oil slick

the last day of spring brought some rain and lifted the oil in the tarmac

more painting and stitching

I have been working on my canvas piece - it is slowly coming together. The colours don't quite zing in this photo. I plan to put gold foil in the empty squares in the blue block. I have started working to the right of the yellow block and will have to unpick as the co lours aren't right!




Painting has helped on the colour theory front. My apricots look a little unprepossessing at the moment but the beauty of acrylics is I don't have to unpick but can paint over!

I learn more about colour every day :-)

painting and stitching

started stitching again - inspired by colours and designs of a semi abstract painting I did in art class - one of a pair - to be one of three if I get another canvas

this is one of the pair - not the inspiration piece - I will post that when I finish the embroidery



I have really enjoyed painting these abstract distractions. below is one of triptych. will add them all another time when the light is better and i set up a tripod (rather than a tissue box) to photograph them


Cheers all

annie's roses and Albury Bot Gardens

still life

the month is at an end ...

it has been a busy month - been to painting lessons and was very pleased with this effort - every time I see water I want to record it it. I finally got an idea of how to do it in thread - though the sample below is small and rather close up I was happy with what I achieved and will have yet another go at an embroidered water scene.

Also been to sketch club off and on and came home and worked up a sketch with more charcoal and pastel.

The month was marred by the death of my daughter's kitten Chi Chi - who went missing and found in the back lane - hit by a car . We were/are all very sad. Chi Chi now lies underneath a newly planted azalea bush n the garden.

heat seeker

The cold weather is affecting all of us .. my daughter's kitten snuck into my office and fell asleep on my lap top. I am careful to close the door now if I am not ready to shut down.

Sketch club is pretty much a constant in my life - I am not Leonardo but each time I go I do a better drawing. (Of course I only post the more reasonable ones I do.) And I love the fact that I can crop the photo so that I have something proportionate to the ground that it is on. I seemed to get mostly back views for the longer poses last night - which means I had to work on shadow to give contrast/form. One day I post a first and last drawing of the night.


There is discussion on the radio at the moment to the effect that anyone can became good at something if they practise for 10,000 hours. As I tend to only draw when I go to sketch club I have a lot of hours to clock up!

According to the fellow speaking it is important to try and extend your limitations and push yourself to the outer limits of your boundary (and change the molecular structure of the brain). The second important thing was to have rigorous critical feedback.

I have enrolled in acrylic painting class and had one enjoyable lesson. Its the first time I have really picked up a paint brush with the intention of doing something other than a background was for a journal or paint fabric on which to embroider. Jan, our teacher , set up a wonderful still life of simple lush primary colours and round shapes - all I could think was what a wonderful idea for an embroidered work! So I won't throw away my painting - or at least I will take a photo of it before I do - so I have a resource to call on when I get around to doing that.

I am clocking up my hours with hand stitching - my current embroidery project is a play with blue, grey and creamish threads on canvas using limited stitch types to create a mandala effect.

My stitching soul mates (stitchers plus) have our works hanging at Embroiderers' Guild HQ exhibtion spece this month. We had a preview evening on 29.7 and it has taken me this long to recover from the work up to it! It was a great evening. A couple of photos of my work are below. Click on the Stichers Plus link in the side bar to see more of the exhibition:

exhibition

Been busy readying for an exhibition in August - here is our flyer

birthday cakes

Made by my niece - go girl - they looked fantastic!

rock pool

ANIMAL INSPIRATION

Inspired by a visit to the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. Would love to do more with those stripes. Will doa couplw of more drawings and see where it goes.

drawing, again

Finally back to drawing again after a bit of a break from sketch club. Actually came home and worked on this a bit more

design wall

got bits and pieces of unfinished works up on the design wall this weekend. Will look to finishing them for Stiches Plus exhibtion at the Embroiderers' Guild NSW August this year

fruits of mother's day

Spent part of Mother's day and the preceding day with my son who expressed an interest in making a beetle - big step for a sporting (union) man to take - love his beetle with attitude. I couldn't have a better present

Horizons - done and dusted

Spent 3 exhausting but satsifying days at the annual Embroiderers' Guild NSW members exhibition at Crows Nest. Still can't belive my eyes - it was a wonderful show - well done all.

three-dimensional embroidery

Borrowed this book by Jane Edmonds from the Guild library and am keen to try a a couple of techniques she talks about - a great book that is not full of projects but rather talks about design, method and finishing techniques. It fits with my current working themes of maps and patterns from the sea and shore and I am looking forward to exploring the themes and the book in tandem.

another month has flown by

Its getting scary how fast time goes ... at least time stops flying by when I stop and stitch - to me its like tuning yourself inward and zooming in on the fabric , thread and needle going in and out ... another form of meditation.

I had two glorious days meeting with like minds this week end: Sticthers Plus on Saturday and MAPS on Sunday. You can have a peek here to see what was happening in show and tell at Stitchers Plus. MAPS was a bit of talk fest and planning day for a coming exhibition in 2012.

In the interim it is count down for the Embroiderers' Guild members' exhibition which takes place at the end of the month. And then Stitchers Plus is having a retrospective exhibition at the Embroiderers' Guild HQ in Concord West in August. I am working on completing some of those nearly done pieces that have been languishing in the work box.

In the meantime I have been plugging away at a small canvas design using a motif from a tiled veranda floor at Yarralla House in Concord.

But when I look at the photo I realise that I have mixed up the two flowers motifs - I have an eight petalled flower with rounded edges I guess I had the rose garden in mind too - I have run with yellow and pink flowers - the tiles started the thought and the thought morphed.

where does the time go?

Time has flown since I last added anything to the blog. My new job and the Sydney humidity has sapped my energy somewhat. No much sewing has been done.

Still, I have been thinking and playing with ideas for a new long term embroidery project which involves maps and a spin off of the concept of maps. Been looking at birds eye maps of the past and how to do an embroidered map of an area I enjoy walking in and spin off ideas t6hat have come from it. It is all in the mind as the saying goes and won't commit in blog world about what I plan to do - but here are a couple of photos which may yet be used as an inspiration for some wall quilts.

In the interim I have been going to life drawing classes again and caught up with sketch club a few times ... and broken a toe so getting about is a tad difficult.

muse

Started a new job in mid jan and it has been full on. Between that and the hot weather i have had little energy and works have been progressing slowly. I started a life drawing class on Monday night and sketch club started again on Tuesday. Sadly didn't get to the latter as a committee meeting ran later than I hoped.

I finished a little play embroidery - canvas work - which arose as i saw a pattern which I thought would do well as water. it came up a treat. I will put photo up once I have found a matt board to suit it.

I have been continuing to play with faces - the photo with this post is one which I have incorporated into a frame using the limited photo program I have. It was fun to play with the program - change the colours of the frame (and the frame) - gave me too many ideas for embroidery. I have a couple of small faces which I have drawn which please me. Might even and try and do an icon like frame with gold work...

Really must stop side tracking myself when I have so little time. Still looking at maps and jumping from one stream of thought to another about what I might do to for an exhibtion late next year. Stitches Plus is exhibiting at the Embroiderers' Guild in August so need to consolidate (and finish) a few pieces. The Guild is holding an exhibition 29 April to 2 May and I am helping with that. I really need to stay a little focused on what I do and not keep extending myself ... but is is all so interesting.

Cheers

When music sounds, all that I was I am

Still playing with pencils and paint - I love the immediacy of it. I haven't forsaken stitching but it is a m ore time consuming process. The small cross stitch I started as a Christmas project is nearly done - provided I stick to the kit instructions but I know I want to add a quite a bit of surface embroidery so it will be another couple of weeks before it is done.

I have posted a pic in the side bar of a drawing/painting in progress. It was always going to be a girl singing (the original drawing is posted below) - in googling poetry I came across a poem - Music by Walter de la Mare - which has sort of influenced where it is going:

When music sounds, gone is the earth I know,
And all her lovely things even lovelier grow;
Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees
Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies.

When music sounds, out of the water rise
Naiads whose beauty dims my waking eyes,
Rapt in strange dreams burns each enchanted face,
With solemn echoing stirs their dwelling-place.

When music sounds, all that I was I am
Ere to this haunt of brooding dust I came;
And from Time's wood's break into distant song
The swift-winged hours, as I hasten along.

I guess you can tell I was particularly struck by the line When music sounds, all that I was I am . I could elaborate at this point ... but I won't - it will mean something to you or not.

Cheers

welcomed on the new year drawing "girlie" faces

First I practised drawing features:

Then I had a go putting it all together and ended up with this little goth girl . I thought I might make a collage with frog prince

When I put pain on she turned into something different - I might still add the frog

Another face is about to break out in song. I have torn her out of the book and pasted her to a canvas board. She will have to wait for a while before I add paint etc. Will look though my neglected sheet music and add some:

I also have spent time looking at maps and thinking where I can take them with canvas embroidery. This is my favourite map from 1581:

Cheers all