My last post on the Studio Notes blog was a year and a half ago. At that time, I reached out to let people know I started selling artwork at a local nature center, Brushwood in Riverwoods, Illinois. The next year Brushwood added an additional art market in the spring for the combination of Mother’s Day, and Earth Day called the Mother Earth art market. I’ve had the pleasure of participating in each of these art markets.

The Mother Earth art market is going on now, both online and in person. The online sale runs until this Friday, 5/12/23 at 5 PM central time.

Here is the link if you are interested in seeing all the artists in the show. The kind staff will wrap and ship your art purchases for you.

Click here for my art page specifically.

The past year and a half have included many ups and some downs. Sometimes I was too busy to create art, but I did find time to make new pieces for these art markets.

For this Mother Earth art market, I’ve been playing around with an inkjet printer making images on tea-dyed sheets and using them as a focal piece for the art.

In Birchbark 1, the actual birch bark I used in the printer was found in the woods. I kept the composition simple to highlight the printed bark. I added blue paint to silk for the sky, and painted green on old sheets to depict the leaves.

For some reason, I am always drawn to map or overhead views. I particularly love the Google Maps images in the car, especially when I drive near a body of water. That was the inspiration for this Lake Michigan and Northern Illinois artwork. People who live near Lake Michigan know this iconic shape of the lake. I liked thinking about ways to highlight the coast so I added white stitching around the shape of the lake.

In Tree with Virginia Bluebells, the image of the tree is the red bud in our backyard. I wanted to focus on spring ephemeral flowers, in particular Virginia bluebells, which are light blue and dark rose colored. They are the first blooming flowers around here. I used hand stitching to blend the painted fabric and the printed fabric together, in particular for the blue sky.

The Mother Earth art market is online until this Friday 5/12/23 5 pm central time and the in person show, if you are local, goes through the weekend. They have a wide selection of artists and media, all displaying their nature based art. Perfect for gift giving of any kind.

As for now, I am thinking of ways to scale my work up until larger pieces. This will be my focus over the summer.

As for my Studio Notes blog, I’m still trying to figure that out. For right now, it’s a way to share what I’ve been working on in the studio. I am working on finalizing my new studio space. More details on that to follow.

If you have any questions or you just want to chat, feel free to reach out and respond to this.