Roann Mathias Calligraphy

Journal Art set to music

2008-10-13T18:12:00.005-06:00

This is my first "music video" featuring calligraphy from various journals and the song by Norah Jones called "Those sweet words."

And here is a video of me lettering in our class this summer in Chicago, thanks to Hiroko Shimizu:

Student Work from Black Magic Workshop

2008-09-24T10:29:00.007-06:00

The St. Louis Calligraphy Guild had me in to teach Black Magic over the weekend. The workshop is about using color on black paper for lettering. Everyone worked really hard, and there were lots of oohs and aahs as they saw how amazing these colors look on black paper. Here are some samples of what they created.

We started by mixing 12 shades of gouache and then testing samples on different kinds of black paper. We used Fabriano Ingres, Bugra black and Arches cover black.

Then we moved on to testing Pearl-ex pigments and Twinkling H2Os:

Here is one table covered with samples of lettering done by the class on the second day:

These two were done by a left-handed calligrapher using a parallel pen:

Workshop with Charles Pearce

2008-09-15T15:23:00.005-06:00

Over the weekend the Memphis Calligraphy Guild hosted a workshop with Charles Pearce. The topic was pen manipulation, and we worked with uppercase and lowercase Romans.

As he demonstrated on butcher paper at the front, we were able to follow along with his beautiful handouts. These handouts are the best I have ever seen -- with extraordinary clarity, drawings and notes. Late in the day on Sunday he demonstrated this funky alphabet based on the work of Arthur Baker.

One of the demos that Charles did in front of class:

My own work on some cold press watercolor paper:

More From Letters Mingle Souls

2008-08-04T11:59:00.002-06:00

There were so many exhibits at conference, and each one was equally breathtaking. This first photo is from the TreeWhispers Exhibit, which was hung in a kind of atrium from the ceiling and could be seen from both the main floor and the balcony above, where I took this photo.

Then there was the faculty exhibit. I took a number of photos, but since most of the pieces were under glass, they were hard to photograph. Here are two that caught my eye -- the first one is Rosie Kelly's book, which was in a case. I can never get enough of looking at her work!

This is just one panel of many that were hanging from a clothesline (for lack of a better word) by Lisa Englebrecht. I believe it was a book, with all the pages hanging next to each other.

When I arrived at conference I was greeted with excitement about my Martin Luther King painting. I was so honored and humbled that it was placed at the entrance to the Chicago guild's Exploration 2008 exhibit in this very prominent position. I still can't quite get over it.

One of the unique features about this conference were the Mini Workshops. It was like having a conference within a conference. Here is the book I made in one of the classes I took. It was so cool -- I just had to know how to do this beaded binding! Class was taught by Barbara Mann.

I have more photos, and will keep posting them until I run out! My dining room table is still covered with supplies from conference, and will have to be cleaned up before we have guests this weekend. And the big Martin Luther King painting is still in a box in the corner! Shipping that piece home was an adventure!

Gestural Writing with Yves Leterme at conference part 2

2008-07-30T12:45:00.008-06:00

Here are photos of the lettering that I did in the workshop. Yves' preferred lettering tool is the humble and unloved Speedball C5. So many experienced and established calligraphers (Sheila Waters comes to mind) have said that any Speedball nib smaller than a 3 is useless because of inconsistent manufacturing.* But Yves swears by them, and after a bit of warming up, they worked fine. It was hard to believe that we could get such lines from a lowly Speedball nib. The white paper is Arches text wove, and the darker papers are Bugra. The abstract color square in the first photo is done with my old favorites, Twinkling H2Os.

These little abstract marks were about 2 X 3" and done over some watercolor backgrounds that I had previously done in a journal.

* In a note of clarification Sheila said, "I would be talking about not to expect predictable sharp thicks and thins for relatively slow, precise formal writing. Gestural writing is quite different, needing speed, and Speedball smaller C series nibs would be fine for that....I would never use the term "useless" about any tool, especially nibs, because it depends on what you want to use them for..."

Thank you, Sheila, for the explanation.

Gestural Writing with Yves Leterme at conference

2008-07-28T11:30:00.013-06:00

My class at conference was gestural writing with Yves Leterme. He was an excellent teacher, patiently taking us through exercises to help us deconstruct the letterforms and then reconstruct them in a thoughtful but spontaneous-looking way. He was self-effacing, honest and generous with his demonstrations. He also is an amazing communicator, considering that English is his second language. It was lovely to lieten to his lilting accent!

We did pages and pages of practice work! Then around the middle of the 2nd day we started to do some things on individual sheets, like this repetition exercise, when we were allowed to add color! Everything that we did during the week was a progression, building in succession on what he had taught before. It was challenging to remember it all and implement in into new exercises as the week went on. Here are some samples:

Joan Machinchick's "artifex" exercise with color added:

Yves' "artifex" demo:

Another demo by Yves:

Two Japanese women were in our class and they were like stealth calligraphers! They just sat quietly and knocked out some amazing work! Here are a few pieces by Hiroko Shimizu that just blew us all away:

This is another example of the repetition exercise, done by Barbara Beattie:

Another repetition exercise by Yukimi Annand:

Letters Mingle Souls first impressions

2008-07-21T06:21:00.004-06:00

Wow! I am finally here and so far everything has been amazing! If I elaborate, it will all sound too gushy, so I will just share these first photos:

I am taking a week long class with Yves Leterme called Gestural Writing. Here is one of his demos:

This is Yves demonstrating at someone's desk in class:

In the classroom next door is Charles Pearce! Here is one of his class demos from the first day. I post it because it typifies what conference is all about (aside from all the socializing, shopping, and seeing exhibits!)

Charles Pearce

Reggie was impressed with Peter's suspenders and couldn't resist! They called themselves 2 good-old-boys from Tennessee!

Second half at Arrowmont

2008-07-06T10:00:00.013-06:00

What an intense week! We all worked hard during the day and most of us stayed in the studio til after 9 every night. Dan was generous with his time, coming back in after hours to help everyone or just hang out with us. Here are the books that I did, some of Dan's and some of the other students'.

My 4 X 6" book, with papers that I had decorated in advance:

The same book, open from the front, showing the papers:

Cover of my other wooden board book:

Both covers and spine sewing:

Detail of window, covered with mica and tiny brass nails:

Detail of back cover. Notice the crackled wood treatment. I made the tiny scroll myself, including the carved dowels, using an actual power tool!

Detail of the headband sewing, which was one of the most difficult things that we did:

Inside back cover with marbled paper under a circle of mica:

Inside front cover:

The tiny book that I started on the first day, finished off with a headband stitch:

Two covers not attached to a text block yet:

These two books are examples of Dan's. The top one is about 4 X 5" with blank pages. This is a detail of the spine, the stitching, the colorful way that he dyes the covers and the inset with the shells. Most of his books look like this.

This book is a sample showing the kinds of things we could do to the covers ou our books -- the inset windows, the mica shapes sewn in, the little pillow-shaped insets on the bottom right.

Ann's book:

Damon McIntyre's book:

Lynne's book:

Patty's book:

It was a great workshop and I am so glad that I was able to attend. From a calligrapher's point of view, it was wonderful to understand this structure better. I can imagine books filled with lettering done this way. I definitely came away with ideas for future projects.

Book Binding at Arrowmont

2008-07-02T16:56:00.004-06:00

I'm in Gatlinburg, TN taking a workshop with Dan Essig at Arrowmont. He is a wonderful instructor and here are a few things I have done so far:

This is a close-up of the coptic stitch that we are using (above)

This is the cover of that same book closed, and embellished (above)

Above is the outside of another book I did, with paste papers and calligraphy

This is the inside front cover of that book, with a window holding the butterfly image

And this is a wooden cover. It has been drilled, sanded, painted with 5 layers of paint, re-sanded and waxed! It takes a lot of work to make something look this distressed!

Student Work from Artiscape V in Jackson

2008-06-11T08:55:00.006-06:00

Over the weekend I was one of the instructors at Artiscape V in Jackson, TN. My segment was on transfers. We used Inkjet transparencies, printed with an Epson R260, and transferred with acrylic soft gel medium, gesso and alcohol. The participants ranged from newbies to experienced stampers/paper artitsts. Here are some of the results: (my apologies for not getting the names that go with these photos)

Transfer using gesso, then collaged onto cardstock, by Linda Campo:

Alcohol transfer onto watercolor paper; leaf stamps added after:

Canvas on the left, paper on the right:

Transfers onto canvas using gel medium and gesso:

Transfers onto canvas with stamping added:

What to do with your inchies?

2008-05-21T11:37:00.000-06:00

Inchie swaps are hot right now. Inchies are little pieces of art defined buy their size - one square inch. I'm not big on doing swaps, mainly because I don't know what to do with the art I get in return. This little modified accordion book, made from origami star shapes, is perfect for storing and showing off these tiny treasures. Here are some pictures:

Individual inchies, mounted on black cardstock:

Cover of accordion star book:

Book spread out:

Close-ups:

Newberry Lirbary Show

2008-05-17T14:31:00.006-06:00

These pieces of mine were accepted into the Chicago Calligraphy Collective's annual show at the Newberry Library. Exploration 2008 will take place from May 28-July 11, 2008.

Bound Together

So Simple, 9" X 12", acrylic and transfers on canvas.

The David Book

Paste Papers from the workshop

2008-05-01T19:15:00.005-06:00

Here are some of the paste papers that I did during the Rosie Kelly workshop.

On the second day we started lettering on the pages. I used twinkling H2Os, Dr. Martins Bleed Proof white and sumi ink to see what worked on the backgrounds.

I wanated to experiment with transfers to see if they would work with the paste/acrylic combination. The image of David was an inkjet transfer that I applied before the paste was laid down.

This page is the title page of the book I worked on in class. Rosie showed us how to emboss the border around the opening, and it looks really crisp.

This is what the page looks like without the cover sheet.

The Amazing Rosie Kelly

2008-04-29T18:47:00.003-06:00

The Memphis Calligraphy Guild just hosted two workshops with calligrapher and book artist Rosie Kelly. Here are a few pages from HER books, which are too beautiful to not post.

New Work

2008-04-21T12:44:00.009-06:00

Here are new photos from my most recent journal. The cover is marbled paper that I made several years ago. I bound the book with a coptic stitch. The inside pages are Arches text wove. I used Stampin' Up dye inks with plain erasers and stamps, then I blended the colors with a wet paint brush. All the text are selections from poems by my new favorite, e. e. cummings. The lettering is all dome with parallel pens filled with Twinkling H2O watercolors. You can see some of the sparkles in a few of the close up photos.

Detail of the binding

Student work from Botanical Illustration Class

2008-03-18T18:47:00.002-06:00

Over the weekend I taught Botanical Illustration for calligraphers in Red Deer, Canada. Here are photos of some of their work. The class started with black and white drawings and progressed to pen and ink and watercolor. This was the first time most of the students had attempted drawing.

Student Work from Neuland Workshop

2008-03-13T09:17:00.008-06:00

Here are the samples from the Neuland workshop:

Student Work from Beyond Bookhand Workshop

2008-03-12T14:05:00.005-06:00

Here are a few examples of the work that students did over the weekend in the bookhand workshop in Calgary:

Recent Work

2008-02-18T22:55:00.005-06:00

These are the greeting cards that I just finished for The Printery House. They will all be 5 X 7, and come out sometime next year.

Angels

2008-01-11T10:45:00.000-06:00

When I was in New Orleans in October, I spent a morning photographing statuary in The St. Louis Cemetery. New Orleans is famous for its above-ground tombs and this was my first time to walk through one of these cemeteries.
Here is one of the angels:

New Work -- Reggie Homework

2007-12-15T18:07:00.000-06:00

This canvas came together this week, just before class. It's about 20 X 30", acrylic and inkjet transfer with calligraphy. The text is from a poem of mine, the images are random ones from the internet.

detail:

detail:
detail:

This is a smaller canvas, a companion piece, to the one above. Same materials, with gesso used for the transfer of the group of marines.

This piece, about 9 X 12", has the gesso transfer technique for the image of Michelangelo's David, and the text is lettered with Speedball nibs, gouache and mica powders. The gilding at the bottom is done with instacoll and gold leaf.
It's available in my Etsy shop

Photos of Studio Half Unpacked

2007-11-27T08:25:00.000-06:00

This is the progress so far:

This is not about calligraphy

2007-11-15T10:49:00.001-06:00

If you read the OC, then this is for you:

Twinkling H2Os

2007-11-08T07:58:00.000-06:00

The topic of these watercolors came up again on Cyberscribes yesterday and since it they are one of my favorite tools I want to share some samples. It also is relevent since I had students use them in the Neuland class last weekend. Here are some pages from various journals using the twinkling H2Os for lettering and abstract designs:

New Studio!

2007-10-31T11:33:00.000-06:00

Last week I moved my art studio into a new space. This will be the second time that I have had my studio outside of our home and I will actually go to work like a "real" person.* The space is twice a big as my above-the-garage studio, with great hardwood floors and room for teaching classes. Here are some moving day photos:

Main Room:

Other Room:

*For the rest of you real people who have really been working at home all along, no offense intended, because I know what it feels like when you mention that you work at home and you are met with those polite but condescending looks by real professionals who are secretly thinking that you have no idea what the real world is like, and oh, isn't it nice to work in your sweats until noon, catch the latest dish on The View and check out Matt Lauer's newest crew cut? Well, yeah, those things are great perks of working at home and I will miss them, but already just mentioning to friends that I am moving into a studio has made them take me more seriously as an artist.

More than half of my things are unpacked and put away. It's great to have so much space to spread out in. More photos next week when I am settled in.