Category Archives: About my art

Q. & A.

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Q.   Is there room for public art in a consensus based community?

A.   Possibly.

But only with much persistence from one or more enthusiasts!
 
And only for artists outside the community, dead, or with very thick skins!
 
It is very unlikely that there will be unanimous enthusiasm for any one artwork. And while the consensus process does not require unanimity, there does need to be agreement first that any artwork is desirable for long term display, and then there needs to be agreement on the specific piece of art.
 
So an artist in the community must be willing to persevere in the face of a clear lack of enthusiasm, or even clear dislike of the work. This may be especially difficult when these people are the neighbors & community members you spend time with, and have committed to socialize & work with regularly.
 
Note that it is statistically very unlikely that there will be a champion for an “in house” artist also within the cohousing community: a cohousing artist will probably need to be her own promoter.

Public art is always difficult, and selection by committee often comes to a majority vote.  Achieving consensus for public art will generally take even longer, and may never happen at all :-)!

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Art Work

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Still doing art, but mostly serious grunt work. Outdoor sculpture installation takes some effort: finding the right spot (which includes mock-up & visualization, communication, negotiation, preparation, and more :-), making or customizing an appropriate base, finalizing the method for attaching the sculpture to the base, etc.

Still to come actual transportation & installation!

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First Replica

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

The first clay model has been replicated using Rapidset mortar, and I am quite pleased (that it was not a disaster 🙂 Now I have the second mold filled with the same material.  I will need to remake half the mother mold for the first figure, as I broke it while releasing my statuette:  it was much too thin & weak, also I should have divided the piece a bit differently.  I will wait until I release the second mold, then do repairs on both molds as required.

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Small fix made

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Falling Bluffs finished

I had to pull this watercolor out of the frame to make small changes to a few rocks that were troublesome 🙂   A comment made it impossible for me to ignore it, and I think / hope the changes remove the problematic focal point to allow the eye to move more quickly around the whole piece.

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Deer & Seeds

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

I can’t resist doing a little digital alteration to this peculiar watercolor.  My concept was very vague:  to work with animal print & seed imagery, with the notion of scenes, details or something inside the animal prints.  I expect to play with this idea more, and perhaps it will develop into a larger finished piece or two. As to the digital play:  I applied a histogram stretch, then a topo effect, to create more drama than is feasible in a watercolor sketch!

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With digital layers

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Watercolor trees soft modSo many additions & variations are possible, and I enjoy this play! All of these are based on scans of the same trees, but at various stages since I continue to work on the original.  It does not have the magic of the various digital versions however.

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That whole work in progress thing…

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Plaster masksYesterday evening: plaster, this morning: cement! Last night I started the bas relief body for a cat, not necessarily for the cat mask I made recently… TBD. And I also started another human face/mask. These are still drying, and will need more layers, more shaping, etc.

The cement project is a concrete chair:  I started with a broken resin “adirondack” chair that Michael kindly reinforced with a little rebar, wire, and epoxy. Then I got to work with expanded metal lath (aka blood mesh). Today, I used a stiffish mortar mix to putty the chair legs, and up along parts of the body to hide the plastic and to make the legs stronger for the increased weight.The chair is under wraps for a few days to allow the mortar to cure before I move it around for the next steps. The plan is to use fabric soaked in high cement mortar stretched out on top of the chair seat & back, laying it over the expanded metal. I may need to put another smoother surface over this, and perhaps I will need to cut the fabric in two pieces to better avoid wrinkles! I will be experimenting a bit more before this step!

Anticipation …

 

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A Drawing Challenge

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Mother studio portrait Mother from studio photoI admire and enjoy this studio photograph of my mother, probably taken while she was at University or at her graduation from Aberdeen University. That is just a guess, but she us certainly quite young, and I think she wore her hair short for most of her married life. She may have been just leaving secondary school, and just looking very mature & sophisticated!

Challenged by a wonderful book of drawings by many different artists, and by Maureen Piper, I decided to try my hand at a drawing from this photo. I did not get the angle right, she is smiling too much, and I can see other flaws, but I rather like my drawing anyway 🙂  I have not seriously tried to draw portraits at all, and have been uninterested/unwilling to try. But maybe once in a great while, I can manage one that appeals to me.  Maybe next an older Mother, the one that I really knew.

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Reworked plates, better prints and …

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

OK, it is done:  I have entered three prints in the Corvidae Press sponsored juried show Printmaker’s Hand III (September at Northwind Arts Center). This involved much agonizing: none of my entries were accepted last time, and it is the same juror. Oh well, just $45 & much stress 🙂

Update: none of these submissions were accepted 🙁   Very depressing!

After my first try at poly litho with this new drawing was so unsatisfactory, I cleaned & redrew both poly litho plates, using a micron pen this time (not a fat “ultra fine” sharpie!).

The micron pen seems to work well:  I have to be very aware of the lines blending with the laser toner but the plate charges (with ink) very quickly. But I think this pen, like the sharpie, will not hold up well when cleaned, so I may have two editions of only four prints from each plate … I was too short of time to print more with the show deadline today.

I used a new tin of Dark Umber, rather than the old black ink used on the first plates. This was nice, not as stiff, so I did not need the burnt plate oil amendment or have to work the ink quite as much!

This gave me time to do the color mono print work.  This time I painted the color directly onto one of the poly litho plates, which made registration a breeze! It was a bit of an experimental rush job, but I like the effect. I will probably add color to a couple more of the prints, maybe with that red dress although not sure with the brown ink.

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Drawing on wood & new prints (w/colored pencil)

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by


The drawing is done with water soluble graphite pencils, “painted” with water, on a piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard) primed with two coats of white Golden Absorbent Ground. I like this ground, and being able to use water media directly on a board, no paper!
The collagraph plate is built up on matboard with paper, vinyl spackle, & elmers glue, all coated with shellac when dry. I stamped into the wet spackle & glue mix to make the impressions…

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