Bloodroot Woodcut

Working in wood exclusively now, this new woodcut print is of bloodroot, a spring ephemeral native to woodlands across the country.

Jack-In-The-Pulpit Woodcut Print

After visiting Audrey Christie's studio in late October, I was inspired to give up linoleum blocks and work with wood.  I had the artwork ready for what was to be my largest linoleum print yet, so I put aside the lino block and transferred the image to cherry instead.  I've only had time to make a few prints from it, but here they are hanging to dry, along with the block after printing.  The image itself is about 10" wide by 13" high.  This first printing is in a water based ink, but later, I might print it with water-soluble oil inks so that I can hand color the leaves green and the flowers a burgundy purple color.

Felted Landscapes

These felted landscapes are interpretations of my own nature photographs, constructed by wet-felting the background of the photograph, then needle felting in mid-ground and foreground details.  Most are ready for framing.

This woodland landscape features layers of trees and a forest floor pattern of leafy groundcovers.

Hollyhocks stand against the stone wall of a Mineral Point building.

Poppies dance in the sunlight.

Detail from Poppies

Yellow coneflowers wave in a summer breeze in the prairie garden.

Crabapples reflect from the still early morning surface of a lake.

An aspen woodland of contrasting white and green.

Bloodroot is a spring wildflower of the woodlands that is beautiful and fascinating.  Green-blue leaves hold water droplets in a shower, delicate flowers attract pollinators, and the sap of the stems and roots is a brilliant orange, giving the plant its name.

Detail of the flower.

The diversity of a prairie flowers from a photo taken at a restoration  in late summer.

 A nest in the branches of an orchard tree.

Fall colors in a mixed species woodland.

A birdnest nestled into the stems and leaves of a vine.

Fall Art Tour 2010

Fall Art Tour happens on the third weekend of October each year in the Mineral Point area. While not actually on the tour map, I am surrounded by those who are and so I demonstrate one of my media on that day. This year again, I was felting. Working with images from my nature photographs, I pre-make the wet-felted background mats during the week prior, and then during the event, add details and foreground images to the mats with needle felting. Felting needles have fine notches along their edges that grab the fibers of the yarns or wool fleece and push them into the felted mat to hold them onto it. This process builds up an artwork image much like layers of oil painting are built up. The finished images are about 9 inches by about 13 inches and are available as is for your own framing or in a shadowbox frame. Both works need some finishing touches such as squaring up the edges, but these are my results for FAT 2010.

During the event, I also made a felted vessel by wrapping roving around a children's play ball and wet felting it. This forms a hollow vessel of felted fiber. This yellow-orange and rust vessel is about 8 inches wide and about 7 inches tall.

The felted oak leaves will be $380 unframed or $420 framed plus $25 shipping. The trilliums will be $420 unframed or $460 framed, plus $25 shipping. The vessel is $85 plus $5 shipping. Call 630-728-9998 or email. Other vessels and felted pictures are available.

Three Trillium - Nine

This print is the result of an argument with a customer. I had a felted trillium in the gallery for over a year, and a man came in and told me he had seen it last time he was in town and wanted to purchase the picture with the three trillium in it. I showed him the felted picture of the single trillium, the only felted trillium I had ever done, and he argued, saying it had three flowers in the picture. Well, how do you respond to something like that? I am sure he left thinking I had sold 'his' picture and was trying unload this one on him. Fortunately to my ego, another customer called a week later and had me mail it to him as a surprise for his wife's birthday. But that set me on a mission to find a nice composition of three trillium on my walks, and photograph the bejeebers out of it, so that I would have photos to work with so that I COULD felt a picture with three trillium. Okay, I never did get that felt done, but here is a linoleum block print of them. I call it Nine.