New Times, New Studio

 When we moved to Pender Island, almost three years ago, losing my beautiful studio space and dedicated wet room (for dyeing and painting) wasn't too much of a hardship. We were going to be traveling a lot more and my philosophy was that I'd adjust my art to fit my space: small space = small work.....

And that worked for a while, we traveled, I walked two Caminos in Spain and Portugal, did an art residency in Iceland and we made lots of plans for the future....

Then the world went sideways and my art practise changed yet again! I took online classes and workshops, I went back to working large and I yearned for space to be messy and creative....

I started thinking about leaving home and I found a delightful space about 15 minutes away....so I packed up my studio and moved two weeks ago! Needless to say that I'm thrilled and I'd like to invite you in....

The studio is behind the circled window, Hope Bay is a lovely, picturesque seaside building that has a gallery, offices, a chocolate shop (yes!) another artist studio and sometimes a restaurant. 

Our neighbour Graeme helped us with his truck. I forgot to empty my thread drawers so heard the threads go ping, ping, ping onto the driveway!

I have cutting and painting space that measures 4' x 6' with lots of storage underneath.

There's a large counter that runs about 8' long. At the left end, I'm having a sink installed in a couple weeks, great for washing up and essential for my screen printing!

A few years ago when I built my studio in Victoria, I used a great book by Lois Hallock about organizing your studio space. Her premise was to think about a work triangle such as you'd have in your kitchen, only it was "sewing, cutting and pressing". That book has been very useful in planning out this studio as well. Map and measure and arrange on paper before moving it all in!

My sewing machine is right beside the window, absolutely tons of light - west facing and a nice view onto the courtyard and waterfront below.

The view from my window, the walkway goes down to the wharf, fishing boats and the daily mail boat...when times get better I hope the restaurant will open again. In the meantime the chocolate shop makes a delicious cappuccino!

My design wall is up and I'm working on another piece for my Industrial Shoreline series! I still need to put art on my walls and tweak some hanging space for papers but its all mine, I even have a little coffee corner with a kettle! I hope you'll stop by sometime....

Inspiration from Marble...what???

While I haven't been in my studio during the last two months, I have been busy gathering inspiration with my iPhone while my husband and I toured through Portugal, Spain and Sicily. Because we were walking on the Camino and then hopping buses and trains afterwards, we didn't want to pack a lot - so my art practice was all about recording with an iPhone.
Beyond the regular scenic shots of buildings, bridges and wine I looked for interesting compositions that involved line, pattern and texture....here's a few:

I've been following a French artist, Fabienne Verdier who paints vertically in ink, standing directly on her stretchers, using giant brushes and tools of her own invention suspended from the studio ceiling. She studied calligraphy and art in China for over ten years and her art have a dynamism and flow that I find very appealing. Most of her work is in two colours, often highly contrasting and worked over several panels, sometimes vertically, other times horizontally. You might enjoy looking further: https://fabienneverdier.com/

During my time away and without having access to materials, I envisioned how my mark making might be produced on a larger scale and how I might work with developing marks on fabric and how it might evolve with the addition of stitch. 

Some of the statues had the most beautiful folds in their clothing and I was intrigued by the lines that were formed, especially when cropped or photographed at an angle.

I am not an expert at PhotoShop but I'm always willing to experiment and push a few buttons on the keyboard. And my results might be great or they might sit on the computer until I get around to deleting them....

But working with layers, cropped, over lapping and rotating has produced some positive ideas that might work into further development.

I used a filter called Threshold which have the strongest contrast.

I repeated the image four times with the same orientation

I took a slice of the previous arrangement

Then the slices were repeated and two were flipped.

More slices were taken and repeated....

 As you might guess, the design options are limitless and each time something else might appear, depending on the cut, orientation and the repeat. I'm excited and looking forward to more experimentation. Now, if I could just get used to being on a different time zone!

How Do You Handle Design Challenges?

Imagine being given a photo of Italian art to use as design inspiration.....how would you handle it?  Would you use the imagery as it is - a realistic portrayal? Would you take pieces or elements of the photo and go from there? How about colours....or size? So many choices, so many decisions!

 

A few months back I was invited to create a piece of textile art based on "The Annunciation" by Fra Angelico......as a group of artists we were each given a different art work to use as a "jumping off point" for our own work. I'm not sure what images the others were given but since the exhibition is at the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver, I imagine the art was all Italian.....haha!

Have you ever taken part in something similar? How did you approach this? What ideas and decisions were you faced with? Sometimes it's easier to work within parameters than being given free rein. I began by turning the art into a rough portrait format and thinking how I could place the figures, I also loved the multicoloured wings of Gabriel.

After some reflection I realized that I really had never used figures or people in my work and I didn't want to start doing so......amidst all the design work I wanted to explore how this piece might be come a beginning for a new series. I had taken masses of photos during my recent walk on the Camino de Santiago and had some great interior shots of the cathedrals I had visited:

So then I started to focus on the building part of the artwork - the figures appear to be in a "cloister" which is generally "a covered walk in a convent, monastery, college, or cathedral, typically with a wall on one side and a colonnade open to a quadrangle on the other". It was beginning to make sense for me...look up to the soaring arches of the space above>

I wasn't sure about the columns, so those were eliminated. I was working at simplifying the design to some very basic shapes.

 

I'm  looking now with the idea of construction - how am I going to put it all together? As my career began as a traditional quilter, I'm familiar with a wide variety of piecing methods so I decided a "stack, slash, shuffle" method was the best choice. the widths of the sections would be the same but I could work with different lengths and thereby achieve a variety of rectangles and get some visual interest going....

The fabric had been chosen a while back, luscious hand dyed vintage linen with wonderful drape to it - a little on the heavy side but I knew the texture and thread count would be perfect.

Construction began and went smoothly - put together in less than a day.

 

I had pulled out a dozen or more threads for the quilting but in the end only used four - I thought some metallic would be good but changed my mind. 
And so "In the Cloister" heads off for the exhibition shortly and the shapes, imagery and design will be considered for the future, perhaps this winter would be a good time to begin!

In the Cloister

I hope you'll join me at the Exhibition Opening - September 12th at 7pm. at the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver.

 

Looking a Little Closer.....

When I teach Design Classes, I always encourage students to look closely at their surroundings. Design doesn't have to be a far off, grandiose concept that one has to agonize over. It can be found in the veins of a leaf, the patterns of a carpet, light pouring through a curtain or many, many ideas within our immediate reach.
Here's a picture that I took during a our tour of Ephesus, Turkey. It was a fantastic day spent amounts the ruins, I had no idea that the city once had more than 250,000 inhabitants. If you ever get a chance to tour the ruins, don't turn it down!
One of the photos I took had so many ideas for design, whether you choose appliqué, paint, stitch, embroidery.....
Here's the full photo:

Now, let's look at some of the parts:

I like those plumes, all in a row.


How about this as a repeating border design or painted shadows.



More plumes, but a really great design along the bottom.


More plumes or leaves and a little beaded line underneath.


Now, how about these leaves, gorgeous line and shadow.
Do these give you some ideas of what is possible by just looking and trying to use small sections of a picture?

Inspiration to Design

I have often looked at art or art quilts and wondered how the maker has come through the design process. What was the beginning of the concept, where did the ideas come from and how have they changed over the works execution?
I've worked in the art field for many years and the path we work along from the first glimmer in our mind's eye to a "resolved" piece is often a long and winding road. Over the past couple years I've been working with a technique that involves strong linear design within a piecing and stitching method. I didn't invent it but I have taken it on as a form that I want to fully explore as part of a series of work.
My first piece was this one:

Window#1

I used my own fabric that I had printed and enjoyed this new process that I was exploring.

Since then I've made two more pieces that I'm happy with and that have done well in shows:

Window # 2

 

Remote Viewing

The next piece I didn't like at all, it was a little bit too pink for my taste:

 I tried some selective dyeing but it turned too brown......so it hit the trash!

In looking inspiration for my next piece, I had taken some pictures from my kayak of the rocky outcroppings by the waters edge:

I played with the image in PhotoShop using different colour combinations and loved this one: 

So it became my inspiration for the quilt I'm currently working on.....there's a heck of a lot of quilting to do! Here's a sneak preview with a close up shot: 

I'm loving it! And that is a quick summary of the evolution of one of my latest pieces. 

Now if you've been wondering why I haven't posted in quite a while, here's my excuse: 

Meet Cullen Sean, born September 19th! I'm loving this!

Space Maps, Pick Up Sticks........New Thermofax Designs

I have a blast thinking of names for some of my Thermofax designs and I've just added a few more. check out these and more at my "Industrial" page:

 Power Grid

 

City Map

You can go and order them in three different sizes: http://fabricimagery.com/category/industrial/

Or how about some new Nature Designs:

 Wood Grain

 Bamboo

These are great, aren't they? Remember Here is where to order them: http://fabricimagery.com/category/nature/
Did you know that I also create custom orders for you? Provide me with a design and choose the size, its that easy! Or I can create something special that I'll love. Just send me an email HERE

Paisley....it's Everywhere!

I've made some Thermofax screens with a "paisley" theme, using designs that I had created in my Art and Design class at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center http://www.gailcreativestudies.com/ a few years ago. In the class each student choose a theme to work with and develop into designs that would eventually become a handmade book. Here are some pages from my book:

Did you know that Paisley is a term for a design using the boteh or buta, a droplet-shaped vegetable motif of Persian origin. Such designs became very popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, following imports of post-Mughal versions of the design from British India, especially in the form of Kashmir shawls, and were then imitated locally. The pattern is sometimes called "Persian pickles" by American traditionalists, especially quilt-makers, or "Welsh pears" in Welsh textiles as far back as 1888.

Paisley was particularly popular during the Summer of Love, heavily identified with psychedelic style and the interest in Indian spirituality and culture brought about by the pilgrimage of The Beatles to India in 1968. Also, Fender Guitars made a Pink Paisley version of their Telecaster guitar, by sticking paisley wallpaper onto the guitar bodies. Prince paid tribute to the rock and roll history of paisley when he created the Paisley Park Records recording label and established Paisley Park Studios, both named after his 1985 song "Paisley Park".
(from Wikipedia)
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Azerbaijan's team sported colorful paisley trousers! See them at: http://www.fastcompany.com/1557207/olympic-uniforms-take-home-gold-ugly

Here are some of the images I developed during my classes, I think they make terrific Thermofax designs:

You can order them in small, medium and large sizes here: http://fabricimagery.com/category/paisley/