aloha august

summertime and the living is sticky, humidty is high and trade winds are missing and icky. black orchids are in their prime and the honey heavy secented air is thick and sweet.

Lucy the cat sitting. lately These two geckos join me when i take my coffee and a couple blueberry strudels,to which i add a few walnuts, out on the deck to read the paper. these colorful guys are called Gold Dust Day, common name. they are a dayglo shade of yellow chartruse green with a blue eye liner and scattered orange spots. they love anything sweet! so while i was reading ,they climbed into the glass that held my sweet morning treat.

wordless Wednesday

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
• 

Kunia Orchid show 2018

Orchids are amazing flowers . As a painter i am first drawn to the color.

The  colors and then the form and then  the fragrance of  many , oh my goodness, the fragrances!

Words do not begin to describe, heavenly  comes close .

These are called hono hono and are dendrobiums they come in white and every shade of lavender pink and  they are so very  fragrant !

last year we brought  dendrobiums home from the orchid show as a bunch of sticks and this year they bloomed!

March is their season!    so fragrant!

back to the orchid show....

 i have this vanda so i hope she blooms again this year!  

Miltonias are so beautiful .

 They grow at at higher elevation and a commonly called the pansy orchids. 

 a few anthuriums 

dendrochilum wenzelii

We bought a couple of these tiny charmers. I spoke with the vendor saying they look like tiny zippers to me ( i am a sewist after all!)  She said "Oh, that sounds a lot better than centipedes !"

 If you look closer you can see her in the palaka apron packing them in a little box for the ride home.

The clouds were so unusual and amazing on our drive home i had to take  photos .

Seems when the clouds are so varied there is a change in the  weather  coming soon.

 After the show i am itching to sketch and paint some orchids and attempt to capture

 a bit of the magic and beauty  of the flowers all around us .Ain't nature grand!