Stitches & Watercolor Art Series

'Fashion Favorites'... Nothing like exploring a new medium of watercolors and then combine together for a fresh approach with hand stitching. Hand-stitching is relaxing and found the new watercolor medium to be meditative too. 

Fashion Favorites Nineteen Nighties
Wood frame with double mats.
Frame service available.

Each year I set out to try something new that is creative and found on youtube a few reviews on Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Watercolour and ordered 3 sets of colors. 

I bought both hot and cold press watercolor paper but before I got started on a work of art I took the time to paint out a reference sample of each color which gave me insight into how it slides across the watercolor paper and stains the surface. 

I was quickly falling in love with the transparency and yet I found it very concentrated like they had said and able to keep the original brilliance of the watercolor paper underneath the paint.

'Fashion Favourites Nineteen Nighties' is a play on words that takes me back to the late 1990s when I went out often went out to nightclubs dancing the night way in my wedge high shoes with flared pants, I also had the most lovely collection of pretty bras back then. How I enjoyed going out dancing all night and coming home exhausted and throwing my clothes onto my inherited Grandpa's old chair. 

One daytime moment I sat down back in the 1990s and drew my favorite outfit in a sketch to think that one day I might like to reminisce and do a painting of the drawing to which it is now 2017!

Hand-stitching into watercolor paper.

I took to mixing traditional stitching into the artworks but first I poke the holes into the paper with a thumbtack before stitching and it seems to work out very well. Some of my stitches were made into my signature using a variety of embroidery stitches like daisy stitch which is one of my old-time favorites.

Fashion Favourites Nineteen Nighties
by Minaz Jantz
12" x 17.5" unframed
$400.00

Renter's Roses (Pastel, stitching, foil, watercolor)

'Renter's Roses & Playful Mind Success Tarot' also came from a sketch I made back in the late 1990s of my favorite coffee table, Sedona red rock with my mom's escargot shell sitting on top with a layout from a tarot deck which said to me be PLAYFUL MIND SUCCESS and so back then I did take the hint and did start to take my journey as an artist more seriously. I still own the blue vase and have a THING for all items made of glass. 

Renting in the 1990's White Rock, B.C. I was lucky to be there for 10 years with a great view living in a little 100-year-old cottage by the sea on a small plot of land that grew two old rose bushes outside my window and because I casually only cared for the roses, they were not always perfect but I liked their scent and still, they grew flowers spite the constant attack of aphids!

Hand Stitching with silk threads into watercolor paper.

'Renter's Roses' started with an old drawing from the 1990s and edited it to include the drapes and purple shag carpet that were seen in many rental homes long after they had long gone past their home fashionable moments. 

Stages of creating multi-media:

• Watercolor was blocked into the shapes and layers which created more of a dimensional appearance to the composition. 
• more texture so added oil pastel then layers of chalk pastel over that layer. 
• gold dust mixed with acrylic medium to indicate the brassy details of the coffee table.
• needle and thread and ran one line across the curtains.
• embroidery my signature into the far right upper corner.

'Renter's Roses & Mind Playful Success Tarot'
by Minaz Jantz
18.5" x 22" unframed
$745.00

Love is Sharing Cake (watercolor, pastel, collage, stitching)

'Love is Sharing Cake' is about my love of baking and more importantly, I love to share it with guests, and sometimes I will surprise someone and just bring some fresh homemade baking to them. Delightfully, I get to see their faces light up. Home baking is something of a rarity these days as it does take time and there is lots of bad press for eating these delights but can say it has not stopped people from enjoying the indulgence of home baking in my experience!

Hand-stitching on signature and spiral on the plate.
A card with handwritten words is also collaged with hand-stitching.

'Love is Sharing Cake' was fun to create and just played with the various mediums like watercolor and oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper that has a texture to the surface and liked how the oil pastel skipped across the top leaving more visual texture which worked great for the cake's icing. I cut up an old birthday card from my mother-in-law who has beautiful handwriting and decided to also add part of the card into my signature that was hand-stitched with silk threads.

Love is Sharing Cake (watercolor, pastel, collage, stitching)

All of these artworks will be available for the event called 'Follow the Yellow Balloons Open Studio Tours' on October 1, 2017, along with other handmade items for sale like my Folk Art Pillows.

Life is great when one can bust a stitch laughing and bring stitching to a fine art! Minaz