studio is rediscovering pieces in various stages of completion that for one reason or another got set aside. Some will pique my interest again and I set them out on my work table. When this happens I rarely finish the piece as I had originally intended; there's a new vision now.

Recently I came across this tiny plate and spoon, along with their equally tiny arms and legs. Originally I had planned on doing a piece depicting the entire "Hey Diddle Diddle" gang, but lately I have been enamoured with small works, so now the dish is going to run away with the spoon alone. I painted the faces and put stripes on the wee arms and legs. Then I wired the extremities to the bodies to give them motion. They'll go on a 3X3" canvas, something else will go on the canvas with them, not sure what yet. I'll have to let you know.

I also ran across this little baby in a hollyhock. He was already painted. In fact the hollyhock was glued to a pinback. Apparently at some point I went though a very strange pin-phase that I'm now blocking...... Anyway, the hollyhock fellow has now been coated with beeswax and attached to a beeswax coated 2.5X3.5" canvas, then wrapped with copper wire. Not sure what else will go on his canvas either, but I'll put both finished pieces in a future post.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to seeing what else I might find in the boxes and bins and what ideas these finds might spark.......