the in-between times

I remember long-ago lazy days of summer stretching endlessly ahead of me... walks in the forest, days at the lake, jumping waves, collecting the shells of fresh-water snails, picnics at the Rock Pile

the summer days still seem endless but not so much in the lazy, pleasant ways of used to be

summers now tend to be the time for the large-scale outside maintenance chores that take up big chunks of time  though this year it hasn't been as bad as usual

this year its only the fence that needs fixing and staining and though I had a brief foray into it in May its only now that the work is in full swing

which means creative time is minimal... which means its hard to dig into anything that requires any kind of regular attention or large blocks of time... which means I get agitated

sooo... determined to be able to do something creative as and when a bit of time presents itself  I sat down a couple of weeks ago and did a quick doodle, expanding on an idea I tried a few years ago of adding details to a drawing of the clay cliffs in Whitehorse using writing for some of the furrows

I couldn't find that drawing so grabbed a piece of paper that had been smudged with charcoal and had a play at using asemic writing to depict hills in a landscape - not trying for anything specific rather, just an attempt to see if I could approximate what I was envisioning

this was literally a 3 1/2 minute effort,  just to see how the marks could work in a landscape and I came away thinking it was somewhat promising so I got out a couple of books I have on expressive calligraphy and had a flip through them

and then a video or two...

and now the worktable is laid with watercolour and ink, brushes and pens and whenever I have a bit of time between fence panels I can grab a tool and make a few marks

and in the way of things, now that I'm thinking about marks and such my niece and I found some interesting pieces of bark whilst on a walk last week... large chunks had fallen off a dying tree and we noticed interesting marks on this one

made by termites, it looks to me like a map of their munching

and then we saw a few other examples of nature's textures

 I remembered this image from the Spring... the disrupted reflection of branches on the water was very intriguing though admittedly, I didn't notice that until looking at the image on my laptop

so... I made a duplicate, cropped it and added a filter called "Silvertone"

lots of possibilities for calligraphic play here, as and when...

and in between fence panels

noticings... "being known"

when you live in a world full of such interesting things "noticing" can sometimes seem to take on a life of its own, with each day laying any number of such things in front of you for to be seen

as the curious mind collects these noticings, they are sometimes enjoyed for a few fleeting moments or, if recorded in some manner,  they can be transformed from simply being noticed to a state of being known

I have carried pocket notebooks on trips that over time become laden with written noticings,  observations I have made on anything from menu items, signs, behaviours, scenery - things people have said and small details I have seen

flipping through it will take me back to an exact moment and place in time a way more fulfilling than looking at a photograph ever could be

several months ago I wanted to make a small book for a friend who shares the same love of observation and recording but I wanted something that was more for a drawing or fragment than only the written word

and so the idea for a "noticings book" was born

in the end I made two books, one for each of us, knowing we will enjoy observing our different approaches to using a book such as this

to continue that similar yet different approach I made the covers for both books from a single piece of ink-painted paper

to further enhance that which has been noticed I wanted to create a design space on each page that would act as a kind of frame

as I am still quite new to print-making this took a bit of thinking and planning

along with more than a few trial runs

in the end I got what I was after

a diminutive concertina book with a small square blind embossed indentation on each page, the perfect place to isolate a small yet important noticing of some kind

first drawn out on graph paper, then a model made with a lightweight interfacing with small squares of sturdy cardboard glued in place

all the measurements for fold lines and page joins worked out

the only challenge was that toward of the printing the required number of pages for the two books (plus a few spares for good measure), the cardboard corners were starting to soften and fray, the embossing becoming slightly less distinct 

I'm keen to make more books like this but am thinking I'll see about getting some small copper or brass plates for etching and using those for my templates rather than heavy-weight card

but that's a thing for another day and time

for now, there is world of wonderful things waiting to be made known to me

it's all about the light

August is change... I felt it early one morning last week, there was a slightly different quality to the cool air wafting through the open window

couldn't put my finger on it but it was more than just the feeling of a cooler summer morning - more like a felt memory of late Fall... when the nights and mornings are dark,  the ground frosted white and the geese fly overhead early and late

later that morning an email from a friend mentioned her return to collage experiments and as always happens when she writes me of them, I had a renewed collage hankering of my own

I thought of some frosty prints I had made a few years ago, some using a Lino-block stamp I had carved - a quick search found them along with a few other simpler scraps 

above is the orientation I began with, below is where I finished

not sure which is best but I'm leaning above

along with everything else, I've also been working through a "Winter Writing Sanctuary", a seasonal free offering by Beth Kempton last winter - the lesson I was on whilst working on this collage was to write a winter Haiku poem using various prompts - the one I had chosen was "winter garden"

shadow petals drift

thorns lay bare across the snow

winter garden moon

not a direct translation of the collage but there's something in each that reminds me of the other

on searching for the said prints I came across some pigment-coloured cloth I had made a couple of years ago

in search of twilight at the time of making, I had played about with indigo, black and yellow ochre

the result wasn't overly successful but as I looked at it the other day I had a hankering to draw darkened bare-limbed trees

a dip pen and carbon black ink I made worked rather well I think

done lightly, there is little to no bleed 

small, absorbing what-ifs that whiled away the hours a few times this week

when its hot and humid

the heat arrived last week -  blistering temperatures, the hot heat

 the humidity followed forthwith

uncomfortable doesn't begin to describe it so to soothe myself, I browsed photos taken in the depths of winter

this one, of the Klondike river boat, is a favourite

it was taken last November during a wild snowstorm that descended on the city in a moment and created havoc within a couple more

 

a few years before that I took the image below... a section of one side of the Klondike, before the latest restoration began, the boards beautifully distressed

the boats were constructed of narrow strips of wood, painted white, a simplicity in design I have always been drawn to

 a long time ago I had a thought to some day take that design sensibility, long, narrow and white, to make a book

seems some day may have arrived... 

having made up my mind to get started on it, I quickly decided on the paper I want to use (Hahnemühle Agave Watercolour paper (my favourite) and then thought about what this book might look like

long, narrow pages, white, a nod to the boards

at the moment I'm leaning toward a measurement of 3 1/2" x 9"

for imagery I decided to turn to the river for inspiration

favourite images of the water and some with the shore were printed

a rummage through some older work yielded strips of white linen that had been coated with gesso and then painted with watercolour - something interesting in that combination

 before I tackle the actual book I'm going to work on a number of sample pages, beginning with what I know and then seeing what comes of that...

for now its a place to begin

 

 

these are now glued down, the "page" pressing under weight

 

I then wondered what cutting a long narrow opening into a page might look like, with the imagery of the next page showing through

I dithered on the size of said opening and then decided to just cut one and figure it out from there

so far so good

the first trial "window" is 1" x 6 1/2"

I like it but proportions are tricky things so I might try something slightly less than 1" on the next sample - or maybe cut a few with a variety of measurements and have a play

laid on an image of shore trees against the sky, I liked what I was seeing, so much so that it is now cut and mounted behind

 

another project on a long list of "would like to do"s coming to the forefront and one I'm excited to be starting finally, after all this time

so now its ice lines stitching in the evenings when I get to sit a spell and paper and book things in the day when I need to escape the heat

summer might not be so bad after all!

when something takes hold

a few years whilst up north one very cold November I took some pictures of the Yukon River

I've taken many, but that trip, on that day, I was after something very specific... I suppose I've got ahead of myself,,, this story actually begins several months before that November day in 2023

a few years before, I'd come across a copy of a photography book by Charles Prost of the gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny, France

Prost photographed the gardens once a week for an entire year, the book is a selection of images from each of the four seasons

for a number of reasons I didn't look at the book until the summer before that trip and it had a profound impact me... I have to look at it to remember the images from Spring, Summer and Fall;  the Winter ones have never left me 

their impact was deep and profound

I'd never seen water that way before, nor reflections, not as art in and of themselves

 on that cold November day on the banks of the Yukon River I was hoping for a little of that magic of my own

the light was low, blues and blacks emphasized

the river had an oily look to it, a beautiful sheen that grabbed the light, reflecting it back on the darkening sky

the trees on the water shimmered black, unmoving yet indistinct as the current flowed through them

enlarging the images simply enhances the blur

today I decided to take that inspiration for a spin and work with it, in paint

what I did is not a rendering, nor an attempt to try

it's simply an attempt at interpretation, based on inspiration

using matte acrylic paint along with acrylic ink in colours inspired by the photos, I taped off a piece of heavyweight cartridge paper into four sections and had a try

first dabbing, swishing, and streaking white here and there across the four rectangles

then layers of black, indigo, sepia, separately and all mixed together, over and over again

scratched into

and pulled back with dabs of a paper towel

again and again, layer after layer

hoping at the end I'd have something that perhaps came close to what had inspired me first in the book and then at the river

in the end I got there

not sure how but these are going to be a factor in what I do over the next week... the first thing to do is print the photos on some of the fine art papers I've recently added to my collection and take it from there

and then start all over again

thoughts of a wandering mind

dappled light, cool morning air

high on the ladder, red pail hanging by its handle, I'm hidden in a swathe of green and red

thunk, thunk, thunk, into the pail the handfuls of cherries go

the methodical repetition of picking them allows my thoughts to wander to the small room on the top floor where creativity happens...

in my mind I gather fine Japanese papers, vintage linen, threads in shades of blue/grey, white and off-white and drawing/painting supplies... looking and considering, laying a few of each aside to begin

twenty minutes later, at the potting bench, the cherries now in a large bowl, the sorting begins... good ones here, the rest there

here, my mind wanders again, now experimenting with printing on the papers... first digitally using edited photographs, then mono- and gelli-plate printing... ice lines flowing across the pages in silver or grey

inside now, standing at the kitchen sink - washed cherries to the left, a parchment-paper lined sheet pan to my right

pulling the cherries apart with my thumb, removing the pits. checking for worms (I found 9, in 175+/- cups of sweet and tart cherries)

at the same time,  the work upstairs has progressed, painted and printed papers depicting the frozen ice that lay along and partially over the Yukon River were being combined in various ways, here and there with added stitching or drawn marks... the work was absorbing and experimental, I was very much in a "flow" state of mind

as the last pan of cherries slid onto a shelf in the freezer, the images of creativity faded away, replaced by the hum of the refrigerator as I closed the door

it was wonderful while it lasted...

the next day, with a few free hours ahead of me I stepped into that same room and all of the inspiration I had been previously flooded with fell away, dropping at my feet as swiftly as the few errant cherries that had escaped my grasp the day before

I've had this happen to me time and again but on this occasion I was ready - all the work I had done ten days before to print photos, make notes, organize my thoughts - all of that was all recorded in my sketchbook, just waiting for me to finally show up

flipping to the pages where I had jotted down ideas of ways to depict the ice lines, I quickly settled on one close to the top of the list

expanding on the kintsugi-style trials I was doing on paper in the Spring, I wanted to try the same thing with silver leaf to portray the wind-blown lines of snow and ice

choosing a piece of drawing paper previously painted with a pale blue-grey ink, I began

silver leaf

building up the lines by adding more and more layers of the medium as each dried, eventually I had achieved a certain degree of relief that felt correct and as soon as it had dried enough I applied the silver leaf

next was to cover that with the specialty sizing that would allow me to add paint - this in an effort to break up the lines of silver somewhat and bring in the sense of crusted snow and ice

the photo makes the lines look very dark - in reality they are mostly a fairly flat silver though I took care not to put the sizing on all of it, wanting some of the brighter silver to shine through

with the sizing medium

next was to start adding colour over top of the silver in a stippling effect, using white and light grey

that took a lot of trial and error, first to find the right paint, and then the right brush

I finally settled on matte acrylic paints in white and black and a small, scratty brush, bristles somewhat stiff from being used as a glue brush over time and also from being cut into to create an uneven edge to it

first I stippled light grey here and there on the silver leaf lines followed by white - once that was done I added a few light grey stippled areas here and there between the lines, looking for a rough ice surface effect

with dry and white paint on the lines and in-between

I was beginning to feel somewhat pleased with the overall effect though it did seem rather "neat and tidy" so I decided to add one more layer

a fine white stipple over much of the ice area, crossing over the ice lines, overtop of the light grey already there - just a random pouncing of the brush with the barest bit of white paint

low exposure

I played with the exposure setting when photographing this stage in order to show the white stippling done at the end - it seems to be rather effective at bringing the piece to life

below is a high exposure photo which is probably a bit closer to the true value of the actual piece than the one above

so... I think next I'll print each of these last two images on a piece of fine Japanese paper and then have a think about what to do with them

I may not exactly remember all I made whilst up in that cherry tree, nor during the processing afterwards but it fed the creative spark, got me to just show up when I did have the time, and my previous planning helped me to get moving when I began to flounder

this small exercise in creative experimentation has given me a great big creative boost but the funny thing about it was... whilst working on the ice lines I was thinking of making cherry pies!

caught in the ice...

wandering in to the studio late one afternoon just over a week ago, wondering what I could do with the free hour I had... looking through a few things on my worktable but nothing clamoured for my attention

 by the time I finally chose something almost half of the hour was gone

feeling frustration starting to rise at the time wasted I thought back to a day not long before I went to the Yukon in May, when I had settled on re-visiting my work on the Yukon River and developing some new pieces

to the storage drawer I went, pulling out a few pocket folders and zippered storage cases filled with cloth and paper samples and snippets

within a few minutes I had sorted out everything that had to do with the ice lines I was exploring early in the year and decided to begin there

that evening I looked through the photographs I had taken on the day I first noticed the ice formation, set up a "River Ice" folder in iPhoto and transferred them all there

the next time I was between chores (staining the patio and/or picking cherries) I played with a few simple photo edits and then printed out ten favourites to work with

this past week I cut out the photos in preparation for drawings and a bit of mark-making, cut up some drawing paper and generally got organized for that

once that was all sorted I turned to the stitch samples in progress, thinking about which ones still capture my interest, what just needs to be finished and which ones provide enough information as they are and can simply be mounted in the sketchbook as a reference

to be sure I run the risk of making this all about getting organized - its an old trick of mine, used to dodge doing the riskier stuff like actually drawing, or starting a piece of work

to snap myself away from that I picked up a piece of linen I had done machine stitch writing on... it was from several years ago, a discard from a previous work

hmmm....

it was triangular in shape with a wobbled curve edge

a few seconds later there were three wobbled-edge strips - layered, they reminded me of the ice, the rough texture of it, the repetition of line

next is to add a few stitches along the raw edges

the idea of stitching words on the cloth with the machine holds more promise I think, and a few variations on the theme have already come to mind

jotting things down in the notebook I set up (like a bullet journal, with numbered pages and categories) will not only keep me from forgetting any random ideas that wander through my mind,  but will be a quick stop to find something to work on in those short periods of time available to me during this very busy month

it's all about cherries for the next while...