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.