Small Beginnings

Small Beginnings

I finally have the time and the inclination to start trying to practice what I have been teaching for more than 30 years.

I am going to share what I am doing in the hope that I will be able to benefit from advice and constructive criticism! Yes the boot is definitely on the other foot!

 



 

This is one of my first paintings based on my garden. The central section is a part of a photograph of the garden which was printed onto transfer paper and applied to the canvas. The painting is done in acrylics.

 

 

This is a variation on the same theme - on a larger scale.

 

 

These two pictures take the idea a bit further. The photograph was printed on to fabric which I have added hand embroidered details to. I have frayed the edges of the fabric strips to emphasise the change of materials.

 

I took this photograph of one of the paintings in the garden - I really like the shadows from the grasses which fall on the picture.

 

 

In this piece I wanted to emphasise the curvy plant supports which appeared in some of the other paintings. I created the leaves and the blue and orange flowers with machine embroidery and vanishing fabric and then applied them to the painting, the whole thing works quite well but the final effect is a bit twee for my liking.

 

I plan to revisit the garden pictures in the summer when hopefully the garden will give me more inspiration. 

Moving On

The next piece of work was produced for my mum from a photograph she had taken in Scotland. It is a fairly literal translation of the scene but it has given me inspiration for some new pieces of work.

 

 

Whilst I was working on this painting I also started experimenting with needle felting which is a new technique for me and is really just like painting but with wool fleece. I began to think about how I could combine this with painting and here are the first attempts.

 

 

The background for this piece is painted on lutrador paper (at least I think that is what it is called!) which gives a really subtle effect which contrasts well with the felted area. I have also emphasised some sections with lines of machine stitching which helps to pick out certain areas and colours

 

 

This second piece is a small canvas. I have left the edges of the felted section untrimmed so that it blends into the background and I decided to place the felted piece slightly off centre.