Painting with Fabric

New Website and Blog

2010-07-19T11:28:00.002-04:00

I just finished creating a new website! http://kestrelmichaud.com Please take a moment to check out my artwork and some of the other features, such as images from the process of putting my works together.

In addition, I now have a blog on my new website, so I will no longer be posting here. Thank you to everyone whom has visited this blog in the past ! I hope you will continue to do so at my new location. Have a wonderful day !

Chinese Watercolor in Fabric

2009-11-30T13:01:00.002-05:00

My latest project for class was an attempt to emulate the style of Chinese Watercolorists using fabric. It ended up being a bit more difficult than I had anticipated, but I feel on the whole I was at least partially successful.

The first image, of the koi in the blue background, was my first attempt. Normally I do not dye my own fabrics, but this project was an exception. However, in this case, I think the water is a bit much so I dyed only the fish on the second try.

Waken the Giants (revised)

2009-11-13T17:05:00.003-05:00

Here is an updated version of the "Waken the Giants" image I posted a while back. I changed the color of a few of the pieces of fabric on the cub and added a layer of tulle (netting) to the tree to separate it a bit more from the lion.

Kestrel Picture

2009-11-06T20:56:00.002-05:00

This is a new picture I finished a week or so ago for Illustration class. It was by far the hardest picture I have attempted to create out of fabric. It contains well over 750 pieces, and stretches 41"x18". This particular image is extra-special to me because the bird is actually my namesake.

Pumpkin Kitty

2009-10-20T08:30:00.002-04:00

This is my newest fabric picture. It was for Applejack Art Partners to be printed as a decorative flag for the fall holidays. The image itself is about 17.5"x25" and has appx. 220 pieces of fabric.

2009-10-06T07:09:00.006-04:00

This is a business card, some letterhead, an envelope and an example page of how I plan to lay out my portfolio. The image on the portfolio sheet is the full version of the cropped picture that will appear on the back of my business card.

Business Card front and back

Letterhead

Envelope

Portfolio Page sample

Lion Pic In Progress

2009-10-04T07:51:00.006-04:00

This is a new image I recently worked on for my Illustration class. There is a competition at school and the theme was "Waken the Giants", so I made this picture as my entry. I have a few more changes to do on it, mostly because I ran out of yellow fabric half way through, and I want to go back and change a few pieces now that I have bought more.

The image size is 26"x26" and has approximately 190 pieces.

A Set of Birds

2009-09-10T22:52:00.008-04:00

I am currently working on two new projects and will post pics as soon as I finish them, most likely within the next week or so. In the mean time, here are two slightly older images I designed as a set. Applejack recently requested high-resolution copies of both pictures for their archive.

This first one is "Scarlet Tanager." It contains approximately 130 pieces, and is 5"x7" in size.

This second image is "Rose-Breasted Grossbeak." It is also 5"x7", but contains about 100 pieces of fabric.

First Applejack Picture

2009-09-02T06:29:00.008-04:00

At the end of the summer I was lucky enough to sign a two-year contract with Applejack Art Partners, a licensing company in Vermont. The sole requirement of the first picture they asked me to create needed to have "cardinals and birdhouses." This is what I came up with. It is barely over 11"x14".

Lipizzan

2009-09-01T19:21:00.008-04:00

Over the summer I had an opportunity to participate in an art show sponsored by Horses In The Summer (HITS) which is an annual horse show held in my hometown of Saugerties, New York. This is the piece I entered.

More Gallery Work

2009-06-16T19:51:00.008-04:00

When we moved from Pennsylvania to New York last April I had brought all of the work I had hanging at the Jean Bonnett Tavern gallery in Bedford, Pennsylvania with me. I just received a call from the woman who runs the shop that a couple who had been passing through last year returned this year and specifically requested for one of my Mailpouch Barn images! So I will be sending this pic out to the gallery tomorrow morning.

New Gallery

2009-06-14T19:29:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I took several pictures to a new gallery up in Woodstock that was very interested in my work. The gallery is Lotus Fine Art & Design, and they are located in Woodstock, which is a few miles from my new home in Saugerties.

This morning I received a call from the gallery. They already sold my first painting! This is the picture that was sold.

Nature Police

2009-05-16T21:29:00.013-04:00

School is finally done and I am back home for the summer ! However I wanted to share one of the pictures I worked on last semester.

This picture was a personal, self-chosen assignment. We were allowed to pick literally anything we wanted to work on. I have always had a soft spot for flamingos in my heart, and they work great in fabric because of the pink, so I thought why not? I also wanted to take a bit more of a light-hearted approach, so in this picture the flamingo is trying to get the girl to put her bikini top back on.

Three-headed Flamingo

2009-04-17T14:19:00.003-04:00

This sculpture started out as just a normal flamingo, but I went back and added a few more heads to make it a bit more interesting.

Wine Label Project

2009-04-14T07:36:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I finished these two logos in watercolor for my Advanced Media class. The assignment was to redesign a logo that you would find at a grocery store. Since "Grapes" is one of my middle names, I thought redesigning a wine label would be perfect.

First !

2009-04-05T19:51:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone ! I finally got around to making a blog for myself. My plan is to eventually update this on a weekly basis at the minimum, but right now I think I am just going to do a little exploring to see if I can figure out how to do fun things like upload photos :D