Windows On Woodstock

Windows On Woodstock is my textile art studio in Santa Ynez, CA. It is a converted barn which sits high on a hill overlooking Woodstock Road and the Santa Ynez Valley. Within the 1500+ square feet I create art pieces from my hand dyed fabrics which I screen print, paint, stencil, otherwise embellish and stitch. My work ranges from representational to conceptual to abstract. Several series are incorporated into my body of work.



Belinda Hart

Windows On Woodstock



Thursday, June 7, 2012

 Yesterday I bought a new jim-dandy Manfrotto tripod with a head that is so solid and smooth, I can't believe I was using my rickety old tripod for so long!  I highly recommend the brand to anyone in the market for new equipment. I also purchased an electronic remote for the camera, which I knew I needed, but just never did get around to purchasing.  I have new Tungsten lighting on order, which should arrive next week.  But even without the new lighting (after having my husband give me a few lessons with the camera and "objective lens") I took these photos of my most recent work, Sunlight on Water.

The fabric is white Kona cotton which I hand-dyed, and Shibori dyed, with reactive dyes.  As soon as they came out of the dye bath I knew they were "water", so I pieced and appliqued them in a way that I felt looked like an impression of rippling water with the sun hitting the surface. The fan seaweeds were screened, using flour paste resist, and like my last piece, etched with a bamboo skewer. I used the gold printing ink left over from Jane Dunnewold's Tahoe workshop.  I drew the corals onto freezer paper, then meticulously cut them out with an Exacto knife.  I ironed the waxed side to my screen and printed using Stewart Gill Metamica paints.  The grassy seaweed is a pewtery green printing ink.  The entire piece is free-motion quilted.
The detail shows the quilting around each seaweed leaf and around all the corals.  Different colors were used on the "water" to correspond to the varying colors from the Shibori process.  The piece is 23"X27" and I will probably use this as one of my Fibervision exhibit pieces.

I am almost finished with a 12X12 for the Fibervision Embellishment Challenge, and will be posting that one in a few days.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

 This piece, Pulsar, was my first large piece using a discharge technique. The fabric is black Kona cotton.  I really liked the rusts and creams that resulted from discharging twice.  The discharged portions are highlighted using metallic oil paintsticks and a flat brush.  The "star" portion of the pulsar is screened with a flour paste resist on the screen, and the pattern etched out of the dried paste with a bamboo skewer.  The entire piece is free-motion quilted, and the quilting can be seen better in the detail photo.

I continue to struggle with my photography skills, and tomorrow I am going to the camera store in Santa Barbara to purchase a sturdier tripod than the one I am now using.  Mine is very difficult to get level, and I have to hold the camera in place while focusing--which defeats the purpose of even using a tripod.  My resulting photos always appear "warped", even though they are perfectly squared up.  I am also looking into getting better lighting.  I would love to take a class in photographing artwork, and am hoping Kerby Smith or one of the other really fine photographers will offer a class somewhere in the area.  Once I re-take the photos I will post the new works to my website. 

I was recently invited to join Fibervision, a fiber artists' collaborative on the Central Coast, limited to twenty-five members.  It is such an honor to be working among such fine artists, and I am inspired each time we meet and share current works.  Artwork by the "Visionaries" will be exhibited in several upcoming venues, and I will post details once we are closer to the exhibition dates.

Over and Out for now!