Journey of a Creative Spirit

My favourite images of Lanzarote

2012-01-31T06:29:00.003-08:00

Lanzarote, a set on Flickr.

Favourite images of my island home

Project 5: Painting and Printing

2011-10-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Stage 1: Reviewing the fabric collection

Muslin samples

For one sample I dyed 2 pieces of muslin in a bath of walnut ink & added a little yellow tempura in an attempt to get an aged looking piece of fabric. One of the pieces I rinsed in soapy water (second from left) most of the colour went down the drain! and the other I rung out without washing it (right). I hung them both out on the line and ironed them when dry.

Hand-made paper cloth

I collated a lot of fabric samples with very different qualities: The surface of a material can inform the whole process ... so in effect the dialogue of my sample had already started before I begun to work on it. I chose:

Hessian – from the Jute plant, with its rough, durable and open weave texture
Calico- inexpensive, unbleached fabric made from cotton, with an equal weft and warp, easy to paint and block print on
Scrim- finely woven lightweight fabric (medical gauze resembles scrim, but it is more loosely woven). Scrim and gauze can be used creatively in fiber art projects
Cotton/polyester –black: smooth strong surface, not very absorbent, ideal for block printing with quick drying thick paint
White organza – ephemeral & light, many paints go straight through it, needed thick paint & quick drying process. It also goes through the printer!
Silk- soft, seductive feel
Eco-dyed muslin – smooth & soft and a good painting surface
100% cotton (recycled shirt) – smooth flat surface & close weave
Felt – tightly packed, non-woven surface & very absorbent
Hand-made paper cloth - made from a variety of textiles /papers

Stage 2 Selecting design ideas

El Castillo, Teguise, Lanzarote

When out with my sketchbook this week I came across some dehydrated, but unusual tulip-shaped weeds growing on Mount Guanapay in front of a castle known as El Castillo de Santa Bárbara. At this time of year, before the rains of November begin, the sun has burned almost any plant life to crisps and only the hardiest of plants have survived.

As soon as I got home I could hardly wait to make a printing block out of polystyrene and played around with colour combinations in my sketchbook. Finally I stamped the image onto a fabric sample to test the idea.

Fabric Sample

I have also been busy making a new lino-cut of some Medieval bench ends I copied from a book about Launcells the parish church of St Swithin in Cornwall, with its 60 or so ancient pews.

Stage 3 Printing and painting on fabric

Hand-made block print

Print from lino-cut

This process of printing and painting has been a rather long one, indeed far longer than the 10 hours advised in the coursework. I have found it much more difficult than I thought, as I tested a range of fabrics for their suitability. Also paint colours look different in the testing stage on paper than they do on the surface of a fabric, so I have had a lot of fabric experiments that didn't work out.

Hessian block print - but better image on the masking tape!

Mixed techniques and overlays

This week-end I took the jetFX image transfer paper I bought in May. My first test was to use white muslin and a black & white image I had created in Photoshop. I followed the instructions on the pack, but the image didn't transfer. Next I read up on the process and made a few adjustments. This time I used 100% white cotton and I printed an image in colour, I used a hotter iron and a piece of tempered glass as a flat surface. After ironing for far longer than was advised on the instructions the image still hadn't transferred properly. I have left the sample to cool overnight and will see what tomorrow brings to my inspiration...

My final sample

Project 4:Experiments with printing & painting

2011-09-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Stage 2 Experimenting with techniques

My first experiment after making a printing surface and a printing pad, was to dye a piece of white calico using a natural dye process (called cold-bundled Eco prints). This involved collecting dried leaves from my garden and strips of red onion skins. I laid them on the cloth, sprayed them with vinegar water, wrapped the bundle tight in a roll and left it for 2 weeks. I then rinsed in warm soapy water and sun-dried. Then I tore the piece into quarters, and soaked one quarter in a walnut ink bath and the other in a coffee bath, leaving me with 2 spare pieces. These dyeing ideas were not on the list of experimental techniques, but I did want to come up with some interesting surfaces to use in this section.

Dyed cloth trials hanging out to dry

Block printing and Relief Stamps

Selection of hand-made blocks & reliefs

Trial block prints & relief's on a variety of surfaces

Block printing sample on calico (left) and paper (right)

hand moulded blocks and reliefs

Masks

Card masks

Stencils

Cardboard stencil

Overlaid stencil images

Card stencil/mask

Hand Painting

Hand painted sample on calico

Silk Painting

I used a small silk painting kit that came with 4 small pots of iron-fix paint. I experimented with the background colour first to see how the paint works on silk. I dampened the silk and created a violet and blue background.

Using a pencil I marked out a simple design from an idea in my sketchbook. Then I used a silver gutta. The free flow of gutta surprised me, forcing me to work quicker than anticipated. I thought later it would have been better to make the marks free-hand as I fell short of the pencil outline.

I left this to dry and in the meantime re-read the course notes and familiarised myself with some of the silks and paints available. Anyway two of the paints were an unusable, and as I cant take the kit back to the shop I felt I had to start again. I ordered more paints on the internet. However I was eager to press on with the piece I started and I used a little diluted acrylic paint, mixing and matching to make a finished piece of work.

Canterbury Cathedral

2011-08-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

When I think deeply I need to be horizontal ... and there is so much to look at and contemplate in Canterbury Cathedral. Exhausted after my touring around, I lay on a stone bench in the cloisters staring up amongst the cobwebs.

Ceiling faces at Canterbury

Lantern Vault of Bell Harry Tower

In the cathedral shop I bought my mother a postcard, she is in her 80's and will never be able to travel as far as Kent due to a health problem, but she has a passion for anything to do with pilgrimage. This lovely stained glass picture of pilgrims was bursting with medieval colour so I bought one for myself too, aiming to create a medieval colour palette. Then I took my sketchbook into a Spanish Tapas bar nearby and ordered a reviving glass of chilled amontillado with a big chunk of freshly made tortilla.

Llandudno: Exhibition of African Artist Romuald Hazoumé

2011-08-30T03:38:00.000-07:00

I could no more tear my eyes away from Romuald Haoumè's work than if I was two car spotlights with the switch jambed. Mostyn Art Gallery in Llandudno is hidden behind a Victorian terracotta brick façade, next door to the Post Office. It is a 5 galleried contemporary space showcasing modern art. There is a coffee bar on the first floor and a shop selling local artists work, art books and magazines on the ground floor.

Romuald Hazoumè is one of Africa’s leading contemporary artists. He works in sculpture, installation, photography and video, using discarded items and plastic petrol cans in particular. His infrequent paintings incorporate earth and natural pigments, as well as acrylic and oil paints. Luckily I was allowed to take as many photographs as I chose because I found his work inspiring and like to embrace his recycling themes in my own work.

One of the reasons for my visit was to see the Embroidered car door by Lithuanian textile artist Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene in the shop front window display. Intriguing juxtapositions! the work of the male-female and metal-stitch.

Project 3: Stage 6 : Research Point

2011-07-30T05:25:00.000-07:00

Stage 6: Research Point: My San Blas Mola

In 1986 I was invited into a palm and bamboo thatched hut in San Blas and on lines of string, above the floor, along with rolled up hammocks, were hung boldly coloured hand sewn textile pieces or (molas).

Some of the molas were sewn into long strips (approx 25 x 10 cm), others were rectangles (approx 43 x 50cm). The woman, who was a tiny 4' 8" indicated the clothes she wore; small rectangles of mola created a short sleeve, slightly larger rectangles made a front or the back of her blouse. A young girl sat outside the hut (who was cuddling a baby piglet) was wearing a short skirt made of two molas sewn together. I had seen these curious textile pieces earlier that day when 3 Kuna women came aboard the cruise ship to sell their wares. Passengers were buying them to make into cushion covers or to frame and hang on the walls. I bought 4 very different molas direct from the women of the village for 8$ each.

The pattern and colour on each mola is unique, the designs are of geometric patterns, abstracted animal and human figures, flowers and plants, fish and sea creatures, boats and marine ephemera, spiritual and Islamic emblems, ceremonial ideas, dreams, or comic and political figures. Inside the hut I saw magazine pages pinned up onto the thatch with drawing pins, I assume some of the images made their way into the design process.

This mola I have had in my home since that trip. I have had it framed and hung on the wall next to a second one of a very different design, and they are both created in a similar manner from multiple layers of coloured cotton. A base layer of thicker material is overlaid with 5 or more layers of finer cotton fabric, some of the layers are cut or slashed to reveal colours below, with a design particular to the artist. Each cut is folded under and hand sewn in a tiny running stitch.

This particular image shows five figures, men or women it is difficult to identify. The figures do not dress like the Kuna, but are wearing what appear to be skirts, hats and necklaces. The three foreground figures have disproportionate shaped earlobes and all the figures but one are holding items that could be musical instruments. At the forefront, two larger figures on either side have one distorted hand each that hold aloft what look like clubs. I guess that this piece could be ceremonial of some sort. The Kuna believe all living beings as well as inanimate objects possess “spirit”.

My sketch of the San Blas mola

The hats the figures wear are of two types, one is a double pointed hat and the other a more traditional shape, almost like an admirals hat. All the hats are embellished with tiny chain stitches in lines and swirls. There is some lettering above and below the images which is also worked in reverse applique “CAMUIBURUIDAN” “ALTPCOS” “TAIACIONALMS” NIATUPU” Names of the artist? A version of Colombian Spanish? I dont know

All the work is hand stitched using reverse appliqué in tiny blind, hem, running or chain stitch. The thread matches each of the different colours of the fabric and the few embroidery stitches are worked on top of the cotton in contrasting colours. There is no evidence of machine stitching. Yet it is interesting that the Kuna women were offered treadle sewing machines in the 1970's, but they were rejected after a short trial period.

I like the piece because that visit was a high point during my working life aboard the cruise ship, and I gave up the job soon after. It is a bold and colourful textile piece, and at the time I had never seen that type of work. I also admire the artists working in primitive conditions to produce detailed work to sell, to bring cash into their hard working, mostly illiterate community. The work is stitched by women and children and those males unable to work (There are a number of albinos among the Kuna who cannot go out in the harsh sunlight of these Pacific islands)

I understand some of the geometric patterns originated when these were tribal people and used to ceremonially paint their bodies. I will perhaps never know the narrative of the lovely piece that I have, and it adds to the appeal to linger on it each time I pass it in my hallway and reflect on its deeper meaning.

San Blas is a group of islands in the Pacific inhabited by the Kuna Indians.The little I know about the Kuna was from a talk given by John Mann, who spent 24 years amongst the Kuna islanders. He used to give lectures to the passengers and crew on cruise ships going through the area.

Exhibition: Esto va de ilustracion, Tias Church, Lanzarote

2011-07-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

Esto va de ilustracion: 1 July 2011

Location: Erminita de San Antonio, Art Room, Tias, Lanzarote

The words describing this exhibition translate as 'an urban and non-elitist project'! H'm it sounded like these were works by young people, possibly street artists and I was hoping to learn from those working in very different ways.

The artists displaying their work here hail from Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Madrid, Brazil, Barcelona and the United Kingdom. This is the smallest exhibition space I have ever seen, but the interior of simple whitewashed walls with good lighting was a lovely display space unobstructed by interior fittings. The curator, Andonay Bermudez introduced himself and spoke to me in English. He exuded passion for the artists, and sought to give recognition for the techniques of drawing, collage and street art. One of his aims was to make art accessible and affordable to a wide audience on the island, particularly the young. The artists themselves had dropped their prices for this project, because this is an island with a lot of unemployment and those in full time jobs earn a lot less than the rest of Europe. All the artists for this project were under 30 years of age.

Theo Firmo, La Famila

I liked Theo Firmo's line drawings on graph paper and old exercise books. None of his works was more than A3 size. It reminded me that one can draw on almost any surface. The artist http://www.theofirmo.com/cv_eng.html has a background in linguistics and semiotics. And yes, I had to look up that last word, it means the study of signs and symbols.

To my mind, the most striking images in the building, as well as the largest, were Rowan Newton's work “Stuck” and “Bling”. His works were spray painted onto cardboard, he then draws on top of the painting adding his unique images. Andonay Bermudez told me that Rowan had created one of his nude images on the opening night in about 30 minutes! However, prior to this he had repeatedly used this particular image of a woman for some time and knew the shapes and colours he wanted to use very well. He uses bold flashes of colour, with paint spray and acrylics and the drip falls and dribbles on the work add a distinct texture. There is no question of who's style this is once you've seen his work. There is a simplicity to the images that is attractive with bold colours and simple shapes. Rowan has had numerous exhibitions in the UK since finishing his degree in 2004, but he has also exhibited in New York. Jeanine Saba, of Diplomat Magazine described his work as Alice in Wonderland meets Jackson Pollock. http://www.soulfulgallery.com/artists/profile/Rowan_newton/

Rowan Newton, Bling

I was so taken by Rowan's brave colourful style that the next morning, I took several images and instead of spray painting. I dipped my fingers in my acrylic paints and quickly applied the bold colours onto paper. I am keen to use these ideas on fabric as bold expressive use of colour and loosen my style a little. I always learn something from these exhibitions.

Tutor Comments on Assignment 1

2011-07-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

Overall Comments

You have made a very promising start to the module Diane. You have demonstrated your ability to express visual ideas, using appropriate materials, techniques and processes and there is evidence of a confident approach to experimentation. Your learning log entries show me that you are able to take a critical stance to your work and make suggestions as to how you might develop your ideas further. I am also pleased to see that you are actively engaging with the work of others by visiting museums and galleries and commenting perceptively on what you see. I look forward to receiving your next assignment. Well done.

Feedback on assignment

Project 1: Making Marks

You have explored an impressive range of media and processes in this first project. I felt that some of the most successful experimentation was that which combined contrasting media and exploited the different qualities of each to produce interesting and sometimes unusual outcomes. I really liked the way you used crepe paper as a surface for some of your samples. This gave you a ready made absorbent texture which allowed the bleeding and spreading of colour in a pleasing and irregular way. You have also discovered the potential of sgraffitto and the scratching into the surface of paint and wax crayon yielded rich results. The marks you made were very stitch like. They will be a good point of reference for the future I think.

It was interesting to see how certain experiments e.g. bleach on paper, resembled more traditional textile techniques. These were very reminiscent of African batik processes. Could you maybe try this approach on fine cloth? Similarly, the overlaying of acrylics/PVA on bubble wrap, particularly the bronze and green, reminded me of devore velvet where the surface of the fabric is partially burnt away to reveal the base layer.

In the block prints sheet, you discovered the value of repeating a simple shape. You could try just using the edge of a piece of stiff card and printing a series of lines. By moving the print slightly each time, you can build up a good flowing rhythm.

I liked your idea of using an illustration from the Book of Kells. I think this could go further. How about scanning the image and then slicing it up and re arranging the sections? I think you would create some intriguing and more abstract shapes.

Your experimentation with textural marks moved you in yet another direction. The volcanic rock and the sea anemone were both good starting points to take further. Your use of mark making to illustrate textural qualities was well judged and created very different visual effects. With the latter, you showed how, by simply changing the medium, you can create quite a different feel to a sample. This was reinforced by your interpretation of the Canarian flowers. The collage, with its strong shapes was punchy and solid. This contrasted nicely with the delicate linear interpretation in wax crayon, which was feathery and light. I loved the scratchy crayon sheet. The colour blending was subtle. Do you know the work of Alice Kettle? These wax samples would lend themselves to a similar interpretation with free machine embroidery.

Project 2: Developing marks into stitch/making textures

I loved your fabric samples sketchbook! Just by looking through it, I could see your confidence grow. This is a great way of storing your samples in one place for future reference. The only limitation is size, but for samples, it has the added bonus of restricting the time you spend on each-no bad thing sometimes! I can see why you chose binca for some of the hand stitching. I was a little concerned at first that this might constrain your stitching but you proved me wrong when you produced the flowing spirals on p4.

Subsequent samples gave you good insights into the value of restricting your colour palette and stitch range e.g. the turquoise stitched sample. Very often, less is more. This was reinforced by the recycled red patterned sample inspired by kantha work. What a lovely piece. The simple square stitched into the overlaid fabrics was just right in terms of the weight of the threads and stitches you chose. Well done. The reverse appliqué based on your canarian flower image was also an interesting piece. I liked the way you linked the use of the heavier yarn in proportion to the larger scale of the image. The colour for me was a little too strident though.

Your layered collagraph was a beautifully executed piece. A good example of how you can return to an earlier sample and re work it. You were right to take the decision to stop after overlaying a couple of layers. Any more, and you would have lost the intriguing glimpses of the collagraph underneath.

I also liked the lizard inspired sample. The denim background worked surprisingly well and the choice of threads and stitch gave just the right scaly feel. You were also very restrained with your use of coloured beads. It’s all too easy to get carried away and the temptation is often to use them just because you have them. Here, they enhanced and complemented the stitching.

The final two samples were very different. I feel that the most successful was the collaged red/orange/mustard bondaweb sample. Your choice of similarly weighted hand and machine stitches worked very well in tandem with each other. The addition of a small amount of complementary electric blue made the reds sing out. Lovely! In contrast, I felt that the volcanic rock sample was less successful. The yarn chosen for the outline seemed too thick and clumsy and it was very bulky for the French knots. Could you consider re working this sample on your machine? The shapes had a lot going for them and I liked the way the line flowed from one shape to another so potential there for another piece I think.

Sketchbook

You made good use of observed images and secondary source material such as photographs to help you in your experimental work. It would be helpful to me if you could cross reference this maybe on the back of the work you send me. I am happy to look at the images on your blog site; the cross referencing just alerts me to the fact that there is a related image.

Learning logs/critical essays

This is a comprehensive and thoughtful appraisal of your progress to date. I was also very pleased to see that you have documented visits to exhibitions etc. and thought about how these might influence your own work in the future. Keep up the good work.

Project 4: Developing Design Ideas

2011-07-05T02:29:00.000-07:00

Stage 1: Creating spacial illusions

Researching for this exercise I discovered that no artist can agree on the correct placement of elements in a design. However, the consensus seemed to indicate that too much unity without variety is boring on the eye and too much variation can be see as chaotic.

The 6 basic ways to create an illusion of space are linear perspective; the closer the image the more detail, placement, overlapping, value and colour, manipulating size.

Line

Mark Rothko tried to eliminate lines in his works by blurring his edges so that they appeared to hover in space and Jackson Pollock blurred his lines by tangling them in a complexity of swirls. Clearly adding interest to your lines is important in creating successful artwork.

Stage 2: Looking for shapes for drawing

I chose images from my collection from the list below and made different arrangements of shapes in my sketchbook after looking through a 5 x 5 cm viewing frame.

1. Photograph of tables and chairs in San Marco, Venice
2. Images from the Book of Kells & the St Teilo Gospels
3.' Leger' a painting by Kandinsky
4. 'Pez Rana' a painting by César Manrique
5. a map of Venice canals
6. a photograph of a gondola
7. Skyline & sketches of Venice

Experimenting with different shaped viewing frames

Sketches using design ideas inside the shape

painting shapes using colour

Shapes from Book of Kells within frame of a domestic iron
using walnut ink and black crayon frottage

Stage 3: Selecting from drawings

Felt-tip-pen texture sketch on walnut-ink wash

Colour painting with fingers

Collage using a design from Cèser Manrique's 'Pez Rana'

What are my thoughts about the drawings I did for Stage 3?

Altering visual sources to create design ideas has been an exciting episode. Before this course started, I had many half finished ideas that have ended up either in the bin or tucked away somewhere, due to my normal style of jumping right in without reference to hardly any sources. This resulted in work I didn't quite know what to do with, as sometimes I worked on a big scale as the muse took me.

It is the planning stages that have been helpful, as has working on small drawings and trying out various colour schemes on paper or in my sketchbook first. It has helped my coursework at this level to visit and study artworks in many genres at exhibitions both in Lanzarote, on a recent trip to Venice and galleries in North Wales and Kent.

Were you able to use your drawings successfully as a basis for further work?

I enjoyed having some pointers to enable me to see different ways to manipulate drawings. I can now appreciated how to distort, transform and enhance further ideas using prompts from the course manual. Using mirrors has given me one working method and I pushed the idea further using some Japanese techniques to give me some very powerful images. I look forward to pushing these ideas further in fabric and stitch or trying alternative materials and techniques on paper.

Stage 4 Developing design ideas

sketch of cafe table and chair in San Marco, Venice

Exaggerating the shapes on paper with a thick felt tip pen and cutting them out

Rearranging the shapes with colour

Gallerie dell Accademia: Venice

2011-07-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

Venetian Art of 14-11th century

La Accademia is 3 former religious buildings; it became the city's Art School in 1807 after Napoleon and his army suppressed all the churches and monasteries in Venice. Church leaders fled and were forced to find a home for their art works. It is now known as one of Europe's finest specialist collections. It houses 24 galleries and could take 2 to 3 days of intense viewing. Boo hoo I only had one morning! I had to forgo pouring over Titian and Tintoretto for any length of time because I wanted to see Room 1 which contains early works of art that bridge the gap between mosaics and panel painting.

The Coronation of the Virgin
by Paolo Veneziano.

Venetian painting almost started with Paolo Veneziano, whose signed works date from the 1320s. Paolo aimed at the refinement of Italo-Byzantine style. In Coronation of the Virgin, the picture is a dense mesh of gorgeous colour and lines, like a luxury fabric. It is unbelievably well preserved.

Annunciation
by Lorenzo Veneziano

Annunciation detail

The above is a panel, 111 x 54 cm and was Lorenzo's earliest signed altar-piece painted for the church of Sant' Antonio di Castelloreflect. It shows full-length saints with typical elongated proportions, the draperies show a version of Gothic style. It is dated 1359, and represents the Annunciation with a portrait of the donor, Domenico Lion, and figures of various Saints. Unusual ? but was painted in conjunction with another artist, Francesco Bissolo. It is a lovely work bursting with red, blue and gold. The Accademia also possesses an altar-piece by him, painted in 1371.

These paintings typify the Byzantium flavours in art and its earliest influences on Venician art. I remind myself of what I have learned about Byzantine Art techniques:

it was flat - one dimensional with no perspective
there were no shadows allowed!
figures were generally depicted front-facing
figures featured long, narrow solemn faces (later Modingliani seemed attracted by this style)
adhered to classical Greek principles by use of simplified & stylized figures
depicted nature of the spiritual, rather than the physical appearance of subjects

Colours:

generally muted
blue favoured in art works because it's was symbolic for the spiritual and transcendent
red was considered the colour of love (spiritual and earthly)
gold for backgrounds was a symbol for divine light
many paint colours were expensive

my ticket stub

Exhibition TRA. EDGE OF BECOMING Pallozo Fortuny, Venice

2011-06-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Of Spanish origin, and known as a fabric designer, Fortuny was also breathlessly accomplished... (include painter, etcher, sculptor, photographer, lighting engineer, set designer, theatre director and inventor) ...and all these elements are at work in his Pallazo.

In 1956, 7 years after the death of Mariano Fortuny, his house and contents were bequeathed by his widow to the city of Venice. Fortuny's personal collection and the theatrical setting of the house are worthy of an entire days' viewing, but I only had 2 hours!

In June 2011 the exhibition TRA. EDGE OF BECOMING was also running at the Pallozo. It showed over 300 works of art, displayed on four floors, which aimed to explore the links between place, history, creative heritage and universal wisdom. The letters TRA are an anagram of ART, but the letters have further hidden meanings.

Some areas of this Gothic Pallazo have not been seen by members of the public since the 18th century. Open casement windows show revealing glimpses of Venician rooftops, exotic looking chimney pots and views of the canal. Some of the world’s most important artists represented in the exhibition, include:

Rodin, Marina Abramovic, Lucio Fontana, Miquel Barcelò, Anish Kapoor (Portrait of Light, Picture of Space); Fernand Léger and Antoní Tápies.

my ticket stub

A number of artists had also been specially commissioned for the exhibition, including Massimo Bartolini, Maurizio Donzelli, Fernando Garbellotto, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Francesco Candeloro, Dominique Stroobant, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Kimsooja, Günther Uecker, Giorgio Vigna, and Carl Michael von Hausswolff. see http://www.tra-expo.com/

I have made brief notes and sketches from my visit, which I will add to the blog when time permits.

Exhibition: Mini Textile Art, Pallazo Montenigo, Venice

2011-06-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

Gerda Ritzman
Particles of Happiness

Image taken from www.intraculture.fr/detail.php?evenement=876

The Pallazo Montenigo in Venice, was first built in the17th century; it now houses the Museo del Tessuot e del Costume (Museum of Textiles and Costume). It showcases Venician period interiors, paintings, freizes and frescos, furnishings and costumes of 17th and 18th century. It also houses a library of textiles and displays visiting international textile exhibitions.

My visit was to view both the historic permanent collection as well as the international Mini-Textile Art Exhibition.

The interior of the Portego, where the exhibition was held, was darkly lit by 2 low voltage but enormous Venetian glass chandeliers and partly drawn curtains to help conserve the historic contents. The display for the temporary exhibition was featured to one side of this large room and overlooked by stern portraits of the most famous of the Mocenigo family! The 54 exhibits were surmounted on 12 x 12 cm steel squares, suspended from a metal frame, over each exhibit was a mini spotlight.

54 exhibits were chosen from 413 submissions of a 2010 competition, which invited artists to present work inspired by the theme “A Day of Happiness,” based on the short stories of Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. No work exceeded 20 cm per side.

Surrounding the collection were 7 large textile installations :

Gabriella Crisci’s, 9 prayer rugs made entirely of different sized silver and gold safety pins, which glittered and glowed from the floor- possibly my favourite exhibit.
“Celestial Knights Virgo” by Jurate Kazakeviciute,
“Plains by Night” by the Argentine duo, Toba Toba.
“The Flight” by Raffaele Pen, a huge segmented sphere made with tar paper.
Resi Girardello's “Danae’s Oracle” created with what looked like aluminium and metal crochet and bronze filaments in the shape of a 5' tall ladies bodice.
“Cascada,” by Dario Zeruto and Helene Genvrin, a 550-page sculpture-book.

Antra Augustinovica
High noon

This collection opened my eyes to what is possible in terms of 'textile art', the extremely innovative use of materials and the proportions of the exhibits. Materials included the use of tar paper, a honeycomb, intestines, a telephone book, fluff, gauze bandages, metal mesh & threads, safety pins, berries and horsehair.

I was disappointed that there was no information in English and no there was no catalogue available, also photography was not allowed. I made notes of many of the works, and fortunately there were seats in the Portego to sit and reflect and make journal sketches. I arrived as soon as the doors had opened at 10 am to avoid any crowds, and I spent two hours at the Pallazo. I could have spent a whole day there, but the intensity needed to study the works and make sense of the collection without any guidance was extremely tiring. In addition my husband was pacing impatiently!

Exhibition: Peggy Guggenheim, Venice

2011-06-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice was purchased by Peggy Guggenheim in 1948. The building, designed by Lorenzo Boschetti in 1748, overlooking Venice's Grand Canal was never finished and subsequent owners altered and adapted it to suit their needs. Peggy saw its potential as a showcase for the collection of modern art that she had amassed since the 1920's and had the palazzo and gardens redesigned.

The collection of art and sculpture is presented in a series of well-lit rooms, with more sculptures in the garden. All the main 20th century movements ie Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and Constructivism are represented. It is probably the most important collection outside of the USA.

There are audio guides available for a small additional charge, and small placards of information in English and Italian are written near to each work. However the audio guide did not cover all the works displayed, nor did it reveal a great deal of information. It would have been useful to have researched the collection before my trip to make the most of the visit.

By 11am the crowds were the most distracting element of the visit, and there are few places to sit and reflect on this lovely collection. Making notes or sketches was near impossible. However I focussed my attention on 3 particular works.

Vasily Kandinsky: Empor

The audio guide on Empor told me that Kandinsky produced this abstract work at the height of his time at the Bauhaus in Germany. It is an oil painting rendered on cardboard and painted in 1929 and measures 70 x 49 cm.

Although I was looking for colour combinations at the Guggenheim for my coursework, I was stopped in my tracks by the shapes in this painting. The half circles, vertical and horizontal lines and odd shapes all seemed to be about balance, and indeed some of the shapes sat balanced on a black and yellow shape that looked almost like the letter 'E' (for Empor?). There seemed to be a humourous facial look to the image, with an eye and a linear mouth. I looked closely at this work as I wanted to understand his method. He wrote in 1929, the year he painted Empor, “I do not choose form consciously; it chooses itself within me.” The colours in this work are so vivid: I learned that Kandinsky was an accomplished musician who claimed that he saw colours as sounds... it will be intriguing to learn more.....

Below is my collaged sketchbook entry using the shapes

Paul Klee: Magic Garden

Paul Klee and Kandinsky’s working methods were similar in that they began with intuitively chosen forms, that were taken from the natural world.

They were contemporaries and both taught at the German Bauhaus, though Klee was of German/Swiss nationality.

Alexander Calder: Silver Bedhead 1945/46. Testiera di letto in argento

Project 3 : Colour: Stages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

2011-05-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

Stage 1 Introduction and preparation

12 colour wheel using 3 primary & 3 secondary colours

Stage 2 Colour Perception

I first chose squares of matt yellow, blue & pink, as well as metallic red, brown and silver and I chose a bright red square for the centre. In full daylight against a white wall the contrasting red squares against the matt colours seem to make the images 'vibrate'. This surprised me as I had only expected a dramatic shake in perception against the metallic paper. The metallic papers seemed to absorb the red square colour, making them shimmer with colour, particularly the silver and my retina could pick out stripes of other colours on the metallics, depending where my eye landed. It felt quite hallucinogenic!

Next, I chose 'warm' coloured larger squares contrasted with a smaller 'cold' blue squares. (This made a pleasant overall scheme to look at compared with the first experiment). I looked at them against a white, a red and a blue background in daylight.

warm coloured squares against smaller cold colour squares

Against the dark pink square there appeared a halo of light around the blue, and as I looked at it more the square of light imprinted itself on my retina and a halo of light square shape hovered over the image. After a while this was quite tiring on the eyes. And I thought to go back to it at a later stage.

against blue background

Stage 3: Recording Colour Accurately

colour study from a cotton table napkin

colour study from 3 dimensional objects:
a leaf and seed-pods, red glass beads

Stage 3: Exercise 3

Palace of the Lions

Palace of the Lions- acrylic colour study

The first image I chose to make colour studies from my collection, is the Palace of the Lions by P J Girault de Prangey (1834). He tried to portray the bold colours of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, as they may have been seen in their heyday. I like to think the Arabic lettering reads 'Enter with composure', because those words were used at the Alhambra and I have painted them in calligraphy above my garden archway,. I used watercolours for the above exercise initially, but the wishy-washy colours didn't strike the right note. I turned to acrylic paints, because the colours were striking reds, blues, yellows and gold.

Stage 4: Exercise 1: Colours in opposites

Cold

Warm

Down

Hard

Soft

Ex 2: Identify a colour mood: with fabric, paper & yarns

Stage 5: Coloured Stitches

hand embroidery on black fabric

I used red and yellow threads on a black background, one of the yellow threads and two of the reds were silk, so had a pleasant sheen. I used mostly straight stitches, including split stitch, seeding and cross stitch. The first thing that struck me, as I worked, was that I needed far less yellow against the red. The light from the yellow thread, even a matt stranded cotton, stood out far more than the same quantity in red. In some of the sampling I used 3 times more red. Against a black background and the dense red stitches, the proximity of the yellow could appear at times as shades of green, and under certain lighting conditions the dense red stitches appeared to look like velvet.

Stage 6: Combining textures and colour effects

Free machine stitch on white organza & water soluble film

I have discovered that hand stitching is causing an old repetitive strain injury to rear up. So after working some of the hand stitched samples I rested my painful shoulder and neck by turning to free motion stitching with the sewing machine. The above sample was white organza layered on top of water soluble fabric; between the two layers I inserted some ends of embroidery threads. I worked with red and yellow threads, adding a contrasting blue to finish the sample.

I also created a second sample using pastel colours on water soluble film and based it upon an image from my sketchbook.

Exhibition: Espiritu de època, Lanzaarote

2011-04-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Museo International de arte contemporàneo (MIAC) is based in Castillo de San Josè in Arrecife, Lanzarote, an old fortress built in the 18^th century.

On 29 April I visited an exhibition there.

The theme for the collection, translates as The Spirit of the Epoch, and highlights a selection of paintings from the private collection of Olelia Martin and Javier Nuñez over the last decade. It included paintings, installations and a video of a painting. The works illustrate the pair´s commitment to showcasing the art of young painters who are working to establish themselves in the art world.

I looked at 10 exhibits located in the basement of the castle which was redesigned as an arts showcase for modern art, by Cèser Manrique in 1975. The trend for artworks at this location is generally abstraction. The lighting is good, but disappointingly there is nowhere to sit and look at the works to reflect and make journal entries.

I saw the work of Pedro Barbeito (New York), Carlos Aires (Madrid), Miguel Aguirre (Barcelona), Saso Stanojkovik (Skopje),Julian Michel (Paris,) Sophia Schama (Berlin), Pablo Alonso (Berlin), Peter Atkins (Australia) and Chus Garcia-Fraile (Madrid.

The three images, I chose to look at in detail were Una Gran Llivre (One Big Free Nation) by Carlos Aires; and Toe Separator and Paper Cup Handle, two works by Peter Atkins.

Carlos Aires (b 1974) has a BA and a Phd in Arts from Granada, Spain, and an MA in Photography from the USA. His installation Una Gran Llivre , measures 182 x 134 cm and depicts the general outline of a Baroque style alter-piece. This work is mostly done in melted vinyl dics and plexiglass, At the apex is a crown of thorns and directly underneath is a yellow star surrounding a haloed footballer, he stands on a pedestal that is itself resting on a pair of lap-dancers wearing crowns, who are themselves standing on Spanish bulls. The bulls rest on 3 rows of black melted vinyl records in the shape of skulls. To one side is a pair of flamenco dancers, the man holds aloft a rifle, the opposite side is a boat containing people and a wind turbine. The whole is fixed to the wall of the exhibition by screws raised off the wall by circles of plexiglass.

I enjoyed looking at this exhibit because it was unlike anything else in the exhibition. It was startling and vibrant and used colour boldly, which was mostly black vinyl that looked like silhouettes, with splashes of green and yellow, the colours in the Spanish flag. I also liked the image because he works in 3-D, which I love. The images were strong and I particularly liked his use of the recycling of old 78's records. I also admired the way he has skilfully replaced religious icons for contemporary Spanish images, disturbing and shaking up our perception of holiness, history and religion.

Peter Atkins (b 1963), lives and works in Australia where most of his work is showcased in galleries and museums. He has won numerous awards, residencies and commissions in his native country. He abstracts everyday objects he sees in an urban environment into his art work, from street signs, to sweet wrappers to shapes of caravans and record covers. The two works I saw were Toe Separator and Paper Cup Handle, both painted in 2003.

Another work called 'Toe Separator' by Peter Atkins

by kind permission BETT GALLERY HOBART, Australia

What attracted my eye was the curvy shapes in Toe Separator, it was worked in oils on canvas and measured 100 x 100 cm. The curving lines were contrasted through strong and weak, muted and bold, and then replicated as mirror images in weaker lines. The colours were eye catching, the background of mostly white on white texture drew me deeply into contemplation and a sense of peace, just for a short time. Quite moments of peacefulness are so lacking in our society, and I find a lot of art is busy and noisy. This image was contrasted with dashes of scarlet outlined with grey. Paper cup Handle, also 100 x 100 cm was worked in similar colours and they hung as a pair, side by side. I was attracted to it for the same reasons as the former, ie the curving lines and shapes and vast empty white contemplative spaces. He is an artist I will be following with interest.

Project 2: Stage 6

2011-04-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

Stage 6: Using thread and yarns to create textures.

During Project 1 on mark making I became aware that my work will eventually need to be interpreted into stitch and be affected by my choice of fabrics. In some cases it has been easy enough to choose stitches to create simple lines and curves. However I found it more difficult than I anticipated to consider creating texture, with my limited experience. In addition I had a lot of problems getting hold of the right supplies or using my unreliable sewing machine, to create textured effects.

Lizard tail turned into stitch

Everything took a long time and experimentation. At the moment, using limited source material from Project 1, I am utilising a small selection of ideas to work from. I realise as I become more experienced and collect and collate more source material, I hope my work will become more personal and interesting. In addition, I had not calculated how time consuming hand embroidery is - it made me think of a little Chinese proverb that I use if I find myself getting impatient...

If happiness is your destiny
You need not be in a hurry

I laboured over my sample and took far longer than I could have anticipated. I chose what I thought was an interesting remnant and bonded it with a fabric stabiliser to give it a good surface to work on. I took my lead from an earlier image of a weed type succulent flower abundant all over the island. I interpreted the flowers in blanket stitch and made the unusual decision to magnify some of the flowers and used pipe cleaners sewn in with couching stitch. Then I used raised chain band to show the thick sinuous stalks of this ground crawling plant.

Not being happy with what was developing, I cut out some of the stabliser in the centre of the flowers using a scalpel to expose a different background. Things did still not look right however, and I decided that the background was the problem. I created some ink-washed paper in similar colours to the flowers and stitched it to the background. This made the whole sample too stiff to handle, so I used a seam ripper to take it apart. I looked through my fabric stash for related colours and free machine stitched 3 different fabrics together to the background in black cotton. Finally I embroidered a few more flowers adding a metallic yarn to hint at the sparkle these flowers have in real life. I did think I would not to include this piece in my work and I should just start again. But I reflected that this had been the most time consuming work of everything I had done so far, and although I disliked the result, the process has created a huge learning curve.

Questions and thoughts arising from the projects.

Which do you prefer - working with stitch to create texture or working with yarns to make textures? Which worked best for you and why?

At this stage I have no definite preference for stitch or yarn. I am enjoying experimenting, playing and using both. As time goes on and I add to my yarn stash I await a project to utilise them in interesting ways. I have experimented by making my own yarns in wool, plastic strips & ribbon, fabric strips & paper and combined threads and either plaiting them or machine stitching them together.

Hand-made yarns

I came across a small book of knots and have placed it near my yarn stash to experiment with further when I have the time. I am also attracted by the idea of using very prosaic materials to create yarns, like household string, discarded electrical wires and ripped up carrier bags.

Do you prefer to work from a drawing or by playing with materials and yarns to create effects? Which method produced the most interesting work?

At times during the course I found it useful to work from a drawing, but occasionally I found that the drawing was the starting point and all sorts of ideas could develop from that. Experimental work with yarns and materials also seem to provide a spring board for ideas because handling the threads and materials and seeing the play of light and shadow on them, the unexpected arises. The work seems to take on its own force, outside of a drawing or an idea. Its as if all those elements coming together have created something new. I loved the way the stitches on layers of fabric in Stage 5 with Garden of Birds developed from an image on my retina when I was weeding the garden, I had to get it into my sketchbook before it was gone. It developed as a textile piece, far more smoothly and interestingly, than the sample I took from my sketchbook in Stage 6 and spent hours agonising over. On the other hand, when I was drawing volcanic rocks, I could easily see how the image could to be developed in stitch and the result was quite satisfactory.

Are there other techniques you would like to try? Are there any samples you would like to try to do in a different way?

I want to try and experiment with everything! Appliqué techniques. Beading. Free machine stitching. Free Buttonhole stitch. Kantha. Kente. Kasuti. Ladder stitch. Pleating. Slashing. Trapunto. Woven Bars etc etc. It's all so deliciously intriguing how all these techniques are going to develop. If I had time, I would do the whole of Project 2 again with the new knowledge I have already gained.

Is there anything you would like to change in your work? If so, make notes for future reference.

The only change I could make to my work is that as I gain experience and knowledge of techniques and materials and learn about other textile artists, I will see different ways of approaching an idea. Even the most uninteresting work that I have produced so far, has been practice, and with practice I feel my work has developed. All the samples that have been produced, I am stitching into a soft sketchbook, so that I can refer to the stitches or look back more critically at earlier work later on.

My soft sketchbook for Assignment 1

Bibliography

The Found Object in Textile Art: Cas Holmes
3-D Embroidery: Patt Trott
Textiles By William Morris and Morris & Co.1861-1940: Oliver Fairclough & Emmeline Leary
Drawing A Contemporary Approach: Teel Sale, Claudia Betti

Project 2: Stage 1, 2, 3

2011-04-03T09:10:00.001-07:00

Stage 1 Preparation

I chose a drawing that I had made of volcanic rocks in an earlier exercise.

I decided to render the outline in orange couching stitch over yellow raffia in one continuous line. I used bold contrasts because it is carnival time on the island and everywhere I look are flamboyant colours. It's difficult not to be influenced. If its not carnival colour then the neon coloured cyclists and day glo coloured surfers and tourists who flock here in winter, alert the eye to vivid hues.

For this exercise I used an embroidery frame for the first time, I found that it is not my favourite gismo, because I couldnt seem to get it tight enough and my work kept sagging in the middle. (maybe buying them 3 for 5GBP on ebay was not such a wise decision!). I created big French knots in raffia inside the lines and then small seeding stitches in variegated silks as a contrast in orange and blue, to indicate the multi-texture surface of the rocks.

Stage 2: Exploring Marks and Line in stitch

This exercise took some time to complete, and as I worked at various stitches, I started to question my ability with a needle and thread as the results were questionable. It was difficult to consider that I had 'exhausted every possibility' as requested in the exercise. Because I felt I would be drawing my pension before I could practice all the stitches in lots of variations and with a range of yarns before this exercise was finished with a level of satisfaction!

Stage 3: A sample from my Drawing

I originally felt inhibited by my lack of stitch vocabulary, supplies and my old dated sewing machine. Therefore I was delighted to find I could turn all those things on their head when I read about the origins of Kantha. A whole industry is built on the repetition of one particular stitch, a simple running stitch. I could hardly allow myself to be let down by not having the right supplies, when I read of women in India who pull threads from old clothes to work with. The whole concept of Kantha and its ideology steeped in recycling made me reconsider and use what was to hand. My sample interpretation into stitch was from my drawing 'sensuous'.

Project 2: Stage 4: Preparing to create texture

2011-04-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

I chose some drawings from the initial exercises in Project 1, ie 'slow', 'smooth', 'delicate' 'happy' 'shell' and 'hand'. I was particularly attracted to work with an image that I called 'slow' with its sinuous, curvy lines; I wanted to make them criss-cross each other to create a textured surface. It made me think of crashing waves, a curled tide on the shore-line, or loops of threads or yarns abandoned on a heap on the floor.

I selected a small remnant of fabric that I had 'collographed' last year with matt brown and blue acrylic paints, because it looked 'aged'. I then cut out some interesting squares of other fabrics and machine stitched them under a third layer of tulle. In complete contrast, I chose threads and yarns with a sheen in deep reds and blues, reminiscent of the colours in medieval bibles, Middle Age tapestries (The Lady and the Unicorn) and church stained glass windows.

Ideas started to come together with all these elements, but I worried at the skill to carry any ideas through to completion. I decided to use couching stitches on high sheen yarns and layered them one on top of the other (the first layer was a tiny zig-zag machine stitch). After 3 layers, I decided 'less is more' and didn't want to add more layers, despite that my brief was to 'cover the surface of the fabric'. I felt that my earlier fabric layers had remedied some of that.

Including making decisions about fabrics, threads and yarns, and putting the ideas together, this exercise took 4 hours and not the 2 hours allocated to the exercise. I therefore decided not to develop any other drawings at this stage, due to time constraints. However I felt that I had the confidence to try different approaches in stitch when I had more time to spend on the remaining drawings.

Project 2: Stage 5 Stitch to create texture

2011-04-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Stitches which create texture.

The 3 hours allocated to this process were insufficient to complete the exercise, which in all took me 21 hours, over a week. Maybe this is because I am a beginner to embroidery stitches and the process of learning new stitches to a satisfactory level took a long time. Also my old Jones sewing machine is not performing properly and on top of that, I have not had a good source of supplies, despite ordering yarns, silks and needles etc in advance.

Before starting this course I had been working my way through Three Dimensional Embroidery by Patt Trott. She describes 17 stitches that create textured and 3-D effects. I liked the raised effects that can be created reasonably quickly with woven roses, whipped spiders web and raised cup stitches. I had previously used household string, embroidery threads, raffia, tapestry thread and wool to learn these stitches on a variety of surfaces. I am not a huge fan of working at fine and delicate embroidery, although I do appreciate and marvel at its intricacy and beauty and admire people who can take the time to keep working at it. A lot of my practice work on 3D embroidery was glued into an old sketchbook which was interesting to refer to, but not particularly useful for this exercise. So I began the learning process again with different fabrics and a new set of silks in various colours. Some of the teeny stitches were a complete labour, but I persevered.

Finally, I had the idea to iron several types of scrap fabric onto bondaweb to give me a good surface to work on, ie silk, cotton, muslin and organza. The varying textures and the play of light on the surface of the fabric, even before I started stitching, was compelling to work with. I then started with machine embroidery in simple rows of stitches, but my machine gave inconsistent results and the threads kept breaking. So I was forced to work mainly in hand stitches, which funnily enough, I started to enjoy. I was quite pleased with the result and feel I have overcome a barrier of disliking the tiny stitches of hand embroidery as I developed the work.

Project 1: Stage 4

2011-03-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

Working from sketchbooks

Textural Studies

Volcanic rocks in the garden

Learning log questions

Have you ever thought about drawing in this way before?

The word 'drawing' has been a curious investigative study. I have laboured over the definition. I read in Drawing A Creative Approach that the term 'works on paper' is used by museums and art galleries as a broad guide to cover the term. However it still doesn't really classify it, because mark making can be done on any surface.

http://ardictionary.com/Drawing/9259 says that it is the act or the art of representing any object by means of lines and shades; particularly when in one colour, or in tints used not to represent the colours of natural objects, but for effect only, and produced with hard material such as pencil, chalk, etc.; delineation; also, the figure or representation drawn.

That said,I had not thought to isolate an area within a frame and draw a limited view before. I found the exercises quite liberating, that is to say to concentrate on the fine detail and not have to think about sketching the whole object.

Were you able to be inventive about the range of marks made?

As the exercise progressed I felt I developed more confidence at being experimental with the tools and mediums I had to hand. It helped that I looked at other artists work, including OCA Textiles student blogs, to understand what was required. I enjoyed studying the Lora Reynolds Gallery online and appreciating the intricacy of Tara Donovan's and Daniel Zeller's work on mark making (images below). I felt that looking at other artists interpretation of mark making gave me permission to be more open to using different mediums and stretching myself.

Tara Donovan

Untitled, 2008
Ink on paper
51 7/8 x 42 5/8 inches

Daniel Zeller
Relative Interference, 2008
Acrylic and ink on paper

Did you explore a wide range of media?

I felt this was a taster session, a bit like rule breaking and all rather mischievous. Working in various pencils and then using an eraser was an interesting approach to reveal space, and it surprised me how much it helped the drawing to come alive. It has taken some time to collate a whole different range of media where I live. However what I have collected, I found I had not thought to use them so extensively before or to mix them in one image. There are a lot more techniques and mediums I have yet to explore.

Are you pleased with what you have done?

I am surprised and delighted with the way the course is gently coaxing the creativity that I didn't know was buried there. I have experienced a feeling of satisfaction during and after each exercise.

Which exercise did you enjoy most? Why?

I thoroughly enjoyed using collage, I almost didnt have to give it a lot of thought. My hands seemed to seek out combinations, mediums and layers as I worked. Some of the pieces, I worked out and tested on a scrap paper until I was satisfied the image was going to develop satisfactorily. I really like the 3D effects that collage gives to a flat surface. It is interesting that the techniques of collage were possibly first used in China around 200 BC. Chinese ideas of collage seem to work by using a simple press (like a pasta machine) to blend layers together and I would love to experiment with this idea.

Red pepper drawings and collage

Chinese Collage

Which media did you most enjoy working with? Why?

All the mediums offered very different explorations and suggested a variety of textures, and I enjoyed the whole process of learning and experiment. As I gained confidence it was interesting to see how some mediums worked well together and others were less immediately attractive. Collage was surprisingly the most enjoyable, perhaps because the surfaces themselves could be layered and became rich in texture very quickly, and also the medium seemed to offer the most fun. And even after the collaged work was done, I could see other methods of developing it and stretching it further, though I was loathe to change what had already developed.

What other forms of mark-making could you try?

I have yet to learn about the effects of transferring images as I have been unable to acquire the products mentioned in the OCA manual. However I have been reading 'Painting without a Brush' by David Ferry. The author mentions working with screen wash as a transfer medium, and that sounds inexpensive and accessible, so I will be experimenting with the idea. Cas Holmes, in her wonderful book 'The Found Object in Textile Art' also describes a method of transferring images using photocopies and acrylic based media, which I have yet to try. I have also been experimenting with the way wet acrylic paints and 98% alcohol react to make fascinating marks...even if my art rooms smells like a hospital.

Acrylic paint and alcohol spritz

How will these exercises enrich your textile work in the future?

I am really excited to see how textured drawings and photographs lend themselves to being sketched, drawn, collaged and manipulated to be considered as backgrounds as well as surface images for textiles. This will be useful when it comes to transferring and transposing images and patterns to fabrics. Some of the mark making exercises are already leading me to imagine how to transcribe them into stitches or suggesting the next steps in developing the idea. I love the way a small window hovering over an image can explore it more closely and bring out ideas, compared to when looking at the big picture. Ideas are constantly being triggered through these exercises and I go to sleep and wake up thinking of new ways of seeing or developing an image.

I read a useful tip about creating textured drawings from the Artist Daily e-letter of 6 April 2011. '....There’s one thing and one thing alone that makes for a successful tonal drawing: 'seeing masses rather than outlines'... This has helped me to understand the difference. Ureka!

Project 1: Stage 3

2011-03-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

Using Marks to create surface textures

In my garden there are tiny Atlantic lizards (I have trained one to eat a piece of cheese from my hand). I just love to gaze at the spotty pattern on their hind legs, which oddly enough remind me of a pair of bloomers on a pantomime dame! When its hot, they raise those legs yogic style, with their fingers as thin as spiders webs, along their bodies. Those lizards just had to go in my sketchbook.

There is something about looking deeply into the texture of objects like the cross section of a juicy red pepper spilling with tiny seeds; or the bumpy surface of a cauliflower, I cant help but take a close look. Those too have gone in my sketchbook.

Exercise 1 Images of my choice:

I searched for a texture that was visibly pleasing, and one that I could represent in a drawing, or a series of marks for this course. Once I got over the idea that I did not have to replicate exactly what I saw into a perfect drawing, I found interesting aspects revealed themselves, it was a eureka moment. For example, it was difficult to draw the cactus when I studied the photograph, there were so many lines it was impossible to represent it. Eventually I focussed on one aspect and found there was a medium (collage) that worked perfectly.

Cactus in my garden

Unusual Canarian 'flowers' they are as common as weeds

Exercise 2: Objects of my choice

Atlantic lizard

Project 1: Stage 2

2011-03-01T07:39:00.000-08:00

Making marks in an expressive way

Exercise 1 & 2 Drawing

Although I have sketched from time to time, I still find it difficult to draw realistically. I was recommended a book Drawing: A Creative Approach last year, I loaned it to a friend almost immediately as I was going away later that month, now I am keen to take a close look. I am in awe of those who can take the time to study detail and use a pencil to transcribe images.

I was glad of the method in the coursework to have a word prompt, like fast, slow, happy, delicate etc and therefore I found the exercise easy. I used a range of hard and soft pencils on drawing paper. It seemed a warm-up to the main theme of the exercises to come. But afterwards I reflected that due to that I had probably rushed through it.

Exercise 3:

This exercise had me searching my paper stash and baskets of mark making tools with growing anticipation. I experimented on 20 different surfaces using watercolours, coloured pencils, wax crayons, acrylic paint, chalk, biro, gel crayons, pencils etc.

When cleaning up my acrylic paints I used a babywipe, and the resulting splodges looked interesting. I scrunched it up momigami fashion, moulding it in my palm, until the colours had merged into a satisfactory blur. I added this to my collection. I found that long after the exercise was completed I was scanning around for unusual surfaces and mark making tools everywhere I went.

Exercise 4

I got quite carried away with the ideas these exercises generated. So in all they took some time to complete.

Rubbings: I used a paper doily first, which was perhaps an obvious choice, then I located a stencil of a duck I made after a visit to Weymouth bird sanctuary last year. I also got out a lino-cut I made during a visit to my mother. I had previously thought to use them only as blocks. Then I really got into the mood of this exercise and used string, coasters, woven table mats, glass tiles, textured paper, shells, a seed pod, an engraved spoon and an Ikea vase. I came to the conclusion that almost anything with a raised surface would make a rubbing. Though I was disappointed that a dried palm leaf with an interesting weave and a paper towel with an embossed pattern didn't work.

Wax resist: I started by picking a flower in my garden and drew a simplified flower shape with the point of a sharpened candle straight onto my paper, I then washed the paper with ink. Then I tried the same idea by doing an ink wash first, then the resist image, then another wash of ink. Some colours worked better than others, and this made me want to experiment a lot more with better colour combinations. However the whole process got me talking to my husband about resist ideas (he has a physics degree). He came up with a selection of items from his workshop! in particular vaseline, engine oil, waterproofing wax, and engine grease. I played with some of his ideas out of curiosity and created some interesting images, though eventually I rejected them for my project because they are all extremely messy to use and most leaked through the paper. The one below of my cat reposing was with done with engine grease and inks!

Bleach: I was intrigued by the idea of using bleach to create an image, but wondered how I would control the flow. I put some bleach in a glass jar with a metal lid, then I dipped a very fine paintbrush into the liquid before transferring it to some thin crepe paper to make marks. After 2 or 3 attempts the hair on the brush was completely destroyed. Next, I used the end of my paintbrush, and dribbled the flow around on the paper, this was reasonably satisfactory. But nowhere near enough control, and I found you have to work very quickly. Sometimes the bleach made a large blob and merged with the rest of the design, sometimes it was easier to manage and to create intentional marks. This was not my favourite medium, but fun and interesting all the same. And in the back of my mind there is some machinery whirring away, wondering how to utilise this in a better way.

I was fascinated by Penny Cameron's (student number 498709) pictures of black tissue paper tie-dyed with bleach which looked like scorched parchment.

Block printing:

I found a number of items around the house to use as blocks. A plastic eraser case with an interesting embossed design, a circular off-cut of wood, a dice, scrunched up silver foil, corrugated cardboard and some very large bubble wrap. On the last part of the exercise I did a paint wash first and allowed it to dry, I mixed some pva and different coloured acrylic paint into thick paste and spread this over the top. Then I pressed the bubble wrap into it creating some lovely effects and colour combinations. A very satisfactory session.

Stencils: I painted or sprayed some paper shapes, cut out some simple shapes in cardboard and used stippling, spraying, flicking, sponging and moving paint around with my finger or a paper towel to create a paint effect. The spray method was the least satisfactory, because it took a long time to dry before I could use the stencil, and I disliked the smell in my room for hours afterwards. All the other shapes with the various techniques were dealt with in one session. Though, afterwards I reflected that I could do the whole session again and come up with some more exciting images and more interesting techniques, it was a valuable exercise.

Crayon Scratch: I have just managed to get hold of some of the wax crayons and wanted to jump right in and play. My first attempt was paltry and dull, but with each practice, I seemed to get more creative, using a mix of colour within one frame. At first I scratched away using tools from my lino-cuts, then the end of a sharp knife, but these were not particularly successful. I tried a paper-clip, then a narrow piece of wood, and used a combination of these scratching tools on one piece.
Combing: I used acrylic paints to create a variety of paint splodges and then a comb to make marks in the wet paint. One example took 3 days because I wanted to create a rainbow effect and had to wait for each of the paint layers to dry.

Rubbing Away: Fascinating, because I had never thought to use an eraser as a tool for mark making in its own right! There is much more to this method that I have yet to experiment with.

Collage: I can get really carried away with collage, just give me a theme and I want to start chopping up paper and fabric to make interesting combinations. I love the 3D effects of collage.

OCA First module: Textiles 1: A Creative Approach

2011-02-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

Reflections

My Textiles 1 manual has arrived from OCA, containing 10 projects and 5 assignments in the post. My tutor Liz Smith has also emailed me to welcome me on my journey.

What am I hoping for on the course? I can think of 10 immediate responses.

1. Learn to develop my working methods
2. Use my everyday life as a springboard for creative endeavour (sketchbooks/photography/walking/yoga)
3. Temper my creative drive with substance, practicality and composition
4. Learn how to constrain my attitude to just 'jump in and begin' a project with little planning
5. Communicate with other textile artists and artists
6. Continue my creative journey by learning everything I can about textiles and art
7. Learn how to use colour effectively
8. Learn about other artists working methods
9.Become more open to what constitutes 'materials' to work with
10. Have fun and learn

My first exercise was to take my camera around the island. I searched for a variety of natural and man-made items to capture using some of the following themes:

lines, textures, reflections, light and shade, contrasts, looking up, looking down, looking through, groups of objects

Looking Up

Group

I noted that my frame of reference for looking at the world was altered slightly. Where once I saw a landscape with some interesting subjects I thought worthy of taking a photograph, like animals, people, architectural details etc. I started to notice interesting lines, textures etc everywhere. It was as though I hadn't really looked at the world in such detail.

Reflections

I thought about the exercise and my findings long after arriving home and downloading the images. I have to give objects in my visual field a much longer look now, even the most mundane things, like rusty wheel spokes, old window shutters, dead branches and insects.

Lines

I spent another couple of happy hours really looking at the images, and altering some of them in Photoshop and wondering how to use them in textile pieces.

Texture

Looking through

Texture

Looking Up

Distance

Texture and Line

Stage 1: Preparation

I am lucky to have a room of my own dedicated to my art projects. It is a double bedroom on the first floor of my house that my mother lovingly calls my 'ivory tower'. It contains 4 working surfaces, a laptop, a telephone extension, my sewing machine, a book case and all my art materials, as well as a fabric stash hanging in SKUBB Ikea dividers in the wardrobe. I tidy up and vac at least once a week, and do my best to put things away as I work. What was surprisingly tricky was getting hold of certain materials, ie sketch books of a decent size and quality, the appropriate needles and a range of quality machine and embroidery silks. I have ordered these from various sources on the internet.

About me and the Textile Arts Degree

2011-01-30T14:25:00.000-08:00

This blog follows my journey studying for a Textile Arts (Hons) Degree with the Open College of Arts (OCA).

I live in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, which although it is closer to the Sahara, it is a Spanish island and the local language is a version of Spanish. There are people living here from all over the Spanish territories, and a large number of ex-pats from European countries.

I originally came here to teach yoga for 6 months in 2000, with my then boyfriend who was a diving instructor. I am still here 10 years on, married to my diving instructor and teaching yoga to local people. Unfortunately there are very few opportunities to develop creatively using the English language, particularly if you are seeking a qualification.

I have always loved creative endeavour and the last few years have seen me renovating a Canarian Villa with my husband. It has been a hands-on approach, and I must have painted 5 miles of rendered walls. During that time I taught myself the art of trencadis, using recycled ceramic tiles, and created large wall and floor pictures, tables, garden benches, steps and footpaths.

I took a short painting workshop and painted 'The 3Monks', (I wish I could attribute the image to someone but I cant remember where I got it, it was certainly a popular image as I saw the images in an art shops at the time). I then taught myself the art of faux stone painting, and painted 4 of the many plastered arches that my husband had created around the house and garden.Then I had a mad splurge of painting palm trees on my roof terrace amidst faux sand and sea, right next to my hammock.

Faux stone arch in hallway

In 2009 I met Sue Dawes, in the UK who showed me how to work with fused glass in her studio in Shropshire, and I was smitten by this material and her work. I haven't been able to develop this fascinating work further as the equipment is so expensive and very difficult to get hold of and sent to the island. But I have managed to get hold of a mini-kiln and can make small fused-glass pieces.

Since June, 2010 I have been relearning the childhood skills of hand embroidery and found I loved working with such portable art. I recently created Six Sweet Hearts after learning how to make collographs from a You Tube video. I then cut it up into several smaller pieces and embellished some of them with recycled materials.

I took a workshop with Cas Holmes in Kent in August 2010 and learned how to look at textiles in a completely new way. She demonstrated mono-printing, and how to fuse paper and textiles into one artwork. Her inspiration and subsequent book 'The Found Object in Textile Art' opened up a completely new vision for me about art, textiles and recycling.

Textile workshop with Cas Holmes

When I returned to the Canary Islands in September 2010 I was determined to follow a path learning extensively about textiles. There are no opportunities other than to work in isolation here, so I was thrilled to find that I could follow a Textile Arts degree on-line with OCA.

I am suited to working mostly alone, and courses like this are perfect for people like me. I don't think I could work at a large institution and have to drive in busy traffic to a university every day, I would find it really stressful and distracting. Besides which, doing a degree from home means my carbon footprint remains low. I live in a very peaceful Spanish village and all I have to do is pour a cup of herb tea and walk upstairs into my art studio and settle down to work almost uninterrupted. However I couldn't do it without certain resources, and thank heaven for the internet, blogging, and the support of my family, friends and lovely husband.