Helen Wells - Artist

Among my favorite emails from artists and creatives are those from Helen Wells, a British visual artist. She is amazingly generous with art and creates and shares many videos about her practice, sketchbooks, materials use, and idea generation. Her art is wonderful! Typically, it is filled with beautiful patterning (and a very graphic quality), and she likes to incorporate collaged elements that become invisible within the overall design because the integration is so seamless.

In 2021, Helen had long Covid. Going through that--there was much time she was either in bed or reclining on a sofa. To pass the time, she pulled out her sketchbook mostly using pens and some watercolor to work with (easier and more convenient I would guess). Pattern is very apparent in this video tour of one of her sketchbooks from that year.

A 2021 Sketchbook Tour - Helen Wells

If you don't know of Helen already and like what you see, I highly recommend signing up for her email distributions!

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Visiting The Hague and Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Paris!

Since late March, I've been planning an international solo trip that included meeting up with friends. The planning is what makes a trip an adventure, and it was definitely fabulous -- now that it is in the rearview mirror -- so to speak. During my two weeks abroad, the sights visited included the: Mauritshuis, a lovely art museum (The Hague, Netherlands) Binnenhof (The Hague, Netherlands) Delft (Netherlands) Kasteel de Haar, a castle (Haarzuilens, Netherlands) Museum Speelklok (Utrecht, Netherlands) Walking Tour of Amsterdam (Netherlands) Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Dutch Resistance Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) De Oude and Nieuwe Kerks aka old and new churches (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Anne Frank House (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Sainte Chapelle/Conciergerie (Paris, France) Giverny - Monet's residence at one time (outside Paris) Versailles (outside Paris) Musee d'Orsay/VR Event titled 1874 Impressionists First Exhibition...

New Project in Progress

I'm working on a new project with multiple layers and shapes of different colored organzas. It is an interpretation of lighting on an ice rink...from a show I recently saw. There is a lot more stitching to do, but I like how its coming along. I'm learning organzas are not easy to work with especially when you layer them and have overlaid edges. The fabric also tends to ravel easily. This post also linked to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

Fabric Basket - Pretty Easy

This basket was made in Jane Hall's half-day course at IQF 2014. The greatest amount of time involved in making it--was cutting and sewing the strips together. Otherwise, it went together easily and quickly (3 hours). These baskets are a great holiday gifting idea that you can match to family and friends' home decoration color schemes. They're fun and useful besides.

Cay Denise

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