New product - Good Old Fashioned Tea Towels

New product - Good Old Fashioned Tea Towels featuring my drawing of a white pine pine cone.  100% cotton.  Measures approximately 25" x 25".  Hand printed in Oregon with non-toxic water based ink.  Versatile, durable, reusable, and paper free.  Machine wash and dry.  Available at: https://squareup.com/store/bonny/

In black ink:

There are only two in metallic copper:

Because the metallic flecks in the ink clog the silk screen there are (and will be) only two.  Drop dead beautiful but it's not possible at this point in time to print more with this ink.  Order immediately if this is your color.  https://squareup.com/store/bonny/

#makermade #pinecones #drawing #penandink #teatowel #buylocal #oregon #bonnywagoner

Screen test

I haven’t seriously screen printed in many, many moons. It’s totally doable but it is a bit more challenging than I thought it would be and remember it being from years ago. What seems fundamentally simple is actually pretty darned complicated. Part of the challenge is admittedly self inflicted by the detail I want. Screen exposure calculator - it's defined by a mathematical process (painful for artist brains) to get the desired result range. Following the instructions step by step I now have a workable reference to use that makes sense for how long to expose the screens. No more random hit or miss which was driving me CRAZY:

Update

Sorry for the lack of posts. That's what happens when one encounters an unexpected technical difficulty when trying to push the boundary and the project still has to be finished. Learning curves can be a biscuit sometimes.

Future plans

I purchased an annual parking pass for 2019 for the Sauvie's Island Wildlife Refuge. I plan to spend time out there painting next year and somehow "next year" is right around the corner already. WHERE did 2018 go?

2nd in the series

Technically speaking it's probably the 100th pine cone I've drawn but for this particular series it's the second.  Because I pick them up on the ground I'm never for sure which tree they came from but this one I believe is from a lodge pole pine.

I miss her.

My aunt was 94 years old. I would take her out for a late breakfast at her favorite restaurant when I went to visit. I knew the same questions would be asked over and over because she could no longer remember she had just asked those same questions. But that was ok. These were the condiments on the table while we waited for her customary half a belgian waffle with two pieces of bacon and hot tea. Funny how just a glance at these drawings remind me of her. This is why I enjoy sketching. It's hard to describe how it becomes kind of like a time capsule in a drawing. From two different days. 

In the beginning...

This piece was my introduction to colored pencils 28 years ago. I always chuckle to myself when I'm asked if I'm self taught. The answer is an ambiguous no... and yes. I have a four year degree in art but colored pencil was not taught in higher education because it's a newer medium so not traditional. More often than not it's not considered a serious medium although it can be an archival quality piece if the artist takes the time to use artist quality paper and pencils. I learned a lot working on this piece and in the time in-between then and now. This drawing won three Best in Shows and was retired to my own personal collection.

"Thoughts of Home"

16" x 20"

I rarely work in just colored pencil anymore because of the time intensive nature of the medium.  I sure love it but no one wants to pay for the time it takes to make artwork with a sharpened tip of a pencil.  These days you are more likely to find me painting in watercolor.  It's still all about detail for me. That's just my thing.