I’m teaching at the Inspire Retreat in the UK in June 2013

 

I’m thrilled to announce that I'll be teaching in the UK next summer, at the Inspire Retreat June 25-30. Other instructors that week are Gillian Travis, Dan Cameron Dick, Pat Archibald and Ferret Capri. You can choose a different workshop with a different instructor each day. (As usual, I wish I were going as a student!) 

The event was organized by artists Gail Cowley and Janet Gledhill, and will be held at the lovely Lancaster House Hotel Green Lane in Ellel, Lancaster. Check out all the details here and make plans to join us! Here are my classes:

Tuesday, June 26: Wholecloth Painting: Still Life

Wednesday, June 27: Thread Sketching: Crayons

Thursday, June 28: Paint & Stitch: Peacock Feather

Friday, June 29: Thread Sketching: Dragonfly

Saturday, June 30: Wholecloth Painting: Botanicals

“Friso” is done!

“Friso” (2012) by Susan Brubaker Knapp

“Friso,” a portrait  of my friend Lya’s cat, is done! This is a 10-3/4" x 13-1/4" wholecloth painted piece that is heavily thread sketched. You can read about the painting process in this blog post and this one. The thread really gives him texture and you can almost feel the fur looking at it.

“Friso” detail (2012) by Susan Brubaker Knapp

When I was thread sketching him last night, the piece started to go a bit wonky on me, because I was doing so much heavy thread work on the fur. When I teach, I often get questions about how much wonkyness to expect. With my technique, I don't put my work in a hoop. I rely on a fairly stiff but lightweight interfacing underneath the painted surface to keep it from drawing up and puckering. Even then, I still get some wave in the piece. Usually when I distribute the threadwork evenly over the surface, it helps reduce this. I thought I’d show you how much this piece was waving early on in the process:

Of course, my cat Wicked had to  take a closer look. With her black and white markings, she looks a lot like Friso, but has half a mustache and half a goatee.

Next week, “Friso” will be on its way to Lya in the Netherlands.

Shelter: Nests

[The theme for The Sketchbook Challenge this month is shelter, 

and this is a recap of a post I made on that blog on Friday.] 

A few weeks ago, I was on safari in South Africa, and spent a lot of time to think about how animals make or find shelter. This brought me around to nests. I’ve always loved them. When I was a kid, I used to watch the birds working in the springtime, and worried that they might not get their nests made before the eggs arrived. So I would make nests of mud and grass, let them dry and then perch them up in the branches. Sometimes in the spring, my mom would help me cut lengths of brightly colored yarn, and hang them out in the trees. Then we’d look for them in nests around the neighborhood. 

There’s something magical about the shelter created by a nest. I think it has to do with hope, with the waiting, quiet and still, for things to grow, break forth, and then to take wing.

I think it is very interesting how much I think while I sketch. Maybe that’s why I find it so relaxing and meditative. I’m usually so busy bustling around that I don’t have much time for deep thoughts. Sketching forces me to be in the moment, and frees my brain and my soul to explore.

For this sketch, I worked from a still life I created more than a year ago in a glass apothocary jar. I used smooth, round stones I collected on a beach in Washington state, a nest that I found in the woods years ago, blue jay feathers picked up while walking the dog around my neighborhood, and bluebird eggs that never hatched.

Setting up a still life for sketching is a lot of fun. Give it a try: collect things you love, things that seem to go together, and arrange them so that they please your eye. Have fun. Try bold juxtapositions. Make something pretty, or scary, or weird. Something that tells a secret story. Something that makes people look twice. Then sit down and sketch it.

I have created several pieces of fiber art with nests as their theme:

“Harbinger’s Hope” by Susan Brubaker Knapp (2007)

“Nestled” by Susan Brubaker Knapp (2011)

This last one is an appliqué design that simplifies the shapes:

Day 9: Cape Town

Please note: the photos in this post are a bit fuzzy because of the program I used to upload my blog post from my iPad. You can click on each photo for a clearer view. 

The weather was looking up this morning, so we headed for the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Even in winter (we are in the Southern Hemisphere, remember), it was incredible.





Guinea Fowl:


Egyptian Goose:


Yellow Cobra Lilly:








"Mandela's Gold" stelitzia:


















Awe-inspiring views:





The Camphor trees are huge!








The garden has many specimens of protea:


























And delicate smaller blooms:


This is a Baobab tree, which does not grow this far south, except in a greenhouse. I wanted to see one when I was in Kruger, but we were not far enough north. Next time, I want to see it in its natural environment.


A section of the garden features fabulous sculptures.





At Hout Bay, south of Cape Town, we found brilliant, clear blue-green water, and brightly painted fishing boats:











This sea lion was tormenting a dog on shore, leaping up and splashing him, making the dog bark furiously!











Freshly caught fish are tossed on the concrete at harbor:





Along Llandudno Bay on the way back to Cape Town:


Camps Bay:


This giant sign is posted at the beach. Would you swim?

















Close up of the boulders. Mostly quartz and mica, I think.


Gigantic Kelp on the beach: