I've Moved!

my Tumblr blog: http://suzegilbert.tumblr.com/

my Wordpress blog where I post tutorials, thoughts, and current work: http://suzegilbert.wordpress.com/

I will still post paintings on http://suzegilbert.blogspot.com/
I have some new landscape studies that will be going up soon.

Please update your bookmarks, thanks!

iPhone painting~figs

I am (cough) slightly addicted to my iPhone. I'm still amazed after eight months how everything, including a camera, news, games, email, and even painting are all available in the palm of my hand. This painting was done using the infamous Brushes app. It feels a bit odd to paint with one's finger on a small touchscreen but it's very satisfying, especially if you're watching your favorite football team and they are losing. I'm in a fig mode and these were done from memory.

Watercolor:Figs

4" x 4" watercolor on Arches cold press

I'm in love with fig season here in the Southwest, I don't remember ever seeing fresh figs back East during this time. Figs have that same sensuous curve like the pear but that aubergine color is wonderful to paint. The painting is actually a bit more purple in color, once it is saved for the web, colors sometimes lose their vibrancy. The purple is a wonderful Daniel Smith color, Quinacridone Violet. It's transparent yet blends and layers well. I need to find more purple things to paint. Like eggplant!

Garlic Noodles as Art

Last July my friends Barbie and John invited my husband and me to San Francisco to bask in the gray gloom, a refreshing change from Arizona's unrelenting heat. The first night we were there we walked to a neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. We all ordered different dishes to share but John ordered garlic noodles. For an entire year I've been dreaming about garlic noodles but have yet to find a local restaurant that serves them. 

Recently, we had an Asian market, Lee Lee, make its home in the desert. I went last week and spent two hours wandering the aisles, taking in every Asian delicacy they offer. There is an aisle for Turkish cuisine, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and the list goes on. 

I ended up buying quail eggs (for an oil painting still life), mochi, Turkish cardamon tea, and four key ingredients for garlic noodles; fresh Asian noodles, oyster sauce, cilantro, and fish sauce. The fish sauce posed a dilemma for me, most were the color and consistency of pureed beans or beef tongue. I just couldn't get past the appearance so I opted for a strained Thai fish sauce. I also bought a bottle of Asian pear saké, I had the pleasure of trying it at a sushi restaurant in Maine and it's so elegant. It is served very chilled and in a champagne flute.

I came across a recipe for garlic noodles on the internet but several people had things to add to the noodles so I came up with my own recipe tonight that I will make again on Monday for Barbie and John.

Here is my rendition of garlic noodles:

1 lb. fresh Asian noodles (white or rice would work)

4 cloves garlic, minced and mashed or 3 T minced garlic in jar

4 T olive oil

5 T unsalted butter

1-1/2 tsp. brown sugar

2-1/2 T garlic powder

1 tsp. chicken bouillon

3 T oyster sauce

1-1/2 tsp. fish sauce

2 T cilantro, chopped finely

2 T minced garlic

Rinse noodles in cold water several times until water is clear and set aside. Boil 6 cups of water and add noodles to water, cook until done about 7-8 minutes. Drain, rinse, and set aside. In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil and add mashed/minced garlic, cook until garlic is slightly brown, with slotted spoon remove garlic, and add butter. Melt butter and add sugar, garlic powder, bouillon, sauces, and bring to a soft simmer. Whisk mixture well and add cilantro and fresh minced garlic. When cool, stir into noodles until well incorporated.

I added shrimp, I purchased raw shrimp and placed them in a grill colander and tossed them with a little olive oil and crushed red pepper. Grill until pink.

Serve with chilled saké...bon appetit!

Garlic Noodles with Grilled Shrimp

New Addiction(s)

Okay, I know, I haven't posted since last August. It wasn't that I was being lazy. Well, maybe a little bit. As I stated on my painting blog, life was a bit hectic but is now calming down. The other thing that hasn't helped my focus, is the fact I got an iPhone in January. I have a whopping 3.2 meg camera with me at all times, not to mention a gazillion photo apps and instant information. There are some apps that are really interesting and mimic darkroom processes.

My favorites are Format 126, Hipstamatic, FilmLab, SwankoLab, TiltShift Gen, and Vint B&W. The photos actually print out surprisingly well but some of the apps that do not take photos in the native resolution of the iPhone are only good for posting to Twitter, Facebook, or sending via email. It doesn't replace film or my Canons but I love the spontaneity. The following photos were taken in a nearby park with various apps.

Clouds

                                        

Teddy Bear Cholla

Bat Tree

                                                 Evening Tree                                                                     

I was fortunate enough to take a fabulous moku hanga workshop with Hiroki Morinoue from Hawaii. It was two day and he brought a lot of carved blocks for students to print from. We printed our backgrounds using plain birch plywood, watercolor, and rice paste, slowly building color. The carved blocks were then used to overprint onto the backgrounds. It inspired me to carve some abstract designs onto wood. I'm almost finished with my first block and will post the process photos as well as the print.

Hiroki preparing to print, he has everything, including paper, within arm's reach.

   Two of Hiroki's recent abstract prints, he uses a lot of symbols that have deep meaning to him.

Student work (making backgrounds then overprinting with carved blocks).

I like the fact he also uses litho inks (lithography inks that don't contain a drier so it has a long tack time) for his larger work. Litho inks have a richness so I will probably experiment with both watercolor and ink.

Notan Leaves

I needed a summer project to keep my hands busy while watching the monsoon rains, unfortunately we did not have a long monsoon season in the desert this year but I finally finished this fabric study. Notan is a principle of the balance between light and dark, and I decided that viney leaves might make an interesting piece.

I rusted the light fabric using muslin in an old rusted coffee can and lots of vinegar! Although I washed the muslin well, rusted fabric often continues to disintegrate which I hope leaves some interesting holes in the process of deconstruction.

The leaves were drawn free-hand on freezer paper and I hand-appliqued each block separately.

For now, the scroll will hang against a wall but I backed it with scrim so it can free hang with light passing through the piece.

The rusted fabric was difficult to hand applique as there were metal "bits" embedded in the fabric, I went through a lot of needles!

This is a detail of two of the blocks:

Beetles

These could be spot-less ladybugs but they resemble more the dreaded Japanese beetle that used to devour my beloved antique roses! Ticks, mosquitoes, black flies, desert crickets, scorpions, and locusts are on my non-friendly insect list.

This is the last in this series, I have just sketched out a small lino block along the same leafy format and will post when printed.

This block is 12" x 12".