With the 2015 Brush and Palette Fine Arts Show paintings creating a Hollywood backdrop (89 entries) on the Grand Junction Art Center walls, Ann Kurz Chambers took center stage with her demonstration on October 15, 2015.
A multi-faceted artist with a published book of wildflowers, cranberry products, and more, Chambers showed how to create landscapes with oils on pieces of wood previously gessoed with a white background.
Her creations are unique, and she paints quickly, proficiently. She emphasized that all art supplies and items are conserved, no matter the age of oils in tubes. She returns to her paintings that have been long neglected, perhaps laying against a corner of her studio, and fine tunes them in multi media ways using gesso and layers of paper or found objects.
Chambers often uses hardwood by-products supplied by her son. Most of the wood provided by her son is special Engelmann spruce wood that he uses in his violin making.
Recap of Chambers’ demonstration:
Supplies:
oil paints, turpentine, turpentine in spray bottle to retain moisture on surface, Liquin, panels of wood, fiberboard, canvas, canvas board, masonite, gesso, brushes, rags, protective gloves
Method:
- Apply several layers of gesso to chosen surface object
- Apply the layers several times, laying on more gesso in the opposite direction of the prior layer
- Sand lightly after each gesso layer has dried
- When background is to your liking, apply oils (saturated with Liquin for ease of application and to aid in drying)
Several Finished Chambers’ Objects:
It just occurred to me that I have not yet shown knitting progress on a kit I purchased soon after Julie and I returned to Colorado in May.
That month of May in South Carolina was a complete wash in terms of knitting. Even if there had been time to sit down and knit, there was not a whit of concentration left in my frazzled mind. So just as well that my hands had a break from the needles.
During June, I finished one of The Yarn Harlot books. A story she wrote stuck with me when she talked about a woman in her circle of friends who took on the daunting task of beginning to knit a blanket, a huge one. The woman in the story decided to begin this project while in the midst of several personal crises, including severe depression and the break up of her marriage. McFee, aka The Yarn Harlot, went on to write that this woman, stitch by stitch, finished one row and then another, day by day, week by week. Lo and behold, after a year, the blanket was completed. Somehow, the working of the project, the clearing of the mind, that entire process of making a blanket required a different sort of concentration of efforts. And it resulted in more than just a finished blanket. With the ending of that enormous knitting effort, her depression had lifted and she had made important decisions, including one to end her marriage. What determination she had.
Back to my tie-in and identification with the woman who undertook that blanket project. No, I am not leaving my husband. But I did decide to order from a Norwegian designer who had put together kits for the most determined of knitters. Those who had knit up this daunting project took months to complete it, according to their notes on Ravelry. So I took the mental plunge back in June and bought the kit, knowing I would eventually complete it because I must finish what I start... a compulsion. It may take a while to complete, but each completed stitch will work toward good mental health.
So this is the Promenade Shawl now on the needles, started in June:
But then I got distracted with other projects, like knitting up Julie's acrylic shawl just in time for cool weather.
She wore it yesterday on her Wednesday visit to our house. Her aide helped to choose the dress from her closet to match the shawl, and got her ready. Julie was all smiles when Dennis delivered her to our curb. Gene made guacamole and tacos at her request.
Joining in with Ginny and her Yarn Along!
Julie and I took a leisurely wheel over to the hospice restaurant again this week. After thinking about the Ezra book and praying about the situation, it went much better than our first outing there. Thank you all for your kind comments about the Very Busy woman, by the way. (And no, I have not heard from Her again.)
Here we are in the sun before our lunch. A kind gentleman snagged from a nearby bench was the photographer.
Recipes tried this week: Beer Bread, and Rosemary Bread, thanks to Stephanie who blogs here. Ya'll have a good weekend!
