Home to Great News

Finally home from Cabo... nearly as hot here at home. It has taken me til today to get unpacked, pick up mail at the post office and find that 2 of my quilts have been juried in to Houston International in October. Funny.. they want them to arrive over 2 months before the show.. like next week actually.... so have to finish 1 label and get 'em shipped post haste.
Both are in the painted quilt art category...
One : Winters Hunt... most recently finished. I can't begin to guess how much thread is on this piece.

The other " In The Beginning" was finished late last year. This one is about discovering/experimenting, and has great personal family significance since I 'scribbled' things on the quilted asphalt that my young grand kids repeatedly drew. This is currently on display at my church so I need to go get it.

It's such an honor to get accepted at Houston. I am teaching there again this year as well as at Road to California in January.(www.road2ca.com) Should be great fun!

Someone wanted to know about these Bulldogs.

Argh! Have you ever lost an email you hadn't answered? For the quilter from the QuiltShow.com asking about this piece, my apologies, but here's some general info about these dogs. I painted and quilted this piece to emphasize to students that even clip art is a great place to start for pictoral paintings. These doggies were actually from a royalty free coloring book... just a simple line drawing. So I had the original 8 1/2 x 11" image enlarged (in black and white) by 400% at the print shop. Then I was off to the net to research coloring for English Bulldogs. Once I had color sample photos in hand, I painted the images on white cotton using pigment inks and heliographic paints. I first painted the father, then pup. I had assumed the dog on the left was female and became a bit annoyed that even in the canine world, females wrinkled more than their male counterpart. Happily, I was advised by someone familiar with the drawing shown elsewhere, that this was a 3 generation portrait, so I'm of the belief this 3rd dog is grandpa. You Bulldog owners that really know can set me straight if you know otherwise. Anyway, it was great fun to paint and quilt. Hope you like it.

If I haven't answered your question, please email me at patt@pattsart.com or leave a comment here. And thanks for your interest.
Travelin' still! Patt

Swimming With The Dolphins

Lucky girl granddaughter Kaley..... visiting the Dolphin Center in Cabo San Lucas. Life is Good!!!!!


Gotta love this beautiful mammal!

From Fabric To Clay

Well... what do you paint when you are not painting textiles? In Mexico, it has to be clay molds. Granddaughter Kaley and I have painted several small items since glazed and fired. (No room in baggage for larger items this year.) Sooooo much fun!

Goin' To The Chapel

Well, I don't think this qualifies as a Chapel... more like a Cathedral. This piece is in the beginning stages for sure and certainly is quite a departure from my usual work. This piece will be a labor of love for a beloved pastor who wants a light-flooded Cathedral in her own home. So, here we go.

First thing I note is that in such a near monochromatic piece as this, VALUE is paramount. When you are doing a varied color piece, values are important, but not near as critical as in this piece with little color change. So, I work in a slow build up approach. a) Generally covering the whole piece with a basic light sketch. b) Adding a few important darks c) Adding a overall light value. d) Then the slow buildup process of values where needed.

First trip to a swimming pool

Enjoying Mexico big time. Grandson Max ( 20 mos.) is getting his first ever swimming pool experience. The pic following is his first day.. ready to go to the pool. Mom says. " Why couldn't he loose the blue binkie, or the green one....? Pink is all that is left and he loves that one. He also made off with his sister's pink beach hat rather than his own blue one. Oh well, he's at least color coordinated.!"

Summer of "Changes"

Okay, this may only be funny to me. As some know, each year I participate in a traveling exhibition with a great bunch of artists. We are now prepping for the Season of Summer. "Spring" is presently touring across the country ending tour the end of this calendar year while Summer will begin touring in January 2010 at Road To California. Those that have seen Spring Break know that for traveling exhibits, I love to just have fun... poke fun, show fun, or the like.

Spring Break 2009



This "Summer" Season is planned to reflect how men change. A planned stare and compare of the Summer of 1941 ( when my hubby was a mere baby ).... and well ....this summer..... I'm sure you will notice how much things have changed!

Summer of '41:




This Summer:



Now to quilt when I get back to the states! :-)

Close To Done

Grandkids arriving so the inks/paints will go away for a bit... but my little lost girl from Ecuador is about painted. Theres alot to know about the children of Ecuador. So many young children abandoned, either by mothers too young to be mothers.. sometimes having been unwilling sexual partners as well, or very very poor parents cannot support them, sometimes slight or even major disfigurements (cleft palate, etc) prompt their abandonment. There is no punishment for abandoning children in the country UNLESS they are abandoned in an unsafe place. The orphanages we visited there and worked at are 100% privately funded, largely by loving Americans. American Doctors/Surgeons go to Ecuador quarterly to do corrective surgeries without cost. Impressive!!! So many Americans doing good work. We worked with "For His Children", a wonderful residential ministry founded and managed by Clark and Melinda Vaughn from the U.S.

Here's my little gal we found in the open market in Quito, Ecuador, the capital. It will get quilted and fine tuned at home.

Happy Hour with 2 "Tickets To Fly" =s One Long Siesta

Okay.. I have now had my quota of slushy fruity drinks that knock you out. I ordered my favorite meal... Fresh Ceviche (white sea bass with papaya relish)and tapas (chips) plus a happy/fresh drink called a Ticket to Fly. I was sooooo relaxed, I immediately returned to my room for a nap.


At least I have started on a portrait... Remember the 2 week back blog photo of the little girl in the open market in Quito, Ecuador! I am compelled to turn this photo into an art piece. The drawing lies under the cloth.. so early on in a painting, especially when ink is wet, one can sometimes see my drawing through the fabric. I think this will be a meaningful piece for me as I so clearly remember the mood and feeling of the marketplace filled with so many people struggling in poverty.


Just beginning...

At Home in Cabo

Finally, July has arrived am I am in my annual summer love affair with Cabo San Lucas. How beautiful is this place??!!!!! I know this looks like a postcard... but I shot this from my room. Muy bonita! Click on any photo for enlarged image.



I am here for 3 weeks.... one week alone to paint (I have a wonderful hubby.. he gets it!), and family including hubby, daughter, grandaughter/grandson arrive for 2 more weeks. So, I have great expectations of myself... I brought 6 ready to go, right sized drawings. I'll get at least 3 smaller ones painted this week... the rest, hopefully across the next 2 weeks. I brought all my inks in a plastic case, and fantastix in a plastic bag.. pretty simple stuff! So the inks are ready... the stix laid out in numerical order but for often used non color colors (black,white,gray) shown in a margarita glass, and metallics which I rarely use.


I'll post more later. By the way... Registration for Road to California in January 2010 is on line as of the 7th. 2 of my 4 classes are already filled. Check out the faculty and classes at www.road2ca.com. Now to the Palapa Bar where happy hour begins and I get 2 "Tickets to Fly" for the price of one. Probably my first and last drinks of the week.... but they are seemingly all fruit juice. Right!