-N- – Page 724 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Iris, i

I tend to be somewhat encyclopedic when it comes to learning about something. The result is a collection of stuff, and the clutter in my life is evidence. Given that, here is some info I’ve collected about irises. For our Chinese painting class exhibit, this will be one of my subjects.

These complex flowers, if well done, may be accomplished with a few brush strokes.

Anatomy of the Iris

Photos, diagrams, drawings. All these can familiarize the painter with the parts of the iris plant. Knowing what is what, and where, make the difference in successful rendering. This does not mean a scientific illustration is what must be done for an artistic or spiritual representation of the iris, but knowing how it is structured helps (me, at least) figure out what an artist is attempting to do – and what I might want to do.

This schematic illustration may be found at the Historic Iris Preservation Site, along with many colored illustrations and information about irises. Other illustrations may be found by doing a websearch for parts of the iris flower.

Painting the Iris – Videos!

Watching various artists and their approaches to painting is always educational. And what is caught on video can be watched over and over. How a brush is loaded, with ink or with color, is as important as how the brush is utilized on the paper. For this, I am talking about the free-style painting of the iris, not the fine line tradition in Chinese art. One brush may express a shape with a thin line, a smushing line, and rolling. Below, you will find a number of artists and their interpretations, as well as a very structured example, with the brush strokes done step-by-step.

This first video is by Danny Chen; you may find his work at Chen’s Gallery. His mastery of color mixing is astonishing.

Virginia Lloyd-Davies of Joyful Brush is very talented; her website will show you her mastery of Chinese painting.

Next is Henry Li of Blue Heron Arts. His small business on eBay has blossomed (if you will excuse the pun) into a one from which you might buy a variety of supplies. Here he demonstrates the iris using a hake brush.

Nan Rae is a California artist who has produces lovely paintings in the Chinese style; she has authored and illustrated a number of books as well.

Next is Kazu Shimura, who I absolutely adore. You can find his videos on You Tube as well as here.

Rebecca Lynn Cragg on You Tube shows you numerous sumi-e techniques, as well as how to wear a kimono! Ms. Cragg runs a tea house, Camellia Teas in Ottawa, which I would love to visit.

Finally, Yang Haiying (I hope I spelled her name correctly), has videos on Chinese painting, and many other things. Her videos are brief, but if you watch her brushwork carefully, you will learn a lot.

A Walk in the Garden

The weather this spring is so incredible this year. There are breezes in off the ocean, the skies are blue, we have cool weather. And we have had rain. The result is that flowers are in bloom everywhere, and a few miles down the road, we are blessed with 33 acres of an ever-changing and evolving botanical garden, the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden. I believe all the plants are native to California, and most are drought tolerant – perfect for the xeriscape garden – and incredibly beautiful.

One of the Many Varieties in the Salvia Garden

Little Environmental Things

With the leak in the Gulf of Mexico becoming increasingly a problem, it draws attention to the environment in a number of ways. Man’s footprint becomes more destructive as world population continues to grow. Global warming continues because of the fact there are too many people and countries who cannot work together to help the entire planet. Politically and realistically, this is not possible.

Plants and animals are threatened by pollution, by being unable to survive in their current environment because the mean temperature is a few degrees warmer – C or F – than it has been traditionally. People are also threatened by the work of other people and corporations in areas before them.

Man-made Disasters

Santa Susana Plant Area in the Simi Valley

Nearby, we have the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. Nuclear waste and toxic chemicals have leached into the soil and water table. This affects people living nearby – what is the house built on? What is in my drinking water? People who worked there are facing the long-term affects of having worked there – some have died, some are ill, some have not a problem. Now they might get some help.

In the city of Carson, CA, in the Carousel housing track, developed in the late 1960s, another Love Canal is brewing.

1969 Clean Up from the Santa Barbara Oil Spill

You can still find tar on the local beaches from the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.

Worldwide we can remember the Bhopal gas leak, the London smog disaster of 1952, and too many others to count. Googling “man made natural disasters” gives a lot of stuff.

Endangered Animals

Lizards are disappearing in areas they normally survive. So are frogs, bats, and honey bees. Africa is home to many species which are endangered by the spread of population, commercialized and illegal big game hunting, and the search for ivory or strange aphrodisiacs. Penguins and polar bears are also suffering. And so are indigenous peoples in face of political and commercial expansion.

Foreign Plants

Kudzu has been found to be taking over parts of the the U.S. This is a plant imported from Asia to help cut down on erosion in the American South. This plant is highly invasive. Now, a study shows that it helps increase pollution for all sorts of reasons. More details can be found here.

Invasive Species

Besides invasive plants, invasive animal species threaten much of our environment. The Everglades faces a growing predatory snake population. Boo, hiss.

You’ve Seen a Redwood . . .

Unfortunately, politicians and others in power often have little knowledge or appreciation of the natural world. Ronald Reagan, former California governor and U.S. president was a classical example. Today, we have the infamous Ms. Palin, who is all too willing to shoot animals from a helicopter and continue oil drilling.

Think Locally, Act Globally

Peter Vanderwyden. People in China. Rainforest Alliance. Europe. However, in third world countries, modernization often leads to pollution and destruction of pristine landscapes. “Thinking Green” may involve far more money to introduce than is in a nation’s budget. Nonetheless, creative and inexpensive means for providing improvements can and do exist.

Change is neither easy nor comfortable. Sometimes it is forced on us. Sometimes we choose it.

Quesadillas!

I don’t like the standard quesadilla I’ve experienced – cheese and meat mushed together in a flour tortilla. Definitely unappetizing. However, not too long ago, we had dinner at the in-laws, and as always, we were well fed. We met up prior to seeing Itzhak Perlman at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, so dinner was light. And that is when I fell in love with quesadillas a la Drew. And this afternoon, we had some.

These quesadillas are not slap-dash, but require a bit of time. For your pleasure, here is how they are made.

Ingredients

Large flour tortillas
Large peppers – red bell, pasilla, and / or other tasty peppers
Grilled chicken breasts
Sauteed onions mixed with chipotle and ancho powder
Grated jack cheese

Roast peppers over open flame until skin is charred. Steam in bag or closed container to cool. Peel and seed. Grate cheese, slice chicken. Sautee onions until slightly caramelized; add seasoning if desired.

On tortilla, layer cheese evenly over the entire surface. One one half of tortilla, spread out pieces of chicken, peppers, onions, and then place in hot cast iron skillet which has been sprayed with oil. Turn up heat, and cook open-faced until the cheese has melted. Once melted, fold tortilla in half, squish a bit, and let cook a bit more. Remove from skillet, slice and serve with sour cream and salsa.

Serve with Margaritas!

Cheese All Over Tortilla. Chicken, Peppers and Onions on One Half

Cochineal, ii

I have spent the last few weekends dyeing with quercitron and cochineal. I did not devote just one day to each color, but did both each day. The quercitron adventures yielded golden yarns and flammegarn, as well as exhaust baths I used with the exhaust baths of the cochineal. For both, I premordanted the yarn with alum and tartaric acid as I wanted to move toward reds and pinks, rather than the red violet or burgundy colors derived from unmordanted wool. I used handspun moorit shetland and commercially spun yarn for the cochineal.

First Dye Day

A couple of weeks ago, when I did the flammegarn, I did my first-ever dyeing with cochineal. Using the recommendations from Trudy van Stralen’s Indigo, Madder & Marigold, I set up my dye bath the day before I planned to dye.

I ground up 5 g of cochineal, combining it with 2.5 g of tartaric acid, mixed them together, and let them soak overnight. The next day, as with the quercitron, I filtered out the bugs before starting the dye pot. Into this dye bath I put in 1 skein of commercially spun wool, weighing in at 50 g, and the handspun moorit, weighing in at 75 g. This was certainly more wool than the 10% cochineal / 5% tartaric acid weight van Stralen uses, but I wasn’t too worried. I wanted to see the results more than anything!

The wools were in the dye bath for 35 minutes (per van Stralen’s recipe). In the early minutes of immersion, the moorit and white took on orangish casts. These colors deepened the longer the yarn remained in the bath, moving closer toward red for the moorit, and pink for the white.

Moorit and White Wool - Before Tin Added to Bath

After 35 minutes, the yarn was removed, and 0.25% of yarn weight of tin added. Thus, 125 x 0.25% = .3125 g. I put in .3 according to my scale. Before adding the tin, the yarn was removed from the bath. The tin was weighed out in a bowl, water added, and then stirred into the dye pot. Tin is added to “bloom” colors toward the red side. Once done, the wools were returned to stew another five minutes, and removed. The moorit became a rather dull wine-red, and the white became a lovely pink color.

Pulling the wools out of the dye bath was a pleasant surprise. Each color was harmonious with the other, intense without being displeasing.

Moorit and White Wool Just Out of the Dye Bath

The next step was to immerse the skeins in ammoniated water, to further push the colors toward magenta. The pictures show fairly well the before and after colorations.

Moorit and White Wool After Dipping in Ammoniated Water

The wool pulled up most of the color in the dye bath, but left behind was a pale orange. Another skein of white wool was placed in the exhaust, heated for 45 minutes, and then removed. It had a pale orangish color, but when placed into the ammoniated water, it turned a lovely sea shell pink.

Wool Dyed in Exhaust Bath - Not Yet Dipped in Ammoniated Water

And you would think after all tihs activity I would be done, right? Nope! I had saved my filtered bugs and quercitron dregs, the quercitron dye bath, and the remainder of the exhausted cochineal. All these were warmed up together and yet another
white skein immersed . . . but you will have to wait to see all the final colors in another installment.