A Creative Life
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Abyssinian cat portrait with alphabet
Having been inspired by all the multi-lingual book readers I see in the Pacific Northwest – combined with the alphabet-as-frame-of-reference thoughts I’d shared in my last blog post, and my on-going collection of cat-related thoughts – I’ve been working on a portrait of an Abyssinian cat. The cat will be reading a mystery called “M…
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cat thoughts with alphabets
I’ve been thinking a lot about cats; how they have their own “spaces” or territories. How each has its own frame of reference. My cat Hawkeye, for example, thinks that fleece throw blankets are unreasonable objects and seems offended when a fleece throw is on my lap. But a woven, cotton blanket is a thing…
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interview about my public art at WSU Vancouver
Recently, Amanda Flynn, the previous editor-in-chief of the Salmon Creek Journal at WSUV sat down with me for an hour long interview about my art-making process for the public art piece I created for the campus. It was the most comprehensive and most fun interview I think I’ve ever given. I mean I really “told-it-all”!…
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from my Various Cat Sketchbook
I’ve just finished making an ebook – 34 pages derived from my hand drawn, hand written, sketchbook on the topic of cats. It’s titled “Various Cat Sketches by Sue Clancy” – and can be found here on my Art Ebook Shop page. Warts, scribbles, mistakes and all have been included – so you can see…
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four topic sketchbook keeping
Oh I’ve had an excellent question asked of me! Here’s the question: “Do you keep separate sketchbooks for different subjects/projects/media or do you use one sketchbook for all sorts of art experiments and ideas?” My answer: I used to keep one sketchbook but I found it hard to find the bit of research I needed…
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on sketchbooks and sharing
I tend to live my life with my sketchbook in hand. Consequently this means meeting up with friends and answering the “What have you been doing lately?” questions by handing them my physical sketchbook. More than one friend has looked at my book and said “Why don’t you publish these?”. And I’ve had very loose…
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time to gouache
As you know I’ve been playing with my new gouache paints in my various sketchbooks and art papers, practicing for my work on “Time Tavern”, a book I’m doing for the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project. https://www.brooklynartlibrary.com/ Now that I feel I have gouache skills under my belt – it’s time to work on my…
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staying wet in the Pacific Northwest
I’ve been loving having independent art supply stores near where I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest – and on a recent trip to get more gouache colors I bought a “stay wet” palette. The theory of the thing, according to the art supply store clerk, was that water based paints wouldn’t dry out as…
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from my kitchen sketchbook
Around the edges of working on cat portraits I’ve still been working with gouache. Specifically I’ve been testing it in my bound sketchbooks. Here are several pages, created with gouache and ink, in my current “kitchen sketchbook”. I have a series of kitchen sketchbooks, they are all small, around 3 by 5 inches, and I…
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color books and drinks
In the quest of keeping artistically inspired I like to haunt bookstores and libraries. Then I make time to sit and read the books – often with a beverage at hand. Recently in a local independent bookstore called Ampersand, http://www.ampersandgallerypdx.com/ – I found several inspiring tomes. Specifically a book in Japanese that I can’t read.…
