UCLUELET - BLACK ROCK RESORT - DECEMBER 16 - 22, 2018

We spent a week at the Black Rock at Christmas time. We were booked to stay for two weeks, but due to a huge storm that hit not only the west coast but all parts of Vancouver Island, we had to cut our stay short. to take care of things at home as our power was off.

In our week at Big Beach we had terrific wind storms and big big waves. I had lots of beach finds on this Abalone shells, Red turban snails, mussels, small pieces of scallops that have been worn down with holes from boring sponges, barnacles…After I photograph and draw from the shells, I put them back where I found them.

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I set-up my winter studio and got right to work on observing and drawing the shells I had found.

December 18 @ 4:40 pm

December 18 @ 4:40 pm

December 20th Standing on the black rock cliff about 30 feet above normal wave action. You can see how close it is here.

December 20th Standing on the black rock cliff about 30 feet above normal wave action. You can see how close it is here.

December 20th. This wave did hit me. Normally the water is about 30 feet lower, that is how big this storm was.

December 20th. This wave did hit me. Normally the water is about 30 feet lower, that is how big this storm was.

December 22 @ 12:16 pm - The day after the huge storm

December 22 @ 12:16 pm - The day after the huge storm

Back home and working in the studio

Continued to draw from my seashell collection once we got back home.

Continued to draw from my seashell collection once we got back home.

Concertina Book Making

I had made a lot of my own collage materials for my SeaForms series. Staining rice paper with fluid acrylics and inks, walnut ink and India ink. I also burned holes in the paper, distresed paper, etc. I made this concetina book, also know as an accordion fold with these various papers.

MAKE-SHIFT TEXTILES SYMPOSIUM

I participated in a bead workshop by Bev Koski during the Make-Shift Textiles Symposium .

As well I attended a talk and slide show presentation by keynote speaker Barb Hunt titled: “Textiles & War”
This artist talk traced some of the relationships between art, camouflage patterns, nature, and the war society, illustrated with images of Barb Hunt’s work as well as examples of historical and popular culture related to camouflage. As well I participated in a grant-writing workshop with Barb Hunt.

Bev Koski

Bev Koski

Acorn Ink Accident

Acorn ink accident ! A small amount of acorn ink left in the bottom of a mug, first went mouldy, then dried out. Amazing look to it.

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Close-ups of areas inside the mug where the acorn ink dried out.

Close-ups of areas inside the mug where the acorn ink dried out.

TEXTURES OF THE SEAFORMS SERIES

Close-up details of the various SeaForms focusing in on the textures and patterns.

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ACORN INK


Gary Oak trees in the churchyard at St. Peters Church, Duncan, BC.

About 8 cups of hulls to the same amount of water and let boil. Add in one large old rusty chain, rusty saw blade (at the bottom).and some rusted parts. The iron oxide has a reaction with the acorn liquid and turns it from a similar warm walnut brown colour to a beautiful silver-grey colour. The recipe is from the book ‘Making Ink” by Jason Logan.

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Examples of the acorn ink colour - a beautiful silvery grey-black.

OCTOBER TRIP TO UCLUELET, BC

Highlights of this trip are shown in this group of chosen photos.

BIG BEACH, UCLUELET, BC

My husband Paul taking photos.

WALNUT INK

In October I was inspired to make some walnut ink, based on a recipe in the book “Make Ink” by Canadian author Jason Logan. I put a call out on my Facebook page and to a to a local Facebook group asking for help in finding walnut hulls. Pretty soon I had two good leads. One was a tree in downtown Duncan, BC. in an alley behind a shoe repair store. The second lead was from an art acquaintance, who out on a walk that morning, saw a neighbour gathering walnuts- she passed his name onto me. I was able to make two large batches of about 8 cups of hulls each. I cooked the walnut hulls on the camp stove; straining and filtering the liquid. It was a lot of work, especially in the filtering process, but worth it. The colour is such a rich deep walnut colour. Love it. The two batches are called “Festubert” and “Sahtlem”, for the street and area they were grown in. I will use this ink in my drawings.

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EXHIBITION

“SeaForms: the Nature of Creation”

These are a few of the photos of the show SeaForms: The Nature of Creation hanging in The Chapel Gallery. Click here to see more.

These are a few of the mixed media collages in the show. Click here to see all the works.