FOR SALE: Nature Gathered Artworks

Select Nature Gathered Artworks are for sale. Pieces are displayed by artist.

For details on how to purchase a particular work of art, please contact the artist by email.


Participating Artists:

Andrew Borloz

Bee Shay

Cynthia Mooney

Jan Harris

Judi Stack

Marylin Huskamp

Paula McNamee

Susie Wolfer

Tracie Huskamp

Z'Anne Bakke

Come Take A Nature Walk...

The opening reception for the Nature Gathered exhibit was Friday night, August 7th.

It was a BIG SUCCESS! And, we wanted to share some pictures from this wonderful evening.





Several of our contributing artist were present at the reception.






The exhibit will be on display through Friday, August 28th at
6th Street Gallery
150 West 6th Street
Vancouver, Washington
(360) 693-7340


This is a wonderful opportunity to see, in person, all of the art created throughout this year-long challenge.

Pieces will be for sale during the show. If you are interested in purchasing a particular artwork, please contact the gallery for availability and pricing.

Starting in September 2009, any remaining works will be available for purchase on-line through the Nature Gathered blog site.

A NATURE GATHERED EXHIBIT

Friday, August 7th - Friday, August 28th

6th Street Gallery
150 West 6th Street
Vancouver, Washington
(360) 693-7340

Opening Reception
Friday, August 7th
6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

This is a wonderful opportunity to see, in person, all of the art created throughout this year-long challenge.

Pieces will be for sale during the show. If you are interested in purchasing a particular artwork, please contact the gallery for availability and pricing.

Starting in September 2009, any remaining works will be available for purchase on-line through the Nature Gathered blog site.

Indra's Net

Indra's Net, inspired by the verse below from the Vedas in ancient India:

There is an endless net of threads throughout the universe.
The horizontal threads are in space.
The vertical threads in time.
At every crossing of threads there is an individual.
And every individual is a crystal bead.
The great light of absolute being illuminates and penetrates every crystal being.
And every crystal being reflects not only the light from every other crystal in the net,
But also every reflection of every reflection throughout the universe.

What better place to use those Swarovski crystals, golden thread,tiny watch parts, as well as texture stamped in heavy body gloss gel medium and colored with acrylics gold calligraphy ink. Loved doing this one! The visionary in me was delighted!

Art and images copyright 2009 Suzie Wolfer- all rights reserve

Best Laid Plans - Elements UPDATE

FINISHED!

To say this theme, for me, was the most difficult, thought provoking, and time consuming is an understatement. I thrashed about struggling with how to best represent the concept of Elements for several months.

I considered a number of paths, all of which lead me to unsatisfactory conclusions. In the end, I decided to tackle the idea in an abstract manner, which also allowed me to incorporate my exploration of patterning. I am pleased with the final result and proud to have been a part of this challenge.

Art and images copyright 2009 Tracie Lyn Huskamp - all rights reserve

"When You WISH......."

After pondering the theme "Heavens" I realized that I must include a star. As far back as I can remember I was always wishing on the first star of the evening.

Then, the phrase, "When you wish upon a star" kept playing in my head.

I had this beautiful star fabric so I embroidered the phrase and created a milky way using Angelina and crystal stars. The moon was created from another fabric and fused to the star fabric.

Completing the 12 themes has given me challenges and new experiences in mediums that I may not have otherwise attempted to use. Thanks to Jan and Tracie I have had the opportunity to participate in a project with a very talented group of artists.

I am excited about the show at the gallery and now must begin gathering my pieces to send to Jan.

Art and images copyright 2009 Marylin Huskamp - all rights reserve

Stairway to Heaven

Here's another art quilt for my 'Stairway to Heaven'. I've enjoyed all of the twelve challenges during the year and seeing every one's interpretation of our themes. It's stretched me to try new techniques and mediums. I'm eager to see all of our artwork hung in the gallery. A whole year's work and it's hard to believe it's ending. Thanks to everyone and especially Tracie Lyn and Jan for keeping us on track.

Art and images copyright 2009 Paula McNamee - all rights reserved

The Last Two Pieces

I almost forgot to get these posted on the blog. Like Tracie Lyn, life has gotten in the way of my plans for the summer. But....I did remember and here are my "Elements" and "The Heavens".

The Elements is an interactive piece. In continuing my mountain theme, I used four pictures from Hokusai's 32 Visions of Mount Fuji to represent each element. The individual element cards can be flipped up to display the next. This was a challenging and fun piece.

The Heavens came together in about two days. I had been thinking of how to do this one for about a month, not really getting anywhere and being stumped about it. Last Friday I had a vision and in one day I had the fabric and half the work done. The fabric is creatively quilted, the nebula is printed on inkjet canvas and the mountain, continuing again with the mountain theme, is printed on cardstock and everything is glued to the fabric covered canvasboard.

This has been a wonderful and challenging journey. I've played with techniques that I've never done before and stepped further out of my box than I thought I'd ever get. Thank you to everyone for pushing me out of my comfort zone.

Z'anne

Art and images copyright 2009 Z'anne Bakke - all rights reserved

Best Laid Plans - Elements

This blank canvas represents the current condition of my final artwork due in this year long art challenge.

Since today is the deadline for posting any outstanding pieces to the blog, I thought I would share a glimpse of my... um... work-in-progress.

After revealing my Heavens artwork, I had a full week to complete my interpretation of Elements, and fully intended to have the painting ready by today, however, life quickly stepped-in with other ideas.

I still plan to finish the work, and hope I can update this post with happy news, very soon.

Elements

This was quite the challenge! Having a picture in my mind and transforming it onto a canvas presented quite a puzzle for me.

I am always pulled toward fibers so I knew I needed to use fibers for the medium and present the elements of earth, wind, fire and water in a way that the observer knew what the work represented.

I feel I accomplished that with color and the flow of the fibers. Earth was the most difficult but after pondering over it for a while I decided to use real pressed botanicals.

Now I have one more challenge left....Heavens.....Again pictures floating in my head but "Oh my, how to transform those images onto a canvas?" I am somewhat perplexed!!

Since I tend to work best under pressure and I only have a few days left to complete the final monthly challenge I am sure the way to do the transformation will reveal itself to me.

Artwork and Images copyright 2009 Marylin Huskamp All rights reserved

Every Matter Under Heaven

"For everything there is a season...
And a time for every matter under heaven.
He hath made everything beautiful in his time,
from the beginning to end."

This posting is a bit out of order as I still need to complete my artwork for the Elements theme. But since this is something I am still struggling to find inspiration for, I decided to turn my attention to the final theme in our year long challenge.

This final theme, the Heavens, mean so many things to me... but the idea that kept reoccurring in my mind was the concept of time, and how there is never enough when you seem to need it and yet in some instances the hours, minutes, seconds drag by. However, among the Heavens does time exist? Is there really a beginning and an end?

My family owned a grandfather clock when I was growing up. Although our clock never had the elaborate details like some I have seen, I was always fascinated by it's rhythmic tick-tock, the deep chimes ringing every hour. This precise measure of "forever" somehow made me feel safe and comforted with it's sounds. Most of the grandfather clocks that have captured my attention over the years have been equipped with a rotating scene that was shown through a small odd shaped window usually located above the clock face. Various pictures of a moon and stars, a sun, and ships sailing the ocean blue were enchanting to watch pass, just like a fairy tale.

So June's artwork is a combination of many thoughts, and ideas. The sun, moon, and stars represent the sky, and there are no hands on this particular clock face I have created to symbolize no beginnings, or endings, no hours, minutes, or seconds.... there is just life and the living of it.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Tracie Lyn Huskamp- all rights reserved.

SEASONS

This is my interpretation of "Seasons". It is constructed of 4x4 quilt squares then embellished with a silk flower (spring),Queen Anne's lace from my pasture (summer), oak leaf from Fort Warden (autumn) and a sheer fabric with glitter and small plastic snowflakes (winter).


Art and image copyright 2009 by Marylin Huskamp- all rights reserved.

A Quilt of Seasons

These last three Nature Gathered themes have really had me on the ropes.... pondering and pondering, with more pondering on how to best represent my artistic message.

Looking for a unique view on the Seasons concept, and searching for a way to incorporate patterning brought about thoughts of my favorite time of the year, Fall. Snuggling under a well loved, well worn quilt to keep the chill in the air from enveloping me was the inspiration for this background. Initially, I had planned to incorporate a nature element into all twelve quilt blocks, but quickly abandon this thought, deciding to go with two larger, distinct, nature elements that would hint at contrasting differences in flora and fauna within the year.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Tracie Lyn Huskamp- all rights reserved.

Fifth Element

Most people don't beleive that this "tapestry" came into being with nothing more than some organza and a low wattage soldering iron. It's true.

Using 4 - 9 layers of multicolored translucent organza, I use a metal guide (in this case a dough slicer) with a fine tipped soldering iron to make the patterns. The soldering iron both textuizes and fuses at the same time. No sewing. No glue. No mess. But I do use a respirator. The symbols for the 4 directions were made with very thick embellishment glue on a non stick surface. Then I used either metal foil or 23k gold.

You can't see it, but the sides are bound and held in place with thick copper wire embelished with fine brass wire.

Inspiration: the Movie of the same title by Luc Besson.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Suzie Wolfer- all rights reserved.

Heavens

Everyone should play with molding paste and acrylics-what fun!

Art and image copyright 2009 by Traci Donahue- all rights reserved.

Mandala Elements

A mandala represented a creative process for me to use for the elements challenge. I posted to my blog the techniques used to make this piece.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Paula McNamee- all rights reserved.

Four Seasons

What fun again! The features a 23K gold ring and colors for the seasons and the cycles of nature . . . abstract interpretation. I laid down textured gel medium and used layers of acrylic to color. Finally used water soluble oil pastels around the ring to give it a little more depth. Most of this is lost in the digital version. I played with the idea of cycles repeating in a never ending unfolding of change.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Suzie Wolfer- all rights reserved.

Landscape View from My Window

Inspired by the view from my kitchen where I can see the wooded area behind our home I decided to create this quilted fabric piece.




Art and Image copyright 2009 by Marylin Huskamp-all rights reserved

Heavens

I have hundreds of photos of clouds from over the years, but I never tire of looking at them, especially at sunset after a storm. This is a composite of several photos in watercolor on Arches 140 pound hot press paper.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Jan Harris - all rights reserved.

Elements

I mulled over how to represent the four elements and finally decided to approach from an illustrative angle. Watercolor on Arches 140 pound hot press paper.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Jan Harris - all rights reserved.

Earth, Water, Wind, & Fire

I struggled with this concept/design for a while until I pulled the triangles into the water and then inspiration from my favorite painter, Gustav Klimt, took over.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Traci Donahue - all rights reserved.

This Moon is Shining Bright!

One early evening, as I was standing on the driveway, I was looking up and noticed the full moon shining brightly. I immediately went inside of a house and grabbed a camera. I then took a shot of the moon with the tall spruce tree on the left, and I thought it was perfect for this month's theme. I made it black and white in the photo editing software, and painted with purple and black acrylics mixed with glaze medium. When I was a kid, I remembered daydreaming about traveling to the moon in the future.



Art and image copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz - all rights reserved.

Orion Nebula

This painting draws its inspiration from a Hubble telescope picture of the Orion Nebula. While I was painting it I was listening to some tapes of essays and speeches by Steven Hawking. I added word and phrases from the tapes with gold ink. Although I don't understand a lot of physics and mathematics, I am so thankful for the people who do. They have made it possible for me to see farther into the universe as I search for that place where science, religion and art all come together.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Judi Stack - all rights reserved.

Seasons

Seasons of Life is the idea behind this picture. The acrylic backrounds symbolize the seasons. Pink for the Spring of babyhood. Green for the Summer of teenage. Orange stands for the Autumn of middle age and gray for the coming Winter of old age. The name of the person is being withheld to prevent the guilty from stealing her identity.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Judi Stack - all rights reserved.

Seasons

This was a hard assignment for me to come up with - how to come up with a composition that represents all four seasons and I finally settled for my favorite subject, birds. This is watercolor on Arches hot press paper. I have finally caught up for the moment.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Jan Harris - all rights reserved.

A Washington Landscape

I apologize for the lateness in posting my landscape assignment, but have had no time to sit down and make art despite the fact that I have had this image in my mind since March. I glimpsed this pond as the sunset somewhere in the vicinity of Chehalis, Washington. This is the first time I have tried watercolor on the water media clayboard. I like the way I can pull the color off the board if I make a mistake, but it was difficult to blend the color on the board. I think fluid acrylics might have worked better and I will try that next time.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Jan Harris - all rights reserved.

Four Seasons

Art and image copyright 2009 by Traci Donahue - all rights reserved.

Earth, Air, Water, Fire

One warm Spring day I saw vapor trails that appeared to be sewing fluffy clouds to the sky. This fabric collage is my attempt to represent that moment in time. The Earth, Air, Water (vapor) are apparent, but the
Fire of the jet engines is only a line of memory drawn on the sky.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Judi Stack - all rights reserved

A Classical View...

I went through my library of photographs taken in many different places, and I have selected the ones that best represent the Greek classical views of the realms of the cosmos. Each one is printed separately, trimmed, and adhered to the pre-gessoed board. The Greek symbols, words, and statement were also cut and glued on top of the pictures. They were also highlighted with acrylic glaze, and the overall surface is coated with polymer medium.

The pictures above were taken at these following locations (going clockwise, starting with upper left corner): Lake Winnepsaukee, NH; Holderness, NH; near Yarnell, AZ; and Bellevue, WA.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz - all rights reserved.

Euphorbia Seasons

I enjoyed our "seasons" challenge. The seasons remind me of life cycles. Mine represents a variety of seasonal euphorbia. I discovered this plant last year and began taking photos. I didn't realize that poinsettia also belong in the euphorbia family. The outer edges are stenciled- an inspiration from Mary Ann's online class. I used Photo Shop to arrange and alter my photos.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Paula McNamee - all rights reserved.

Landscape

Torn paper, in various shades of greys and greens, was glued to watercolor paper
and then attached to the canvas. Acrylic paint was used to adjust some of
the shades and brass foil flakes were added in the forground. The crease
and torn edge add texture and remind us that this is a collage and
not a painting.


Art and image copyright 2009 by Judi Stack

Listening to Vivaldi's...

I sometimes listened to Julie Fischer's violin rendition of Vivaldi's Four Seasons on DVD, and it was the inspiration for this piece. I selected the winter photo of a running brook as the background to show that the images of any other season can be invoked by listening one or more of Vivaldi's concertos. I often find that I enjoyed them the most during wintertime. All of the four color photos (individually cut and adhered) were taken right near my residence in New Jersey: fall - front lawn; winter - pond in the woods; spring - backyard; summer - down in the woods.


Art and image copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz - all rights reserved.

On This Field...

I was in Castle Rock, Wisconsin during the fall of 2007 when I was on my way to a workshop studio out in the country. Ears of corn were already harvested, and the cornstalks were ready to be cut down. At the same time, another green crop was being grown but I could not figure out what it was. It was quite a constrast of rich deep green crop and decaying cornstalks.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz

This Tide is Always...

I was standing on the beach at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, WA when I saw this constant movement of the water. I thought it was perfect for this work, so I took a shot of this location. I then digitally made it black and white with grey shades. Because the digital process removed most of the details from the water, I had to hand-paint and highlight the rocks and foam/bubbles with acrylic paints.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz

Mt Hood

Though you can't see it in the picture, this entire image is underlaid with gold leaf. The image is a gel medium transfer of a picture I took from Powell Butte. Then I used layers of water soluble oil pastels and gel medium to lay on colors. In the light the gold flashes through the foreground. It doesn't feel quite done yet, but my muses aren't coming through so far. I may add more to it later.

I sure love working with gold leaf . . . probably more to come!

Suzie

Art and images copyright 2009 by Suzie Wolfer

Ocean

This "Ocean" picure was painted with acrilic paint on plywood. The sand was
added with gritty medium. Some of the shells were glued on with medium.
Several of the shells, however, were drilled, wired and attached to a chain bracelet which
is hung on tiny hooks. The bracelet can be removed and worn as desired.
How's that for a gift from the sea?

Art and images copyright 2009 by Judi Stack

Mountain Landscape and Seasons

I've had both of these done for some weeks, but completely forgot to get them posted. I'm just coming out of hibernation and not quite up to speed yet.
I had a hard time trying to come up with an idea for this theme. Four corners? Four sides? Four ? Until I thought about where I live and the seasons on the mountain. I found a picture I took last year when I was coming back from Hood River on the back side of Mt. Hood. Perfect! Then I took a maple leaf-shaped paper punch and punched out a whole lot of leaves from my collection of tea bag envelopes. I had enough colors to surround the mountain with the colors of the seasons. I suppose you could call them my "Tea Leaves of the Seasons". Don't groan too loudly, you might scare the cat.
This theme was a fun challenge for me. I'm not much of a sculptor and wanted to just try my hand at playing with paperclay. There are no correct proportions for this piece, but it was fun to play with the clay. I used a rubber blending tool to get the textures for the trees and background. After letting it dry, I painted it with gesso 3 times, then added different colored PearlEx to the various areas. After each area was colored, I sprayed hairspray on it to fix the mica powders. That is why it is so shiny. At first I didn't want the shine, but it has grown on me and I like it that way. Only two more to go!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Z'anne Bakke

Landscape by Palette Knife

I have been working on a lot of small, detailed work lately and my husband has been working on a huge 4'x6' abstract piece. So, I figured, why should he have all of the fun? I only allowed myself to use a palette knife, no brushes or sketching, and it was just plain fun!

Posted for Traci Donahue by Purplebirdart

Art and images copyright 2009 by Traci Donahue

Mt Hood Landscape

I used Alma Cox's telamadera fusion technique to make this piece. She was a featured artist on Oregon Art Beat in February. Her work inspired me to do a piece on wood with burnt-in lines of my sketch, acyclic paint and fused fabric. In Spanish, tela is fabric and madera is wood. She also wrote an article about her process in CPS March/April 2008. I see she is teaching at Art & Soul in Portland this year. I left the mountain and sky painted without fabric and burnt into the wood the fir trees. It's a fun process.

Art and images copyright 2009 by Paula McNamee

A Landscape: Beyond the Confines of Yesterday

Influenced by landscape artists, like Wolf Kahn and Lilias Trotter, this month's theme forced me to move beyond the confines of comfort and familiarity.

By letting go, I relied on my inner artist, trusting that voice deep inside to help me find the landscape I have dreamt of painting... I have dreamt of sharing... the beautiful Plains of my life.

Patterning holds a subtle place in this work with many rough textures incorporated throughout, representing the feel of the land.

Art and images copyright 2009 by Tracie Lyn Huskamp