Category: Art

Art, Collage, Drawings

Saint Mary of the Pears

Shelly

Bosc Pear
Bosc Pear (detail)

I used graphite on another page from the patent book, but this time, I primed it with a thin coat of gesso.

Every time I see a Bosc pear, it makes me think of the Gothic S curve. If you look at the figure of the Virgin, you’ll see that it’s just about impossible to stand in that position. Her hip is thrust out in the opposite direction from both her feet and shoulders. Bosc pears have much the same sort of, um, stance.

(Apologies for the moire. I tried descreening the scan, but the image of the Virgin and Child was taken from an auction catalog, and the print quality was pretty bad. You can easily see the dot pattern with the naked eye.)

Art, Collage, Journals, Paintings

Pear Crisp

Shelly

Bosc Pear
Bosc Pear (detail)

I like the way this one turned out. I glued down a page from an 1850s patent book, using acrylic medium, then topped it off with a layer of medium, to seal it. Otherwise, as soon as you add water to it, the paper peels and rolls up.

The under-layer of pigment was done in a really wet wash, with the upper layers being finger blended, without adding water.

The detail is about 50% larger than usual, which shows the texture pretty well. The swirly marks are from the underlying layer of acrylic medium. The sharp chisel marks around the dark edge of the pear are from an Xacto knife. Scratching into the paper not only mimics the reflected light, but it also creates a barrier, stopping the watercolor from flowing outside the area.

Tomorrow, I’m going to make pear crisp. Mmmm!

Art, Collage, Journals, Paintings

Golden Bosc Pear

Shelly

Bosc Pear
Golden Bosc Pear (detail)
collage with acrylic and Neocolors II on 90lb Stonehenge paper
9 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches

I did this one a little differently, by starting with an acrylic glaze as a background. The collage bit isn’t so much collage as just using an ad straight from a catalog. I grabbed an old Ethan Allen catalog, thinking it might have something in the right color palette to use as a background, but then I saw this dining room scene with a bowl of pears, and I couldn’t resist. I did do a little bit of stamping across the bottom, to tie the two pages together, but the book is a little too tall for my scanner, so it’s mostly cut off. If I weren’t so lazy, I’d scan both pages separately and stitch them together, but I am so lazy, so that ain’t gonna happen.

Art, Bookarts, Journals

Pear Journal

Shelly

100_4671

100_4675
Pear Journal
90lb Stonehenge paper and recycled notebook covers, Coptic bound with waxed linen thread
9 1/2 x 6 inches, 9 signatures of 2 sheets (36 pages)
22 May 2007

I don’t think I ever took photos of this one when I bound it. I recycled the back covers from two old notebooks. The binding is basic one-needle Coptic stitch, with little decorative chicken feet added when I attached the covers.

Art, Collage, Journals, Paintings

Pear Lady

Shelly

Red Pear
Red Pear (detail)
collage with watersoluble crayon and eraser stamp on 90lb Stonehenge paper
9 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches

I had to buy a new batch of pears yesterday (the old ones went into the food dehydrator this morning). The kid at the checkout said, “Hey, you’re the pear lady!” Okaythen!

And pears, they are everywhere. Marsh has dragged out the holiday crap, and there are posters all over the store of little green pears with looped, silver hangers on their heads. There’s a large poster of one in the front window of the store. From the back of the parking lot, it looks like a pear, then when you get to the middle of the parking lot, it looks like a glass Christmas tree ball, then when you get up close to it, you can see the little pear speckles. It’s cute.