A selection of yesterdays - I've been making a variety of sizes this week, including a little wee chap. I call this little face Jack. I don't usually name all the faces these days, but he is Jack to me. I think of them as siblings, despite the faces coming from different times and families. They are all anonymous faces from my collection of vintage photographs.... these and perhaps a few others will be in my shop tomorrow evening...... I've photographed this grouping in front of an oil painting, one of my own from a couple of years ago. Perhaps the yesterdays think of the painting as a theatre backdrop.... perhaps I should make them a little theatre with curtains?..... more soon x
I'm busy stitching and working on new new new ---- and I shall share more soon. Meanwhile, in my tiny patio garden, a few of my auricula collection. April and May are the months of Auriculas. But other flowers are blooming too. I noted this morning the lungwort (pulmonaria) are very popular with bees. Pausing for a moment in the garden, I watched a sequence of bee movements, one bee after the next went to the pale pink and blue flowers..... they did not go to the cherry blossom or the pansies, just the lungwort and in the exact same rhythm..... I love bees and their mysteries....
sketchbook pages - my smaller moleskine book..... I'm working on small drawings with this feel, a hint of red and pattern - I'll share them with you next week.
I've completed three jugs for my Romantic series, so far.... For some time now there's been the idea in mind: combining embroidery with papier mache. How do I do this? These demonstrate different approaches. Each jug vessel is an individual piece with its own personality - there is nothing uniform about them at all. I like the shapes of the handles and how they work in relation to the figures, and I hope you do too. I have further ideas now I want to explore....
Love & embroidery.... a mixed media collage - as others who work with found text and collage may know, it is those chance moments of finding little phrases and juxtapositions of words that can make something really feel just so.... and so it was that I found the snippet of words 'love embroidery' in a book I was leafing through and of course........ this couple's story is all about the entanglement of desire and love and stitches perhaps.....
This is a smaller embroidery portrait.... I like her slight tilt, a little shy perhaps.... but seeking bliss....
It has been a lovely warm day, good for working on papier mache...... I created this mixed media jug featuring a Romantic figure in machine embroidery stitch.... the stitch is not glued to the jug, but has been stitched through linen and paper together, so that the paper surrounding the stitch can be adhered to the jug..... yes? Inspired by my love of ceramics, and being something of a frustrated potter who does not potter.... The jug has been made using pages from DH Lawrence's 'Women in Love' one of my favourite books. I buy copies of books from my local Oxfam shop - and will only use books that I like.
Do not forget to dream (wake up) - a mixed media collage - book format....
Three tiny figures.... quite primitive in style, my approach is to stitch using different speeds/tensions and make use of the 'wrong' or 'bobbin' side..... These are three individual cards and will be offered for sale as smaller little works to frame perhaps.
What shall I sing? A curious figure with distinctive threads to suggest a sense of movement and anticipation..... This is again a smaller collage to frame.
the flux of the ghost life..... this is a smaller textile collage or brooch..... can I say this is my favourite piece yet? Of course these are the first of the series and there will be more to come....
A Happy Monday to you - no mosaic this week - there will be another selection of favourites in a few weeks perhaps.... I don't feel I can let a Monday go by without saying hello here so.... I'm sharing a few photos. Above you see the flower buds of Auricula 'Cuckoo Fair'.... who could not like a flower with such a name? I think it will be a lovely dark bloom. I do like Auriculas, especially the yellows and darks, and those with farina (the grey-white coating that you see here)....
A little while ago I made this teeny tiny heart.... it's all about holding it in your hand again.... it has a gently decadent feel to it, perhaps like my own!:)
Recent figures in my small moleskine.... I've been thinking about, drawing and stitching full-length figures (rather than just head portraits, for example...)..... thinking about the work of Aubrey Beardsley and the rather intense 'outsider art' drawings of Malcolm McKesson, and others.....
a few faces from a little while ago....
I'm attempting to 'loosen up', make my machine work a little more abstract-organic-primitive.... so drawing with my eyes closed helps me with this...... Try drawing with your eyes closed. Or try drawing with your 'other' hand and see how the feeling alters, see the mark-making and see if this might lead somewhere..... I got into drawing with 'the other hand' via a writer's workshop exercise. The participants were asked to draw a fairytale character with their non-writing or 'other hand' and then write about the character they had managed to draw.... it was a revealing way into writing.....
a sketch from my larger moleskine..... yes I am attempting to draw figures wearing a little less.... perhaps I am letting my guard down a little these days, I just want to challenge myself to make drawings that are revealing and explore different aspects of the psyche / self......
courtier - this is a new work, part of a series I am currently developing = 'messengers'. These small works are challenging me to consider the physical lines and energy that make a figure. I am considering how to say the strengths and fragility of a figure with a flow of line and directness. For a while I've felt slightly disenchanted with how my stitch work was becoming just so intensely delighted with detail and colouring in - not that I felt it was wrong but I have had that need to follow a different energy path for a while, if that makes sense... I hope so. I'm working now with a very simple selection of thread and fabric and hue. I want these messengers to have their say, without me pushing it too much.
but love is freedom - a smaller mixed media piece, could be worn as a brooch....
1. Silk painted pebbles, 2. porch handsewing, 3. watercolor, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Untitled, 7. Untitled, 8. Ivan, 9. Pods, 10. Le tissage de la forêt, 11. A stroll at dusk, 12. For Easter, 13. papperdress, 14. right thing art quilt, 15. wips, 16. The Lighthouse_30.3.10, 17. 3 faces, 18. sing, 19. girl with object1, 20. petal bowl
I so enjoy painting abstractly..... I've worked with greys and a hint of yellow before now but I go back to it..... again..... My daughter said: 'it's like four seasons of weather'.... work in progress, a little painting now and then...... I want to work much bigger some time - I keep saying that. I will do it soon.....
First of April.....
fourth month of the year.... already..... we have little white violets growing in the grass here and around. I noticed them just flowering....
