Thread painting on khadi paper

Not in the conventional sense, of densely stitched threads covering the whole surface of a cloth, done either by hand or by machine, but touches of thread, over watercolour paintings.

Stitched and wrapped, with two different weights and colours of variegated thread.

Wrapping vertically only with one weight of variegated thread

Wrapping horizontally with one weight of thread, coloured by drawing through the watercolour paints

Horizontal and vertical wrapping with one weight of thread coloured by drawing through the watercolour paints.

Lots to explore further here.

An embroidered pebble for a friend

 

July journal, seedhead

The journal July is the first of three on the theme of seeds.  Stencilled fabric, then experimenting with different weights of threads.

Finished

Life drawing

Two sessions of life drawing as part of the course at Mary Ward have been scary, exhilarating, confusing, frustrating and rewarding in equal measure. We drew two different models, both beautiful young women, in a series of 3 minute and 5 minute poses, clothed and naked, with and without props. All A1 size with charcoal.

The clothed figure was the most difficult to capture

This one could be rendered in stitch at some point.

Lots of work needed to capture faces, hands and feet, but at least they don’t look like aliens.

Journal quilts - talk to the trees

The journal quilts this year are to be 8 x 10 inches, with the first four containing a piece of purple, no less than 1/2 inch square, the second four containing s piece of orange and the last four containing a piece of green.

A walk in the Isabella Plantation a few months ago was the inspiration for my first four. It is many years since I have visited, and besides the improvements to disabled access and the better paths, I was struck by how many of the trees, even rather ordinary looking ones, not just the ancient oaks, have numbered tags.  I hope this isn’t indicative of how worried the parks are about the state of these trees.

Using fabric i already have, ( tray-dyed, repurposed linen sheet; Procion P painted cotton, dyed pelmet Vilene) this series was the result.  Called “Counting the trees"

BIG drawings

This week’s drawing challenge was to take a detail from the small drawings of last week, and then to draw this detail on a piece of A2  ( I think!) paper, using a variety of marks, with either charcoal or graphite stick.  Gosh this was difficult.

First effort

Second effort

3rd effort

Interestingly enough, the tutor thought the first one was the best, but I liked the third one most.

White on white

Two striking clothing contrasts at the V and A this week, both with white as the prominent colour.

Burqa from 1850

The tear-down of the wedding dress exhibition. 

Tones and tantrums

More tonal painting, which was very difficult today as the light kept changing in the studio.  How those contestants coped doing their "en plain air" paintings on the Great British Paint Off  I do not know.  Three vases, each with their own challenges.

The first where I had to force myself to accept that it was not symmetrical and that there was a shiny surface behind it

The second where I could not get the neck proportions right or the sides symmetrical and just went with what was on the page after about 10 attempts

and the third a glass vase which I am quite pleased with.

I've noticed that all of the tops of my vessels tend to slope down on the left hand side, so I'll need to consciously try to overcorrect this.  I wonder if it is something to do with having a dominant left eye ( which I found out the one and only time I went clay pigeon shooting - disastrous!)

 

Glad to be outside

Horrendous chest infection recently left me panting for breath at the slightest exertion, ( this was really the week to buy my own set of yoga blocks!)  so I missed some glorious sunrises on frosty mornings.  I did however manage to get to see some of these.

Last Morley session, still life composition and drawing with tone

The end of my second term of drawing instruction, and I can now pick up a 2B pencil without hyperventilating.  These classes have only increased my retrospective disappointment at the standard of art teaching at my senior school.  ( At the time, I just sat there, baffled by the whole idea of getting something representative down on paper). 

This session was in two parts, the first on composition, using cut out shapes in two shades of paper to analyse pleasing and discordant placement of these shapes.

We then took some objects from around the studio, placed them in an interesting composition, and  then drew them, using only tone.  The result is below, A4 size.  Apart from  a couple of wonky lines, this is light years away from where I started this course.  Thank you Steve.