ralphjarvis.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I tried Iceberger. Draw a berg, see how it floats. A reminder what's at the surface isn't the whole truth. This one's dense, unstable, despite claims to the contrary. Oddly vacillating between Greenland and Canada. Adrift, not knowing which way is up. "Look what you've done! I'm melting! melting!"

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Puffin Tumble. Puffins are pelagic, coming to land only to breed. No doubt a few are being tossed about in the North Atlantic now, waiting for spring. Natural history illustration is my comfort zone. One of my first designs to use more character drawing skills. #quiltsky #nature #art #pattern

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

Labrador Wild. Inspired by a school visit in Nain, Labrador in the 90s and a career as a wildlife biologist. Designed and sewn on the terrace in Mexico. The hardest part was finding the quilting cotton. Easy part, the amused neighbours. #quiltsky #nature #labrador #thequiltedstash #ecology

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Happy Anniversary to this amazing man- a product of China, Mexico and Canada. Any duty required for this amazing shared life, I am happy to give. #loveislove #notariffonlove #anniversary

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

Vestiges and Horizons. Feels a little like how I see the details of a life lived in Newfoundland in the later part of the 20th and first quarter of the 21st centuries. #newfoundland #oldandnew #landscape

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

A retired nurse and friend's nan, told me a story of how she took half of her very 1st pay cheque to buy a tricycle for a terminally ill boy. Turned out, he was the son of the woman who later mentored my mom when she needed work after our house burnt. Circle of Kindness. Made as a gift. #quiltsky

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

My mother is a bonafide red seal chef and expert berry picker. She's shared her love of foraging with three generations now and gifted countless bottles of her homemade jams. I'm a proud recipient of both and the wider love of nature it led me to. #nature #family #respect #TinyJoys #foraging

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

When Sun Rays Crown (2023). A line from the official national anthem of Newfoundland pre-confederation with Canada, sung at public events to this day, served as the inspiration for this piece. #quiltsky #craft #newfoundland #canada

submitted 73 days ago • 1 comment

MoMA (2010). Took this picture on a New York getaway with friends that long ago. Shortly after, I had a computer crash and lost it. One of my trip companions recently showed me the pic on her phone, a forgotten share. I was happy to see it again. Loves me a bit of chance I do. #art #TinyJoys #MoMA

submitted 76 days ago • 0 comments

With 50 mil of rain buddied up with wind reaching 120 km/h here in eastern Newfoundland tomorrow, I dug out a rubber boot fabric I designed a few years ago. Might play with it in the studio as the weather passes. Keep the real boots in the porch. #quiltsky #newfoundland #sewday #art #fabricdesign

submitted 80 days ago • 1 comment

Caribou Borealis. Fabric collage background and appliqué for the caribou. I spent too much time in my stash auditioning fabrics for the part of binding. Eventually an ombre batik got tired of being overlooked and volunteered. #quiltsky #collage #art #nature #Newfoundland #wildlifeart #quilting

submitted 82 days ago • 3 comments

“There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in” Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”. #Newfoundland #icebergalley #nature #hiking

submitted 83 days ago • 0 comments

Tibb’s Eve never came. “You’ll get that money back Tibb’s Eve!” Never. In Newfoundland though, Tibb’s Eve actually comes around on Dec. 23rd. Work to be done was done. The first nips of home-brew made for season tasted. Rumour is, even Santa got in on the action. #quiltsky #art #tradition #christmas

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

Grey Jays are resident in Newfoundland and Labrador and don't need an invite to a winter campfire, our "cuppa tea in the woods". Smart enough to know a free morsel might be procured. Paired with some red osier in this fabric collage for decor. Spiced Grey. #quiltsky #collage #birds #thequiltedstash

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

I make small projects and I make larger ones. The important thing I've learned is to keep making, my self thrives on the tacit knowledge it creates. Most work comes from my love and experience in nature, here the crucial seasonal flooding in the Peruvian Amazon. #art #várzea #pyrography #nature

submitted 98 days ago • 0 comments

Sometimes I'll undertake an off the cuff, no pressure project using a variety of techniques to jump-start my creativity. Here a simple pieced background, Fabric painting (Inktense) and some nature inspired stitching served the purpose. #quiltsky #quilting #natureart #creativeflow #crafted #fall

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

Some lath from lobster pots that had long served their purpose become a wooden pieced and framed quilt block. Fishing stages were once painted with red ochre, dories with yellow. Seemed fitting to use those same natural pigments here. #quiltsky #barnquilts #ochre #tradition #art #crafted #quilt

submitted 103 days ago • 2 comments

A career as a biologist gave me a chance to more fully inhabit and observe this one world we share with other species. It included wildlife rehabilitation, as face to face as it could get with wildlife including this orphaned moose calf. #nature #wildlife #animals #conservation

submitted 104 days ago • 1 comment

My niece's quilting inspired this piece of mine. I covered canvas with sand and removed it where I scorched to create the image. The sand brushed away, the surface was coloured with stain made from ochres I'd collected in C. Rica, Peru and Canada. Neotropical Migration. #nature #art #quiltsky #ochre

submitted 105 days ago • 0 comments

He Rowed Up in a Dory. Christmas starts a little earlier in Newfoundland with Tibb's Eve, Dec. 23 being the start of the merrymaking. Even Santa gets in on the action, though he might have to nurse a tiny hangover. #wallhanging #quiltsky #thequiltedstash #digitalprinting #art #quilting #santa

submitted 106 days ago • 1 comment

Ptarmigan, are called "partridges" here in Newfoundland and lingonberries are "partridgeberries". My favourite berry for jam, quite tart but deeply flavourful. Larch (yeah, we call it "juniper") turn a most glorious yellow in the fall. #fabriccollage #quiltsky #quilting #art #nature #birds #quilts

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

White-throated sparrows and serviceberry in fabric collage. Anyone thinking of sexes in binary terms will be surprised this species has four. We know this thanks to the behavioural and DNA research of Elaina Tuttle and Rusty Gosner (2016). #gueerecology #birds #quiltsky #quilting #art #nature

submitted 110 days ago • 2 comments

We've just had a first dusting of snow here in eastern Newfoundland. It was a little later in the season a few years ago when an abandoned bike caught my eye during a beach walk. It later became this painting. #painting #art #nature #inspiration #seasons

submitted 111 days ago • 0 comments

This guy started me out on a series of fabric collages featuring a Newfoundland and Labrador bird and wildflower. The blue flag isis grows along the coast and can often be seen on the islands where puffins nest. To Every Bird There is a Season: Summer Puffin. @quilts @quiltsky @birds @nature @art

submitted 112 days ago • 1 comment

Baccalieu Island has the greatest diversity of seabirds of any Newfoundland colony. From two lighthouses, keepers could watch icebergs drift by. A 'tickle' in Nfld English is the channel between two bits of land. I call this effort "Baccalieu Tickle". #quilt #quilting #birds #puffins #nature #art

submitted 113 days ago • 1 comment

Digital printing lets you convert art and memories to images on fabric. My grandfather called murres "turrs", razorbills "tinkers" and in what is the most charming of Newfoundland English names for birds, the adorable puffins became "hatchet faces". #birds #quilting #newfoundland #art #nature

submitted 114 days ago • 0 comments

One Swaying Being. A commission from a few years ago for the waiting area of a radiology unit. My father would later end up there for treatment. Waiting with my mom, he said "I like that." My mother replied, "That's good, your son painted it." #art #family #faith #queersons #painting #nature

submitted 115 days ago • 0 comments

Before I could sew, I began working out how to paint on fabric. I tried a variety of specialty fabric paints and fabric mediums with watercolour and acrylic paints (incl. liquid and airbrush types). In the end, Derwent Inktense blocks ruled the day. #fabricpainting #birds #quilting #inktense #art

submitted 116 days ago • 0 comments

What appear as white petals on bunchberry flowers are bracts, modified leaves. Instead of four bracts, this one doubled up and shows off its green, leafy nature. And it flowered in Sept., long after all the others in it's patch. And still 100% natural. #queerecology #plants #hiking #diversity

submitted 117 days ago • 0 comments

Quilting, birdwatching, berry picking, dining or simply relaxing and enjoying the view are all possible here. The table is wood reclaimed from the newer pews in the church at purchase. The few original 19th century ones are cherished, even if hard on the buns! #quilting #quilt #birding #happyplace

submitted 118 days ago • 2 comments

Of all the ways to display collage quilts, this has to be one of my favourites. The Grandy Dory is legendary in southern Newfoundland where I grew up. It was used near shore on a daily basis and their "stackability" on schooner decks made them essential offshore. #quilt #quilting #collage #boats

submitted 119 days ago • 0 comments

When I started illustrating nature years ago, I focused on accuracy. To later make art that moved more towards storytelling, I mixed up techniques. I scorched images on wood, paper and even raw cotton and made my own stains, some from ochres to loosely add colour. #birds #art #migration #nature

submitted 120 days ago • 0 comments

Collage quilting lets me to draw on my experience as a wildlife biologist and natural history illustrator. Common in Labrador, Snowy Owls end up in Newfoundland during regular irruption years. So far this year, its the aurora that's been the unexpected northern visitor. #quilting #birds #collage

submitted 121 days ago • 4 comments

Newfoundlanders are inherently resourceful. This outbuilding in Keels is painted in red ochre. White caulking marks the wall, a practical solution to patching the clapboard. The planking re-used to sheet the foundation includes the stern of a small boat. A place held fast with strength and stories.

submitted 123 days ago • 0 comments

The spaces we create and inhabit invariably say a lot about us. There's a bit of me in the books, quilting, antiques, art, gardening and instructional incentive for cocktails in this 19th century church conversion. That might make me a bit of a modern traditionalist. #happyplace #quilting

submitted 126 days ago • 1 comment