Reed Between the Lines

10/31/2022

Fall cattail pens and india ink

One of my favorite things to do is to harvest a few cattail stalks in the fall and use them for india ink drawings & sketches

It's so easy to do, and they last years

• find dried cattails
• cut at base and trim off flower at top
• carve them to a point
• add a slit for more ink yield
• dip in ink and draw!

Some cattail stalks are hollow and some are not...both of them work differently, grab one of each and try them out!

check out some cattail pen sketches in the NOVEMBER gallery:
COINCIDENT

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Erin Thomas

Excerpts from:
Ask Me About My Art / 2020

Where does your inspiration come from?
"Everywhere! That's a bit of a tough question because inspiration is fluid and constantly evolving and it changes minute to minute, hour by hour. I could be passionate about circles one day and trip over a rock and obsess about the color of that particular rock for a decade. It's a constant surprise for me, that's what makes life, and art... interesting and beautiful."

What is your creative process?
"Well, that might be an entire separate book! I guess the simple answer is that I dump the things that clutter my brain into art so I can make room to upload all the new things."

What medium do you primarily work in?
"Depends on the subject, the colors I am drawn to that day, the subject I'm looking at and whatever it is that is inspiring me at that moment...I use whatever tool necessary to best convey the story, image, or message. I do seem to have a comfort level with acrylic on canvas, written word or digital photography, I frequently lean on and return to those tools after trying a few other things."

Are there specific techniques that you use in your work?
"I suppose in a way, I have created my own techniques over the years, I do have some art school & materials training, but my goal with art has always been how to get what's in my head into a more firm or permanent reality... translating what I see when I close my eyes, I've always wondered what thoughts looked like and how color smells, I like to creatively name things and see all their angles... those things drive me. I've never really loved replicating reality or deep diving technical skills because the kind of art I'm after is more born from the rawness of coming straight from a thought to paper."

Erin Thomas is an artist living in Southern Maine
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