Author: JP Dawes Artist

How do You Choose A Color?

| JP Dawes Artist

You look around until you find something that has the color that speaks to you! I have some short bookcases on the pony wall to the open kitchen. It used to be a bar but all it did was collect stuff. So when we had the kitchen updated, we took off the sitting area. That pony wall had been painted the color of the room and was pretty BLAH. Time for a change!

We have a lampshade made from real preserved leaves that has great greens. I didn’t want to carry the lampshade into the store so what do you do? I found that the dust jacket on this Harry Potter book was perfect, with all the shades of green that matched the lampshade. I first went to Lowes and found a swatch for a Sherwin Williams paint but when I got it home they had not mixed it up and it was a lump. (That’s another story! ) Back to the store for a refund.

I went across to Home Depot with my color swatch and asked them to help me find a swatch close to that color. A surprise for me, they have a computer to color match. You can see the dot of paint on the swatch that is a perfect match. It took 3 coats of paint for me to be happy with the coverage and the final finish but I love it! A perfect match to my houseplants! The perfect spot of color needed behind the bookcases.

Shake Rattle and Roll

| JP Dawes Artist

The as yet to be named newest Steampunk in the family was very misbehaved! They simply would not do what I wanted them to do. So Ron stepped in and in his best dad voice read them the riot act. Success! Here are some closeups showing their northern light, iceberg collar, equator belt buckle and ocean of fish. In addition, They are a rattler, another Steampunk rolls and the shake is on the worktable.

the Blue Flower

| JP Dawes Artist

The temperatures have been brutally hot. My studio is cool with it’s own air conditioner. There is a north window so lots of light without turning on overheads. So today in the studio it seemed that working with the cool color of blue was a good plan.

I had an old clock case that was begging to become. I backed it with an antique ceiling tile. After a blue tinted white wash on the wood I started to build the composition. I included the spine from an antique book, a tiny metal birdhouse and stars, a hand carved bird on a stump, a real bird nest with a wooden egg in it. I painted brass flowers in shades of blue. the finished piece is 14 1/2 inches tall and 9 inches wide.

Steampunk Assemblage

| JP Dawes Artist

Lacking a specific genre, I am calling my kids steampunks.

What does that term really mean? One meaning online : a style of design and fashion that combines historical elements with anachronistic technological features inspired by science fiction. So then I need to define anachronistic: belonging or appropriate to an earlier period, especially so as to seem conspicuously old-fashioned.”she is rebelling against the anachronistic morality of her parents”

Well, the heads definitely look old fashioned and the designs combine elements inspired by science fiction. So Steampunks it is!

Dragonfly On My Workbench

| JP Dawes Artist

Dragonfly is being born . She gets her name from the way dragonflies seem to be drawn to her. There are a couple of problems to overcome before she gets her color and finishes. She will have wheels and will roll along if I can work out how to attach them.