Merry holidays

 merry holidays to all!

this little arrangement came to be

after a walk around the yard,

with colors of the season

another reason, to share them  now with you!

mahalo, sonja

 

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

Earth Day 2017

"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

 came out the year I left home for a college that was located close to the ocean. i had already read "The Sea Around Us" and had made the (unconscious) decision to leave the high desert of California and seek my way where i could see and smell and play in  the ocean. After reading , and rereading i was not the same in how i looked/felt about the natural world all around me. i say unconscious because it was many years before i actually said out loud that i had

" to get me to the ocean."

In january of 1971 I took a trip to hawaii

 and have lived here ever since, some times near the ocean or in sight of the ocean.

  This morning on a walk up to the mailbox i found several flowers from the plumeria tree lying on the grass beneath the tree, still fresh and fragrant in the morning misty rain.

 i picked them up and  took  in  a  deep  breathe  of what home smells like to me.

Yup, i am a tree hugging earth mama artist that is still excited about nature and all her gifts

 and show no sign  of  changing  my  attitude  anytime  soon.

 i hope i will always notice the beauty and fragile nature surrounding us.

And to be grateful and kind to mother nature.

be well, see well, sonja