River Garden Studio

there must be magic in the air

So much is happening right now, I can barely keep up!  This is why I am going to New York in March! 

 

And one of my books, 'Winds of Change' that was a collaboration with Seth Apter got accepted into this show at this amazing place!

These in-progress pages are from a book called 'Forgotten' that I am submitting to this call for artists, at this beautiful gallery where I was honored to have three of my books accepted for their show last year.

It is a jurried, national show and I would encourage you to submit some books if you are a book artist.

'Forgotten' is different from my other books, in that it has no nature in it, instead close-up of my photographs that have been textured with gesso and paints and have beezwax added to certian areas which has been textured and stained with pastels and oil paints.

I appologize for not getting to blogs as often as I would like lately!  My work as a public school teacher has gotten more and more complicated, and demands much more of my time. Luckily I have a wonderful class though who constantly remind me of the joy of learning.  

 

 

 

welcoming the new year

 

Quietness, wind and rain, 

a new year is here 

Winter Field

Encaustic painting, 6inches by 6inches

 

     

 

I made this video to share with you.

Something made me step outside my front door

on new years morning.

 

There were dozens of finches,

these are some of them.

 

 

 

 I have so much to look forward to in 2012.  The biggest thing is a trip to NYC and the East coast where I get to meet many dear blogland friends!  

And there is my very FIRST workshop in Everett Washington that I am calling "The Thread That Weaves." 

Here are some backgrounds I am working on for the class.  We will be making different pages first using gesso, lightweight spackling and matte medium, then various vintage papers and fabrics and then.........stay tuned for more!

 

 

If you are in Washington state in June, please join me at 3231 Creatives for my workshop!

I have so many ideas and treats to share... stay tuned for more information.

Happy New Year to you all!  Thank you for your creativity, your art, your words and feelings, and your inspiration.

 

 

May you always find the time to spread your wings...

 

this december of bare branches

 

 When I look at my daughter,

I see her not only as she is now, but as she was when she was a little girl.  

Tangled red hair, always determined, always so full of imagination.

 

 

She has always been beautiful,

but now even more so to me.

(Hopefully she will always let me photograph her.)

 

 

Now when I look at Amanda I feel at home.

This home that she grew up in.  

Where we both found ourselves.

 

 

In this December of bare branches and window light.

 

 

 

I feel wishes of another small girl who joined us for Thanksgiving.

 

 

and my journey between soft and vibrant colors

 

 

 

This is the home where I make art. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this december of bare branches...

 

 

 (these four new pieces are on sale in my etsy shop now

read about them and see more images here)

 

thankful

The stormy days of November

and the winds that blow the leaves around

all seem to say one thing... Be thankful.

And so I am.

I am thankful for the week off

and time to finish these pages on this project 

with this person.  

I am thankful for nature.

Water and land.  

The leaves that hang on...

 

The Winds of Change from Roxanne Stout on Vimeo.

This small video is made of my just finishee book which was a collaboration between myself and Seth Apter.

 

And I am thankful for my family,

my home, my dogs.

 

For music,

 

 

 

for windows and the sky before dark,

For love and for friendship.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  

I am thankful for you.

with winter's blessing

With winter's blessing I bring more color into the house.

The mornings are lighter now, and my dreams are bolder. And I am feeling the blessed too.  With energy.  With imagination. With plans for the future.

 

Outside the garden goes to sleep,

My dog claims my lounge chair

and the creeks and streams up on the mountain sing.

This old abandoned house sits over the canyon up in the Cascades. Last weekend I climbed out of the car to explore, imagining that it could have been me once sitting at a corner table there, painting... basking in the sun.

I love the feeling of looking through glass and more glass to the world beyond.

 

And the colors of water.

This is a new encaustic painting, called "Skyward" or "Even in the Darkness."  I thought opening an Etsy store would help me move along some of my art.  But I keep making more and more.

I am very honored to introduce a new friend, Sue Simpson, who is one of the instructors for this amazing workshop and share her blog: Earthtone Studio, where I have a guest post, called "Unfolding."  On that post I share how one of my dreams is unfolding.  And I am excited to hear what you think!

the mountains i see

It has been such an exciting week for me.  The Cloth Paper Scissors article that I wrote early this summer is out now. If you scroll down on this page you will see, "A Study in Color and Texture" listed in the table of contents.

 

My copies and my original art work were in my very crowded mail box on Thursday. The first thing I did when I got home, (after feeding my dogs) was to sit down and pour through it. My critical eye wondered, was it interesting, were the directions clear, how was the photography, etc.  And after about a half hour I thought, "I think its okay!"

Many of you know Chrystal Neubauer, who also has a wonderful story in this magazine.

 

My original title was "the mountains i see." It is about drawing, painting and collaging mountains, the way they look when they are high against the sky, the way their jagged edges and canyons join and flow down to the horizon, and the colors - how they get closer and closer to the color of the sky as they get higher and farther away.

 

My son and husband and I had taken a driving trip with our RV the summer before and I drew and wrote during those long hours in the car before we stopped at our destination campground. Looking back it was a beautiful trip, mostly because it was my son's last summer before he started college. And watching my husband relax and even be silly was priceless.

My favorite parts of this trip were seeing the Rocky mountains and spending time in Valdez, Alaska...Now seeing this article all the memories have come flooding back and I won't ever forget.

Below is my "homework assignment" also for this issue:

 

 

Family, mountains, art, time to think and create.  This is what I love. Thank you to Barbara and Jennifer for the beautiful job they did on my article and for their amazing magazine.

 

 

 

 

places that hold things

I have this collection of photographs that I have been thinking about using in a post, and I realized that what they all have in common is that they hold things.

 

These beautiful mailboxes were at the old school outside of Salem, Oregon where I went to Encausticamp this summer.

The letters that they once held and still hold, are a mystery to me, and I can only imagine the words that they might have contained.  

Words of love and sadness, words of pride and encouragement, words containing thoughts and stories of a day or a week of the person sending them.

One of the artists I met at Encausticamp, named Colleen Monette, had this old dentist box that she used for her art supplies and collections.  

The items in this box speak to me of both the past and the future. What project will they inspire or bring to life? What will their purpose be?

 

These packing crates were stacked in the fields on the west side of the Cascade Mountains.  They hold more than grain. They hold the celebration of a seasons crop, livelihood of a farmer and his family, and the health of the community.

 

 

And I come home each day from work to my own places that hold things.  This amazing new journal is from Trace Willans.

You can visit her Etsy store, here.

Oh, the stitching, the fabric and the colors are all so beautiful to me!  

When I wrote to her how much I loved the paper inside she wrote back: "

The paper inside the journal is not paper!!!
It is cotton fabric coated on both sides in a traditional gesso which is made of a mix of whiting (calcium carbonate) and rabbit skin glue.

It is a really lovely surface to paint on.

 

And, when I asked her about the button and the small heart, this is what she wrote:

They are a white clay with a porcelaneous body fired to earthenware and then smoke fired in tins in the woodfire with leftover plant material from the natural dyeing.

And these little tin boxes, what do they hold?  Ideas for art projects, scraps of color, tiny paintings or photographs. Bits and pieces of my life.

 

 

And outside, besides a home for a spider web and seeds for next years garden, what about this flower?  

Still strong and upright, it's seeds so sharp they sting to the touch... for me she symbolizes fortitude and strength, in facing the long months of winter.

 

And yellow. The color of strength and the sunrise.  

This flower holds the magic of mother nature.

 

Even in a fading garden there is beauty. Contrast.

Hopes and dreams that will sleep and deepen over winter.

My garden goddess holds the secrets of my dreams in her half smile.

And the fountain holds a place for this rusty grate to lean on, and the memories of it's water-songs of last summer.

October fog

 

I love October. But this year seems different, the rains that usually soak the mountains and riverlands are taking their time in getting here, and instead we have fog.

Stretches of fog, over the river and lakes, covering the wetlands and following the canals. I follow the fog to work everyday as I drive the half hour distance across the farmlands to my school.

The fog gives my eyes and my spirit a rest as I juggle my time between my job and making art, my home and family.  

When I do get time to stand at my work table and paint with wax I almost feel like I'm in a whole other place, and it's so hard to pull myself away from the spell of creating and get back into the real world.  

I was going into my classroom for a while every Sunday, but just can't seem to anymore, so instead I go in early Monday just to make sure I am ready for my week.  The art time is just too important.

 

 

Here are images of my days.  Mornings and evenings.  Just trying to capture a moment or a color, the lines and shadows of October.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, the leaves are just beginning to turn. 

 

These are piles of the different waxes that I am experimenting with.  I love them all, and try them in different combinations.

 

 

 

 

I found this pan up in the mountains, something about the blue called to me.  Now the rim reminds me of the blue of the river, and the rust is the color of the fields that thrive along side of it.

 

I am working on a new link on my sidebar for my etsy shop.  I also made a link to a video I made last autumn: Autumn Rains that is there as well.  Please visit if you have a chance!

And while I try to find my own rhythm, (and for you that are finding yours as well), I will take time to rest my eyes-on the images that make this month so special, to make art even if it is just an hour a day, and try to find a balance in my world.

And for a beautiful post about balancing life and art and the Encausticamp I went to this summer, visit Amanda Jolley's blog here.

And Bridgettes blog here for thoughts on motherhood and art.

I love thinking that while we go through our life, all in different stages, that we all try so hard to hold on to our passions.

 

 

stacks

Seth, from The Altered Page, had a wonderful idea to host an on line challenge to share photo's of our "stacks."

Immediately I thought this was a fantastic idea, for I love stacks!

And I am certain that I am not the only one.  Check out his this post for links to other artists involved in this project!

Here are my stacks...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

note:  the little bowl of stone eggs

was purchased at this etsy store.  

 

window light

I've been staring out the windows lately, the way the world looks through a distant mirror, and the way things look behind, or in front of glass.

I've been back at work for two weeks now, and i guess I miss being home.

And the shines and reflections of other worlds entices me.  

This is my daughter inside a shop window...

 

And inside the shop looking out.

 

Out from our living room.  The little table is where I keep some of my indoor plants.

 

 

 

 

An oval mirror reflects an earlier summer celebration.

 

And the glass doors of a cabinet house some of my books and draping scarfs.

 

And a new collage is finished for my Etsy shop.

The shell lifts up to the words:

When you long for the ocean, here is a shell.

 

Kitchen window light plays with stone and iron birds.

And another new encaustic painting sits on my desk.  

 

 

Here it is again, I don't think I am finished yet,  I want to add some metal accents.

 

And so my fall has begun, with schedules and time frames, rules and plans, and little smiling faces of my new second graders.  

And I will make the most of my moments of window gazing and the windows in my mind of another summer gone by.

I leave you with this quote on my tumblr blog.

a morning in late summer

Today is my last day of summer.  Morning breezes and light play outside the windows. Humming birds and butterflies gather pollen from the tall flowers.  Color fades only slightly in my gardens, but fields are lightened with yellows and golds.

To celebrate the change in seasons I would like to announce the opening of my Etsy Shop A River Garden Studio.  

This is just the beginning for the shop.  I would like to include new encaustic paintings here, collages, and mixed media pieces.  I am finding that I have so much art work piling every where that I have to share it! 

These three paintings were just placed in my shop, when they sold!!!

 

Far to the North

In the Golden Haze

Red Mountains

Here are some close ups:

And I made some new pieces.  They are in my Etsy shop now:

Changing

Late Summer Morning

Something About the Light

These three encaustic paintings measure 3inches by 4 1/2 inches and are available right now in my shop,

A River Garden Studio, please stop by and have a look.

And have a wonderful week.

 

The Pulse of Mixed Media

 

Seth, from The Altered Page, is having his first book, The Pulse of Mixed Media, released by North Light Books in March, 2012. THIS is the hot off the press cover of the book!!!  And I am very honored to share that I am one of the artists that have taken part in this project! Take a close look, because you might see some familiar artist's work in this colorful mosaic. Maybe you might even see mine!

My heart felt congratulations go to Seth, who has connected artists from around the world in so many ways.  Through his passion Seth has made his dreams and the dreams of many others come alive.