Ornaments

For several years I've painted small pieces of slate which come from the portion of roof demolished when our church went through its most recent renovation. I've pictured six of them here that I turned into ornaments, though in the past I have made pins and wall plaques as well.

My favorite subjects are snowpeople doing various things like fishing, singing, skiing and kayaking. Or it will surprise you--birds. But this year I've added cats. The one in the top picture was my favorite--and it sold this morning to people I know and like and have lots of cats, so it's okay. And those of you who know me, know I am not usually sentimental about my work.

But.....I miss that kitty.

New Print--St. George's Church

I have been wanting to work on relief prints on a larger scale. I have a commission of a painting on slate of this same subject, so I wanted to explore it in this form first. Sometimes, I begin a slate painting with a relief print and hand paint the image.

Here is the drawing transferred onto the block, which is 7 3/8 x 9 1/8.








The prints were not coming out as consistent as I wanted (not sure why, that's a problem for another day) but I liked this one.











Since I was having such trouble getting good ink coverage, I decided to play with the inking and modify the block before printing. It looks a bit like an homage to Vincent Van Gogh.

I love the depth in the sky and the good dark tones I got in the foreground.








I will continue to experiment with different ink colors and texture in the sky--maybe even some hand-coloring.

Pins and Pendants

I got an order for painted slate pins to go with a group of women from our church on a retreat this weekend. I also made a couple of pendants. Above are the pins laid out on my work table. A friend is picking them up tomorrow. We'll see how they sell...

Below, see new pendants. The picture of the first one is not good--the light was terrible. The square bead is a red ceramic and the matching ones are yellow frosted glass beads.

I love slate shaped like above. It makes a fun faux bead piece.

Commissioned Piece, Finished

The piece is ready for delivery after attaching a ribbon or piece of leather for hanging. I etch with an awl on the back of each finished painting on slate with the date and: slate recovered from St. George's Church, Fredericksburg, VA.

Commissioned Piece

A friend commissioned this piece for a mutual friend of ours. Since the receiver of the gift is a native Fred Girl and a member of St. George's, it seemed appropriate.

What you see here is a stage somewhere in the middle of the piece. I have drilled a hole in it for hanging and printed the image from one of my hand cut blocks onto the slate in white acrylic paint. The sky is blue, as it always should be during the day in Camelot, and a Carl's ice cream cone has begun to appear in the left hand corner.

Sample of Today's Work

Here are a few of the pieces I worked on today. Most are still in process. Some are destined to be pins, others will be pendants and still others plaques to hang on the wall. Sales have been good, so I need to work hard to have new things and plenty for LibertyTown's Holiday Open House this Saturday. More later...gotta paint!