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

hearts for PassionART

I roughed up a heart using a piece of embroidery I had been playing with - a way of using a sample .

The back photographs so much better than the front!

and the photo doesn't do justice to the lovely yellow green and the fact that it looks good with the blue...

maps

I have been reading about voyages and journeys across the pacific which lead me on to looking at maps and then on to ancient maps. Love the muted colours that they are now. Wonder whether they were really vibrant when first painted?



Thanks to google I found this wonderful map from 1581. Many of the ancient maps feature Jerusalem. Here the holy city sits in the centre of the world.

I am intrigued by visual detail - especially when you consider the fine line that would be hand etched and painted. Here is a close up of the merman and fishes swimming in the sea - and the galleon too.

The other thing that strikes me is that of many of the ancient maps have a mandala sort of effect - they have a centre which leads the eye in and out and they are calm or calming. I love the way the ocean is captured so simply with black ink lines and limited colour. This is one thing that I will sample in fibre in a couple of different ways

There will be more on maps - I will post some drawings and fibre samples as I keep researching.

tuesday night is sketch club

new pastels

Been playing with new pastels and did the following drawing . On the right is a poem by Judith Wright called Request to a Year. The poem is about her great great grandmother who was an artist. The last lines reads:

Year, if you have no Mother's day present planned
Reach Back and bring me the firmness of her hand.