Happy Earth DAy and here is Lucy !

We have been adopted by this kitty that we call among other thing, Lucy.  She started hanging about in the yard in January but would dash off if we got too close. Much to  Mz Ruby's chagrin,  she now thinks she owns the place. Ruby has to hiss or punch  or chase  her  if she gets too close or crossed the invisible area around Ruby known only to her having been the only cat for 5 years.

Lucy in the skies with blue eyes. See her right ear u cut out? i hope that means she was fixed. if you are a cat person that knows catch /fix /release, 

 perhaps you can tell me if that is a female her right ear clipping indicating  fixed.
.

I finally got a new camera a Nikon  coolpix. My older Canon Powershot 540, that worked great for 12 years no longer worked but  would only take dark photos or overexposed ones no matter how many times i studied the manual and attempted to change settings. It also ate up AA batteries like crazy. i would take them out in between shooting even. 

 I  have not been posting as would like  as photos are a good que for me to start a post.
Happy Earth Day

hibiscus blooming this morning

Tahitian gardenia,   a heavenly fragrance 

"everything here is mine "......Lucy

Wordless Wednesday

                                                             ain't  nature Grand!

Christmas eve in the morning...

The Cookies have been eaten, the baking is all  done

with the pounds  that have been added,

this might be a good time for a run

The tree is up and almost decorated with  only one more present to wrap. 

now, looking back, i  will  most likely need a  short nap 

My your holiday season be peaceful  and  the new year  2019

a healthy one

  filled with bright moments and many , many amazing  setting suns! 

Good tidings from our home to yours,

Be well, Sonja 

Moondance November

In the Northern hemisphere

the  moon has several names depending on your tribe: Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon,
 Beaver Moon .

 This morning after too much food celebrating  of Thanksgiving yesterday,

 i awoke at O dark thirty to watch the frosty moon about to set .

Early in the morning dawn, the moon of November 23,2018  will  eventually set into the clouds

See that path  the moon light makes upon the water? (the sun does this a well).

 i am curious what word or words  are used to call this  wonderful nature happening.

 JESSE SHEIDLOWER, an editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, reported that the word requested already exists: moonglade. I also found  a synonymous word moon wake. I have attempted to capture this effect in paint. i will keep trying to do it

 with fabric strips sewn together.

So do  you recall the song by Van Morrison called Moon Dance...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo3JznMhpWc

It goes ...."it's a marvelous night for a moondance..."

 I believe it was published in 1970 and ya know what? It still stands the test of time!

 brilliant excellent composition and execution why its a classic

and tried by many mastered by very few.

I am thankful for magic of music, that i can remember it even the first time i did 
and what and where and who  was there 

 and how it transports and  also gives rise to memories of younger times for me.

Thanksgiving is so filled with memories,  especially when we smell the fragrances,  prepare or eat the classic foods we are used to that our parents served and that we have adapted

 and tweaked  through the years.....  especially the cranberry sauce! 

be well, sonja

let's sing some pumpkin carols....

 Two little flat pumpkin pins made of painted fabric

 and using a rolled fabric stem and a twig from the yard

 no doubt a bougainvillea clipping,

 now i use repurposed chopsticks  parts,

 stained a brown color for stems.

 made from halloween fabric

  mini pants 

 to dance in if you are a tiny dancer!

We had an etch and sketch feature on our first computer 

so i made this greeting inspired by

Charlie Brown's  seasonal cartoon 

 where he searches for the most sincerely pumpkin in the patch.

As a vintage child, I like to watch each year.
the cat peeking over the top is mz Ivy. 

Orange to mango and  sunny greens, colored fabric laying about

trimming left over  from a mango inspired quilt

a block of  which is shown above 

now lives on in a pair of  stuffed pumpkin.

They become more dear

each year, 

as my hands start to ache with too much holding, stitching, and stuffing

Must be time to get out the  unscented Bengay, Salonpas, or cbd salve

and go read a book!

 happy time of pumpkins to you all

 and 

try not  eat  all  the  candy  corn !

Be well, Sonja

sending an October sunset your way

  

With a little help from my friend Ruby on Tuesday

Earlier this morning Ruby wanted to make a nest in my studio

 instead of  settling on her current  daily favorite sleep spot on a director chair out on the deck. 

Today I set about selecting fabric for a custom made glasses/cell case for someone  that requested one last July. Ruby likes to help with this sort of task and she loves fabric,
 especially if i am working with it......she has selected one in particular that i want to use. 

So I will wait until she falls asleep to ever so gently slip  that

 deep blue piece out from under her grasp. Or i will work on something else needing attention as 

 I work on several projects at a time,at least several teen .

I'm sleeping here mom.....in my nest 

The turning

Where has the summer gone?

 I live in the land of endless summer (to some), yet there are the subtle changes i see, smell, sense
 that tell me  it is time to turn the calendar page  once again.
Like
the angle of the sunlight
the foliage
the way the light is seemingly cooler than it was in June
 lessening of the traffic as school reopens and tourist  thin out in the stores i shop.

Here the colors of  the harvest season  can be seen

at sunset and in the  birds of paradise framed.
 lovely

here is Ruby in the sink, again
 where she like to drink moving water...

" If it fits, I sits! "

Newest "painters of the pacific" 2018

Here are the very newest painters of the Pacific!  Glowing!

The bird of paradise, orchids, hibiscus and plumeria  flowers are represented and shown here by the artists who designed and painted them. How cool is that!. They were a wonderful group who didn't know one another previously and now have new art buddies with  lots to share

 and learn from each other.  One kind lady offered to help with Hawaiian quilting to a woman that had recently arrived to the islands.That is so kind!!

Many folks wandered through my big white tent at Haleiwa Arts Festival last July.

 I attempt to field a lot of questions from some,  explaining  my kind of  fabric manipulations  and use of paints and inks. Art is really hard if not impossible to put into words for me  so i talk mostly about process. Some are curious enough to ask if i have classes on how I get my  fabric those colors.

 I have a clip board handy for information and if they wish to sign up. When i get several interested, i will contact them shortly to get a group together on a day that works of everyone.

And these ladies were brave enough to come back out to the country last Saturday to spend the day looking at flowers and leaves, seeing what they are looking at, sketching the  many wondrous shapes of nature, refining, and mixing paint to get colors that please....ripping up fabric into usable sizes from fat quarters to post card sizes, drawing and finally painting.  They eventually commit to paper a sketch, several actually and then  they transfer image to  fabric and  then the  painting begins.

  There is a lot to do and think about  and  since I've been at this colorful fabric journey of curiosity  for long time, i'm old,  I can answer many a question, except perhaps how long anything takes . 

It takes until it is done is best i can offer, mostly 

black orchid 

 (trichoglottis bronchial)

  Most of us are attracted to color and fragrance and the flowers of Hawaii do not disappoint! This time of year i am blessed with an  amazing abundance of the black orchid shown above..(i still think it is more of a Merlot or Cab color...) For the class  i also I gathered leaves and flowers that i brought to the table to view, smell, see and enjoy, to sketch and paint.

 After the class is over, these very same flowers and leaves that inspired painters inspire me to make a sort of arrangement , much like the very first flowers and leaves 

i painted in the "80's to quilt up in a pillow form.

                                              arrangement  of leaves and flowers

 

                             a fabric post card i made for a trade in a mailing art online group 
                                                                     art2mail  i think


                                         After the class was over, I painted up some remnant fabric, 
using palettes of paint left over  and yes that is a  glass of Merlot next to a  6 pack tray of paint!

                                             i call this painting  above a seascape of the imagination
  

this is what remained after cloth painted dried on the freezer paper under it

one of the painters left her enhanced flower sketch behind

i mailed Sarah her post card fronts that she painted and left in my studio to dry!

What a wonderful way to spend a day! 

 Mahalo to Sarah, Dorita, Jeannie and Cindy

for sharing a colorful day in the country!!

Be well, see well,
 Sonja

palette love

Well after the fair was over.....

ARTISTS Of ALL AGES

enjoyed the Haleiwa Art Festival !!

This sweet little girl came through my tent early 
on a Sunday morning with her grandma
and was fingering some of my hand painted fabric. Her grandma said to her,  "You  know you can have only one choice from one of the 5 booths we have been to recently." The girl nodded while narrowing her choices in her mind no doubt. Not much time passed  before i saw her walking towards me with a bright smile. I had a feeling she just might be an artist in the making 
as she selected one of my hand painted aprons,
the one with lots of vibrant colors circling about.
Here she is modeling the apron while i tie it up. After the the girl handed me the denero, i folded up the apron and placed into one of my hand painted lunch sacks i use for smaller items and handed it to Haley.
 She gave me a big hug ! What a way to start the day!!
then i thought of this string of words....

" So without imagination and paint

upon cloth, dried and  then manipulated.....

there would be nothing to see HERE! "

sonja hagemann

HAF  participant  since 1999

Aloha!I 

 I could be showing, feeling my age as it is 2 weeks past the HAF so i am almost up to energy level that i think is the new normal.....for a person my size! At the fair i had a sign up sheet for folks that ask if i have a painting class. i  say,  I do when i can get a few folks to agree on a day to gather.  We have a group  next month that will learn a bit about mixing colorful inks for fabric painting, sketching flowers, looking and seeing, experimenting and having fun  with color. Seams  that many of the folks that show up are quilters 

that like the colors i get into my fabrics and  

how i use the the transformed fabric that started out as a 
plain vanilla hued cotton. 
 In a class setting, I  can share my paints, brushes and tools and ideas as i have a  history of painting upon  things that do not move fast. Flowers get my focus and because you have to put the color somewhere, a good place to start and  because i love leaves
 and all the many shades of green that shows up in green!
I have plans for these lovely blossoms  below. 

                                                                            magnolia

"To create one's own world in any of the arts

Takes courage."

Georgia O'Keeffe

• What do i do when i empty a jar of possibilities??
•              Here are some  brushes standing  in a jar that once contained inks and now wrapped in a bit of painted cloth.
• 
  
• I hope you are having a colorful summer
•  and  finding  cool shady spots to sit  and  sip  a cool ice tea!
• be well, Sonja
•