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"Don't be late home" ©Christine Linton

Chooky Family Photo

©Christine Linton

Pics of Creative Fusion

I have just updated my website with images of my entries into the "Creative Fusion" Exhibition, which was held at the Pepper Street Gallery recently, with close ups of the scroll on the Book Arts Page. 

Chook Tales, my book made from recycled brown paper bags featuring Chookys

©Christine Linton

Climbing out of the rut

Just been to see the Turner exhibition at the South Australian Art Gallery in Adelaide - well worth a visit; though I'm not keen on his maritime ship paintings, the others which show the effects of light are great.  I think seeing these international exhibitions is valuable even if they are not in the media that you work in yourself.  Opens the mind, broadens the viewpoint, stimulates the brain - well done SA Art Gallery.

I spent a thought-provoking morning browsing the "Turner from the Tate" and the newer additions to the Contemporary Galleries (finding the fantastic new acquisition, by Ben Quilty "Evening shadows, Rorschach after Johnstone 2011", which you can see at my link Ben Quilty masterpiece) then after lunch I made notes in my journal about what I had seen and my current/future plans sitting in comfort up in the State Library - I think it's important to review what I'm doing regularly because I get bogged down in a rut - I hate to admit it but that's my comfort zone - and I need to get back to experimenting to keep fresh.  I'm still inclined to be over-organised and had to pull myself up in this journal-writing session and face the high edges of that rut and jump over into the mud, and get scratchy again.

Taking the bus

My transport is the bus.  Chookys also ride the bus.

Chookys on the bus
Christine Linton 2013

Relaxing over the break

One of the things I do when relaxing is to blog-surf.  Looking at my all-time stats for this blog, I found that my thread-painted cat had been posted on http://dmc-threads.com/hot-summer-cool-cats/ with 2 links to my blog - and it has resulted in lots of people linking through to see how I stitched it.  It's great to know people are sharing my blog around.  I found that the dmc website has an extensive stitch guide with clear diagrams and written instructions - very useful.

Here is one of my chookys relaxing.

Xmas chooks

Hen Party

Couldn't resist it .....

Time to waste online

Now that I have finished at college, I am enjoying having Mondays at home, where I can spend time doing what I want.  In practice, what I want usually turns out to be spending time surfing the net, before looking at my weekly plan (yes, I do one most weeks) and picking out the task I want to do most - usually artwork of some kind.  Other tasks don't always get done or not for some time.  This week I'm making another book, in which I retell fairy stories with my own twist - I don't always agree with the endings of the traditional fairy tales, so when I tell them to children I make the endings fair.  That's what I'm doing in this book.  All the characters in the book are played by my own chooky sketches - I'm getting better at drawing them in different situations so I thought I'd extend that into a book.  This is a paper book but I recently put my chookys into a scroll made of tea-dyed leftover calico; after some reverse applique (recycled blouse fabric)  and colouring with crayons, topped by cretan stitch embroidery, and using dowel found along Linear Park, I decided it was interesting enough to post on my website.  You can see it, with details, here at this link.

Chooky Scroll, detail of the beginning

Being a chook fan, you can imagine how pleased I was in my net-surfing to find this watercolour (scroll through the images at the bottom to find the chicken) of a chicken on the website of Heather Holland, a local artist I met recently through Port Community Art Centre.

Suburban birds in Adelaide

Yesterday I heard a bird chick calling from above - and up on the power lines, an Eastern Rosella was feeding it's chick - you know, the movement they make shifting food from the crop into the beak that looks like they are heaving, then they transfer it into the beak of the chick.  Never seen this species do it before, so I reached for my phone to take a photo - left at home!!!   Blast!!!  Birds are such a constant part of life in the suburbs, wonderful to see so many about.  A fairly new magazine here in Australia is Australian Wildlife Secrets, and their blog has some fascinating information about dealing with bird emergencies, such as birds in chimneys, entangled in string and wire, fledglings falling into crevices, broken legs even.  Scroll down from the paragraphs at the beginning to reach this info.

http://blog.wildlifesecrets.com.au/animal-guide/birds/living-with-birds/

I love chickens and often sketch them, in a naive style, in different situations - anthropomorphic, not realistic.  As I'm keen to recycle rather than keep buying, I rescued a discarded Chux cloth from the washing up and stitched this Chooky running on to it.  I used cotton embroidery floss, 3 and 6 strands; I always used colours for my Chookys.

I drew this one straight onto the Chux cloth though I usually use a sketchbook - does this mean I am becoming more confident in my sketching?

New look blog

I've been discovering how to customise my blog - adding pages, altering the sidebar and so on.  I have just this minute redone the two new pages so you might like to browse.

Another chooky

Chookys and thread waste

After looking at the bag of thread waste hanging off my sewing table, seeing it get so full and I have another full bag in the drawer - decided to use it in a pic.  I've been sketching my Chookys again and have just sketched Singing Chooks - see below.

I traced this sketch onto tracing paper as a pattern and free machined it onto some tea-dyed calico.  Two layers for stability.  I used various colours of thread to match my sketch.  I always draw my Chookys in different colours each time; partly to give them all individual characters but also because I want to.  The last 2 years that I have spent studying Visual Arts at Marden have freed me up from artistic constraints.  This is the Singing Chookys in free-machining and waste thread.  I like the way they dance and the thread waste gives them movement, looks like it's flying around.

I have already made one book of Chookys, which you can't see until the Marden Cert 4 Exhibition next April at Pepper Street Gallery, but I am thinking of making a textile version now.

Browsing through some lovely hand-made artist book sites - love this:
http://www.cecilia-letteringart.com/artistbooks/dineke_basscoastdog.htm