When I was in North Carolina last year, my friend Susan turned me on to Caran d’Ache Neocolor ll water soluble wax pastels. They’re not much on their own, but just add water with a paint brush and the magic happens. I used to paint in my late 20’s when I was searching for my artistic ‘medium’.  It never really grabbed me at the time, but now I am experimenting with combining painting and fibre art.

These crayons are sometimes part of my portable art studio - a shoulder bag I bought in Amsterdam with three inner pockets for collecting and carrying objects. My camera always slips into my jeans pocket.

A couple weeks ago, I went to one of my favorite spots on the river with some squares of canvas, the crayons and a paintbrush.

Sanctuary

Before adding water

After water

With thread painting

I composed a poem to go onto the piece and spent a few days figuring out how to work it in.

“The eloquent river journeys

bringing gifts and singing stories

and silently-

carries burdens away.

Trees drink deeply”

I wrote the poem on the computer using my ’signature’ font Papryus, printed it onto some handmade paper, washed the paper with fabric paint to blend it with the border fabric and used semi-gloss Golden acrylic gel medium to adhere it to the surface.

I like it . . . . a lot. I’m very pleased to have hit on this technique, because I’ve been working up to this for a couple of years now in my exploration of adding text to my fibre art. The hand of the fabric becomes stiff, like parchment, but that’s OK because I quilted this piece. Later on I’ll figure out how to insert text keeping the fabric drapable.

more detail

Eloquent River, 13″ x 13″