Ink on canvas

When my niece moved into a new house near the water, I wanted to give her a painting or drawing as a house warming gift. She has a view from her kitchen window and her balcony to the Intracoastal Waterway which widens into Wrightsville Sound a few miles North. I decided on a pair of seahorses and immediately started sketching. I was already planning a trip and I wanted something that I could carry on the plane, but I also wanted to take advantage of her high ceilings (something large). I decided to use canvas, so I could roll it for travel.

After trying a few things on the canvas, I pulled out a bottle of India Ink and a nib calligraphy pen (the thin line nib) and started drawing. The nobby surface of the canvas catches the tip and the effect is smooth with interruptions. Dotting (pointillism) looks great. Q-tips make larger, softer dots. My daughter (my greatest fan) urged me on, saying the style was both awesome and unique and that I should continue exploring this artform. I sketched on newsprint until I was happy with the size and shape and then lightly sketched an outlines onto long thin canvas and started inking, using brown ink.

I was very proud to present the completed pair of seahorse drawings to my niece. They were tall, but thin, so I was rolled the canvas and slipped them into a mailing tube, cut down to fit in a suitcase. I was prepared to take them to a framer and have them matted with a linen mat and framed for her, but she wanted them wrapped on stretcher frames like a painting. I didn't leave much extra canvas for wrapping, but a good framer can work magic. The result has lots of contrast and the varied line quality is interesting.

I've been drawing on canvas ever since and Cole's idea to wrap on stretcher frames has allowed me to present a completed product, ready for hanging and I have even sold a few drawings at a local coffee shop and on etsy.

Acrylics and watercolors seep into pieces as the mood strikes and I've switched to pens, Micron and then lately Koh-I-Noor Rapidiograph because the nib pen was just too inconsistent and after a while started trying my patience.

Displaying family keepsakes

After my mother died several years ago, I became the keeper of the family pictures. We are all grown now – with grown children – but these photos are from our childhood. I have vowed to scan these in and share them with my siblings for 5 years now but work and life never seem to present the time and energy required. I was cleaning out my closet recently (which in itself is an event) and found my sisters’ christening dresses. There were two identical dresses in the box, which helped to identify which of the five of us these belonged too as the youngest of us are twins.

I immediately stopped working on the closet and starting routing through boxes of family photos hoping to find a picture of the twins in their dresses. As I spread the tiny lace dresses out across my bed admiring the details, I thought it would be cool to frame both dresses with a picture of the girls wearing them. But I reconsidered. These dresses would have to be split up and framed so they could hang it in separate homes. Every time one of my sisters looked at it, she would know that the matching gown was also displayed in the home of her twin. Not that twins need a reminder, even 1800 miles apart, they remain close. And I never found a picture.

As most of my projects, this one didn’t come to fruition immediately, but I did finish. I chose black shadowbox frames. I didn't find the twins' christening pictures. Mom was a single mother of five and I am always impressed and amazed that we have photos. Life with five children had to be challenging. I used several family pictures, scanning them into photoshop and giving them a slight sepia tint. I added some appropriate phrases to make it look like a 3D scrapbook page: ‘Twins – mirrors and opposites’, ‘Chance made us sisters; Hearts made us friends’ and ‘Mmmm, mmmmm, jello’. That last one is an inside joke my sisters still share.

These lovely dresses are no longer hiding in my closet and I made some progress on my vow to share the family pictures. I am showing a picture of one of these, but I made two. My sisters love them.