So long, see you soon

As you can see, I haven't written for a very long time.  I want to start writing again, but I can't keep up with two blogs.  I also want all my work to be in one place, whether painting, stitching, drawing or assemblage, it's all art.

So I have decided to stop using this blog, and put all my work into the one blog

lynne porter art matters, see link at side bar

I hope to see you over on the other blog.

Coast, a collection

I have been going through my sketchbooks and works over the last week, looking at the work I've done on the theme of 'Coast' over the last ten years.  I've been working on this theme for much, much longer, but en years seems far enough to go back.

I have picked out ten pieces that I feel give an overall view of the work, including several from my present sketchbook.

 
This piece dates to around 2005/6 and is waxed paper with found objects attached.  I still have this and it's companion piece as I liked them so much.

This piece is from 2007 and was one of my assessment pieces for my BTEC Fine Art Diploma.  I made several, some much smaller, and most have been sold.

This was painted in 2013.  It is one of a pair, and I love them both, and have them on my wall.

This is one of several I made in 2014, to sell at various exhibitions I was in that year.

I love making books.  This is one I made in 2014 from two full sheets of watercolour paper that were painted prior to cutting down for the book.

I made this book about a week ago, trying out different binding methods.  I plan to bind some of my waxed photographs into a book, together with other decorated and waxed papers.

This is one of my digitally altered photographs.  I like to print them out onto printmakers or watercolour paper, then dip them into natural beeswax.  It gives a lovely soft golden glow to them, as well as making them semi-transluscent.

These last photographs are all from my sketchbook, made over the last month or so.  The first is a collage of photographs, painted papers and inks.

I have then photographed and altered parts of the first collage, and developed it further.

This last is a stitched sample, inspired from the collage above.  I am trying to capture the meditative  feeling I have when walking along the beach in the early morning.  The repeating rhythm of the waves is very calming.

Another month has gone by

I am still not managing to keep this blog going on anything like a regular basis.  It isn't just the blog, but the stitching as well.  I have finally had a few ideas of what I want to do, but just don't seem to have the time to get to the sewing machine.

Now that I have re-organised the studio I had hoped that there might be room for the sewing machine and a few bits and pieces, but there is never a clear space anywhere.  Having said that, I think it is because I fill any available flat surface with stuff, so I think I will have a clear up and then bring the sewing machine down and set it up on the end of the table, then I can use a couple of my baskets to store the fabrics and threads I need under the table - I will do that today and see if it works.

Hopefully, I will post pictures later this week, or even today!

Hoping to catch up soon

I feel very cross with myself that I am still not keeping up with this blog.  This is partly because I am just not keeping up with my textile work, and partly because I just keep forgetting.

I went to the Foston Studio day today and had a lovely time.  I was working on a fabric collage, inspired by one of my paintings.  I hope to take some photographs over the next few days and post them here.

I also made some fabric paper, or is it paper fabric, I can never remember.  Anyway, starting with a fine scrim background I added fabric medium, then a collage of thin papers, then fabric paint and then a top layer of tissue paper.  I had a few ideas whilst on holiday of using this in my fabric collage work.  I think I would have been better making white or natural sheets of fabric paper instead of colouring them, but they do look lovely and I can easily make more later.

More optimistic

Feeling more optimistic today.  I got some new threads this week, some Madeira Lana variegated and also some Oliver Twists variegated machine threads.  I've been looking at my sketches of gardens and woods and want to get on with more work on water soluble.  I hope I have something to show next week.

Foston studio day

This blog is still very erratic with it's postings,  I will try to get back to posting once a week.

I went to the Foston Studio Day today, to work with Rachel and Joan in the village hall.  It's a nice arrangement as we get to chat about our work and actually do some work as well.

I didn't get very much done today (as usual) and don't feel any nearer to finding my way.  I do feel that I have to keep going and hope that I can find 'my thing'.  I feel that I need to do a lot more work than I am doing at the moment, I do keep saying that but still haven't got into just making samples and not worrying about results.

These are the two samples I did today, trying to capture the semi abstract landscapes I have done in paint.  Neither works as I wanted, but I can see what NOT to do.  I think I will try using mostly paper next time.

Stitched landscape 1

 This was patched with raw seams, then some white gouache painted over to key it together, then the Abaca tissue and charcoal pencil added.  It's too fragmented, too many shapes, too many colours.

Stitched landscape 2

This is the second piece, less pieces, less colours, and it works more.  I don't like the light piece half way down the left-hand side, so will alter this.  I used Madeira Lana thread to stitch it and I really like the effect.  I need to get a black or very dark grey thread to imitate charcoal pencil, or perhaps just use charcoal?

Machine embroidery on water-soluble.

I did this piece last week (should have blogged about it then)  It's a long time since I worked with water-soluble and it's not quite right but I am quite pleased with it.  The trees need to be taller, and I need to get some scale (size and tone) into the middle ground to show recession.

I need to think about how it would be mounted.  I did think about enlarging the original photograph, fading it and printing it onto water-colour paper as a background, or just on a plain white background?  I will have to try several out.  I need to work lots more samples before I get what I want.

Mentoring weekend sadly cancelled

Sadly our mentoring weekend was cancelled as Hilary is ill.  I hope she feels better soon.

Rachel and I got together and tried mentoring each other today, it's a very difficult thing to do.  I'm not sure if either of us felt we were further on.  We did have a nice lunch and a chat and then went to Gallery 49 to have a look at the art, so this mitigated our disappointment somewhat.

I had worked very hard over the last week to resolve my dithering about what I wanted to do.  If I hadn't been planning on going to the mentoring class I wouldn't have done that,  so that wasn't wasted.  I have decided that I will keep trying to emulate my painting style in fabric and thread. Rachel did ask me why I would want to do this, and it's difficult to say, other than that I love working with fabric and thread.

I started to improve in my painting when I started painting a lot (at least 4 paintings, and preferably 7 pieces of artwork a week).  I realise that I won't be able to produce that sort of quantity in textiles, but if I can produce one sample piece each week, then I will be very pleased.

The pieces will have to be small - no bigger than say 12 x 12, and probably a lot smaller.  This will be difficult for me as I usually work much bigger, but if I am going to get work done, then I need to do this.

I have also decided that the work, however loosely based, has to have a figurative source.  I don't want to produce realistic pieces, but I don't want to make patterns either at this point, so the source will be still life, landscape or seascape.  My theme of 'Coast' is going to have to take a back seat for a while, as will the conceptual ideas I have had.

This piece is one I started a couple of weeks ago.  I'm not happy with it, but it's a start in the direction I think I need to go towards.

Still Life, 8 x 8 inch, mixed media

The back ground is painted onto calico, then drawn onto with Inktense pencil and some collage added.  Then I machine stitched the pears completely, and the flowers lightly, then outlined some areas.  I wish I had left some of the painted cloth of the pears showing as the dense stitching makes them come too far forward.

I hope to produce lots of this size of work over the next few months, using different techniques and materials, experimenting until I get to a point when I feel OK with them.

I start the Sketchbook Practise course with Jane Davies on Wednesday, which will be huge amounts of work, so I will be pushed over the next six weeks to get everything done.