Kitty Update

Promise I won't write about Rosie and Angus too often,

but it turns out that Angus is anything but sedate!

Wish I could have caught a picture of some of his antics, but he moves too fast for my camera!

For now here's a shot of the two of them climbing up the back of a chair on the porch,

and one of Angus ready to pounce on a toy.

Life has changed at the Hartman house!!

Back to my artwork tomorrow!

New Arrivals

May I introduce to you...

the very sedate "Angus"....

and the very outgoing "Rosie"!!!

We have adopted these little cuties and, although they will never replace our dear Kristy,

they will certainly hold a sweet place in our hearts!

The adventure begins!!

By the way, their names come from characters in the 1970's British TV series

"Upstairs Downstairs" - the butler and the maid!

Does anybody remember it? One of our favorites!

And this is why I'm behind on my "Five Faces" series and everything else!!

Five Faces in Five Days - # 3

"Molly"

I don't know where these faces come from, but Molly reminds me of a "nice" girl from the 60's - someone I would have gone to middle school with - and this is how she would have dressed for a school dance! No plunging necklines for kids in those days! I can't believe what kids wear to proms nowadays -

don't get me started!!

Anyway, this was done with applique, pigma pens and colored pencils!

Five Faces in Five Days - Day 2

"Giovanna"

This picture was inspired by my recent trip to Italy.

It's not any particular person I met, but I kept hearing of and meeting women

named Giovanna, and one day I scribbled this sketch in my notebook:

 

Today I modified the sketch and traced it onto white cotton fabric,  machine stitched the lines 

with dark brown thread, and colored it with pastel chalks.

The funny thing is that, as I was stitching this piece, I realized that

it resembled another picture I had done a while back, in cut paper:

This image must be stuck somewhere in my subconscious!!

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Five Faces in Five Days- Day 1

Here's my first face of the week, and it's a familiar one!

I used as my inspiration a picture of my five year old self, with bangs cut short in the 50's style.

 I was the shyest little thing, but I gave myself a bit more assertive look

in this interpretation. I can tell it was my kindergarten school picture because I'm not wearing the plaid  Catholic school uniform I wore in every other school picture for the next twelve years!

This is a fabric applique with both machine and hand stitching, with some touches of acrylic paint.
Oh, and I gave it a prettier background than in the photo!

Hopefully tomorrow's face will be posted earlier in the day!

Five Faces in Five Days

This week I'm challenging myself with something I've done in the past:

Five Faces in Five Days!!

I'm doing this for fun, so the faces will be simple,

but done with fabric and stitching.

As you can see, I love to sketch faces in my notebook,

 and sometimes give names to the characters.

So that's what I'll be up to this week.

Let's see if I can keep it up - hope you'll join in the fun by commenting!

Have a great Father's Day everyone!! 

Work in Process

I've been working on this landscape lately,

made with tulle and sheer fabrics layered over each other

and fused with "Mistyfuse".

I found that you can tear netting/tulle on the bias to get some nice ragged edges,

and the layers of colors blend together like watercolors.

I used yarns to suggest hedges and even a bit of olive green lace 

at the bottom for a vine-y look.

A sheer fantasy landscape!

Next I'll go back in with some machine stitching and possibly mount it,

with ragged edges showing, on a linen-wrapped canvas.