BUTTERCUPS AND DAISIES

 

The buttercups were a work in progress on my last post and although I think the piece is finished I will keep it on hand for a while longer before making a final decision. Several friends that have seen the piece have commented on it having an 'underwater' feel and I can see exactly what they mean, so rather than adding a seahorse or two I will make a note to explore the idea further. 

The trio of daisies piece just needs a little more embellishment to the petals and centres before I can consider it completed. It is interesting to see how the position of the grasses in both pieces gives a sense of movement and again is something to be investigated further.

I really enjoyed using the fresh grasses to print from and will definitely be looking at ways to use more natural foliage to work with for the background layers. Out walking this morning the fields and hedgerows are looking very tired and faded. The many varieties of grasses are in full seed and in places are just a sea of froth and foam, so very pretty blowing in the wind. A timely reminder that I need to be printing with fresh grasses before they begin to die back.

Memories are wonderful things, especially those that have associated words attached. Often when I work on something new I can still hear my City and Guilds tutor’s voice booming across the workroom, “Samples ladies, samples. Where are your samples?” She was of course absolutely right, it is so much better to try new techniques and methods of work on a smaller scale before embarking on anything full size. All the pieces I have made so far I consider to have been learning samples. They all stand as pieces of work in their own right but in the making I have refined my method of work so that each subsequent piece is a little more polished and complete.

So, I have decided to make a series of three pieces in a very abstract format – no obvious flowers allowed! The sample pieces so far have been roughly A4 sized but I am going to work on a longer length of approximately 70cms. The size has been determined with consideration as to what I can comfortably manoeuvre on the sewing machine table without causing damage to the painted surface. Unlike material, the tissue fabric cannot be rolled too tightly or folded in any way. Hopefully these will form the beginning of a small body of work for a future exhibition.

The above piece has been coloured with pastels, printed and outlined with stitch and that is the first layer finished. Next I will make a selection of papers using metallic, iridescent and pearl acrylics with stencils - one of the processes I find most enjoyable and slightly addictive and after that the abstracted fun really begins!