Struggling (It ain’t easy)

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Watching Figures in workTwo current art struggles:

1) to create & print a good quality 2nd edition of my 2012 Sketchbook. This is my longest sketchbook, with images drawn directly into the book as mailed, spanning two pages. I scanned it, but did not take the book apart so pages are not square, etc. It is not sufficient to print out the scans! I want a book with all the images, squared, lined up, and looking good! I don’t need an exact copy, but want to keep the sense of the original.

A big problem with this is the limitations of my software:  both OpenOffice & LibreOffice will print brochures double-sided BUT it is hard to preview the book layout (left vs. right pages). Which preview, if any, shows me the collated book end view, not the confusing 2-sided print order, or other view.

Worse yet is with the large number of full page images, both products get very slow, & buggy. They do not refresh the screen or preview correctly with a document this size!

Three Face On

2) I have several hazy ideas about a new work that will be a part of my “burials” series, but I am not making fast progress. I have a couple of poorly realized sketches, which I have trouble working on. I will try to focus on various parts, to produce drawings which may be incorporated, or just help me complete, the larger work. But these may have a life of their own instead!

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Working from work by another artist

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Sitting Northwind Arts Center with the exhibit Small Expressions (12/2013), I looked at Maureen Piper’s “Strata”, shown here, and drew my own piece, “When I Draw (Your Painting) Everything Changes”. Click on this image to start the slideshow:

Strata, by Maureen Piper

Strata, by Maureen Piper

Such differences & such pleasure:

  • The hand in Maureen’s original painting is frail and smaller. Everything is more delicate, and the strata below is softer. There are three delicate but strong translucent seed-moons that are also leaf. The hand has dropped these seeds to the ground below. It is a dark but hopeful winter image.
  • In both versions of my drawing the hand is solid, substantial, and there are not seeds, but a single moon-world.
  • In the middle monotone version, the hand stops you from approaching the moon and the land below it. You are held back.
  • In the second version, the color creates a connection between the hand and the moon-world. The hand is either releasing that moon-world, or is pulling up the land to form a new world. You are the observer:  which is it?
  • When I Draw (Your Painting) Everything Changes
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Between work

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

With LED string (on battery)

New lamp, but lit with battery operated LEDs for effect: click to launch slideshow

With a standard bulb

With a standard bulb

The parts

The parts

In work, but not attached

In work, but not attached

Digital work on this distressed print

Digital work on an older intentionally distressed print

Using recent print work to make a new lampshade, and modifying a much older most unsatisfactory print is filling my time before a undertake a new larger project. The lampshade is getting more layers of bone, and the green will be toned down quite a bit (but still glow). The red & black print has been distressed with water, touched up with pen & pastel, then scanned and digitally modified.

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Sketchbook 2014, second edition

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by


I have almost finished (varnish is drying) my personal edition of my 2014 Sketchbook. While it contains the same digital pages as the one sent off to The Sketchbook Project, it will be unique. The first “edition” (of one) contained various additions to the digital pages, and so does this edition. It is not a copy, but very similar, and will my personal record of the first edition. The cover is completely different: one of my distressed and embossed efforts on Rives BFK, embellished with gold & silver lettering. The shiny metallics don’t show up well on a scanner though: an angle is needed so the photo shows the lettering better.

Unfortunately in my eagerness to complete the project, I embellished the back cover! So now I have titles front and back! This makes it hard to know where to start 🙂

I will scan this edition too, since some pages are new and others slightly different.

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Distressed is best…

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by


Thinking embossed leather & book covers, and just having fun! So here I combined Rives BFK, ochre acrylic paint, ink, water, acrlyic sealer, a collagraph plate & my press.

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My new downtown P.T. exhibit venue: Jim’s Barber Shop

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

January 2nd I got a call from Donna, at Jim’s Barber Shop (Polk & Water, downtown P.T. across from Quimper Mercantile). I left a card & request to hang artwork there after being told that they were ready for new art on the walls (local artists display for 2-3 months at a time, and there is no commission on any sales that may develop from the exhibit).

So I have a show! This is a nice brightly lit location with a fair sized wall for art, plus space above the barber chairs and elsewhere. I have a good collection up, but still need to create a list with prices…

The exhibit includes a selection of work from the past four years, with two very new pieces. Several works have never been previously displayed (outside my studio).

Hanging the show has been a lot of fun, with appreciation & questions from customers and from Donna, the manager & one of three barber stylists working here.

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