Project 4 Stage 1

Introduction and preparation

Settled

Calm

Waking happy

Vivacious

Equality and balance

Busy, busy, busy

It seems that horizontal and vertical lines are calmer than those on the diagonal.  The eye seems to have nowhere to settle so has to keep moving.

Project 3 Review

Review

Because I'm more comfortable with stitch I approach all the paint sections with a bit of apprehension.  However, I always enjoy it when I get into it and this section was no different.  I particularly enjoyed continuing the colours of the fabric samples and apart from having to remember that paint dries lighter than you  might anticipate I didn't find it too difficult.  I liked just playing with mixing colours and comparing what the differing media can do.  My interest led me to the library where I started looking at some modern painters who use colour theory in a mingling way and in turn that led me to the Impressionists.  Lovely stuff.

In Stage 3 Ex 4 I really did look and copy what I saw and low and behold  got shadows without even thinking about it.  It surprised me that I could produce a reasonable picture by discarding the slavish copy idea and just looking hard.

I enjoy colour and for me it is all about mood and atmosphere. I loved making my colour bags.  It amazed me that I picked so much yellow but I realised that other colours can make it more tolerable.

Yellow seems to be a difficult colour to deal with and that became clear in my stitching.

The colour perception exercises were more of a challenge - sometimes I could get it and other times not.  I will now always look beyond the obvious and be much more enquiring about what I see.

I feel that I'm very much a learner with paint.  I like water colour for it's ethereal qualities and gouache because it can give lots of definition.  At different times I like the qualities of both sorts of paint.  The "mingling" I did worked better with water colours.

Stage 5 seemed to pull together lots that I have been doing - mingling, Impressionists, colour and so on.  The practical application of what I have been learning seemed to make sense and I could appreciate that colours change depending on what they are put with very readily.  This was so particularly in the blue and yellow combinations.  I found it so much easier to see changes in the colours in stitch than in the early exercises in the part of the course with pieces of paper.

The whole thrust of what I'm doing is encouraging me to think more imaginatively and I'm certainly doing that.  I often feel that I haven't "got" something but it becomes clear later on.  I guess if I've a concern it's how do I distinguish between what I can just leave to slot into place and what I really need to grasp first time around.

Project 3 Stage 6 Sketchbook work

Sketching

I've been worried about my lack of sketchbook work ever since the course started and I've just had a prompt from my manual.  I took some materials and spent some time drawing whilst minding a sleeping granddaughter.

I chose to draw a small urn shaped vase with a lid.  It has complex Islamic patterns on it and lots of gold paint.  I found myself thinking "look with your eyes not your brain" and this helped a lot with perspective.  

Each stripe on the vase was different and there was so much gold involved that a copy just wasn't possible even I'd wanted to. I therefore delved into my mark making learning and made linear patterns to represent (rather than copy) the stripes of pattern on the vase.

I was really pleased with the result and I feel it will turn up again somewhere or other although it looks a bit linear at the moment.  I'm going to investigate digital manipulation to see what can happen.   

I used PAINT.net and this is my first attempt. I can see it has great possibilities.  

Twist

Polar inversion

Dents - my favourite

But is it cheating?

Whenever I use my sketchbook I enjoy it - I just need to incorporate it into my life a bit more.  I'm finding myself integrating my learning into my practice and generally feeling more confident in what I'm doing.

Project 3 Stage 6 Ex 2b

Combining texture and colour effects

I started by making a drawing of a pastel collage I had done earlier in my course.  It started life as a light catcher hanging from a tree in my garden so this is the second time it has been re-interpreted.  

I thought of words to describe my drawing.
For the outer lead frame:

• heavy
• grey
• solid

and the inner:

• transparent
• ethereal
• sparkly
• translucent in places

I selected my materials in the way I'm becoming accustomed to; by making a bag.  In it I put clear plastic for the background, blue mulberry paper, a grey, bonded fabric, some blue silk and white organza.  My threads were grey double knitting wool, some sparkly ribbon, heavy white sparkly cotton and sea blue Perle thread.

I had no idea whether working on plastic was viable.  I used the mulberry paper and the grey, bonded fabric as a base and then placed the silk and the organza (doubled) on the top. I stitched the dark outer with knitting wool in chain stitch.  How the embellishments were worked is evident in the photos.

I'm pleased with this piece.  It has developed somewhat from the original but is still recognisable.  The plastic background worked well and wasn't difficult to work with.  I like the muted, toning colours and I had to experiment to get them.  I changed the colour of the "explosive" bit in order to add some sparkle but re-introduced the darker blue colour in the French knots.  I think I could have made more of the plastic by taking the stitching through the "lead" outer but by the time I recognised the possibility it was too late to incorporate it into the design.

2 days later......

........  I decided that I really did need to try sewing into the plastic.  I got some shiny, silky thread and did a threaded running stitch and it changed the piece incredibly.

Taking the leap!

It has become more dynamic and interesting.  I can't imagine why I thought it was too late to try.  It might have been better (but not necessarily) to do machine stitching so that it was finer but my machine is in for repair and I wanted to do it now.

I'm starting to feel an impulse to "just do it" but I'm not a natural risk taker.  If it isn't perfect it doesn't matter I keep telling myself.

Project 3 Stage 6 Ex 2a

Combining textures and colour effects

This time I had to work with pastels colours and create a gradual colour change across my sample.  I wanted to use Perle no 5 again because I love the way it catches the light and I like the feel of it to stitch with.  Unfortunately my range of pastel colours is a bit limited and my new ones haven't yet arrived so the colours I used were almost chosen for me.

I selected a piece of heavy woven silk with a slubby effect.  It was dusky pink and my first thread was almost the same colour. I then graduated into a paler tone in the same spectrum.  Next came a pale blue then a cream that faded into a mid grey and finally a paler grey.  As I worked I was concerned about the blue. I thought it was going to the only contrasting colour but when I had finished I found the greys balanced things out.  Whilst it is still the brightest colour on the piece it isn't glaringly so.

The circle I set myself to do was perhaps a bit ambitious.  It was hard to get the graduation smooth.  I think I managed it in parts but the blue looks as though I was in a hurry to finish it; perhaps an indication that I was worried about it.

I thought I might get a bit bored with just French knots but I didn't; in fact I really quite enjoyed it.

Project 3 Stage 6 Ex 1

Combining texture and colour effects

The aim in this exercise was to use French knots with various threads and in different densities to create textural and colour effects.  I used a yellow background fabric with red and blue threads.  The threads were perle no 5 (sometimes doubled) chunky red wool, thin strips of carrier bag, organza ribbon and silk ribbon.

What I noticed

• when placed by the red the dark blue looked almost purple particularly in the dense middle
• as glimmers of yellow begin to emerge they are very bright
• the plastic gives a different shaped, more spiky stitch that reflects light
• amongst the intense colours the pale blue looks insignificant
• from a distance the colours merge into an indistinct dark colour
• the yellow has stayed vibrant, no green tinges

I find this a jarring and insensitive combination.

Blue

The History of Art in Three Colours BBC

Televised 02.08.2012

I've purposely kept this TV programme until the Colour part of the course and I'm so pleased I did because it meant so much more than if I had done it earlier.

The programme gave a very interesting resume of the colour blue including the search for the perfect blue and the way it's elusiveness has influenced artists.

Blue has always been a tantalising, elusive colour.  Both the sea and the sky are blue but neither can be captured and held.  In European art blue was totally absent until the Persians came from the east carrying lapis lazuli. After a painstaking process of grinding the stone and mixing it with noxious chemicals ultra marine was produced.

Lapis lazuli
willowslavender.com

Very soon the illuminated manuscripts of the time were taking full advantage of this new and wonderful colour.  Giotto used blue in the frescoes in Scrovegni Chapel.  He even painted the vaulted ceiling entirely blue with stars; the analogy being that blue was heavenly.

The Church restricted the supply of lapis lazuli and it became a more precious commodity than gold. People were forbidden to wear it and in art it was only permitted to be used on the Virgin Mary.

As a young man Titian who was born about 1490 went to Venice because it was the capital of the art world.  In Venice all colours were available and Titian was a colour addict.  He painted Bacchus and Ariadne in really vibrant colours and is credited with liberating blue from the dominance of the Church.

Bacchus and Ariadne 1520-23
Titian
nationalgallery.org.uk

Blue became the colour that represented our deepest fears.  Today if we are sad we sometimes say we are "blue".  

Picasso

Picasso had his "blue period" and made pictures that were the epitome of despair.  Picasso and his friend Casagemus travelled from their native Spain to Paris at the time of the Universal Exhibition.  Paris was buzzing and the young men, even though they were very poor immersed themselves in all it had to offer.  Casagemus shot himself in the head when he mistakenly thought he had shot his girlfriend and Picasso struggled for a long time to come to terms with what had happened.  He took on Casagemus identity and painted him constantly.

Death of Casagemus 1901
Picasso
picasso-paintings.org

Karl Jung one of the eminent psychoanalysts of the time was very interested in Picasso's paintings and considered he was watching a decent into schizophrenia.  By 1905 Picasso emerged from this period.

Yves Klein

Yves Klein (1928-1962)  is credited with being an important figure in post war art.  It became his aim to find a new blue; one that was uncontaminated with the colour of the oil the pigment was mixed with.  He went to Paris and with Edouard Adam the most authoritative figure in the paint mixing world developed "international blue"  where the mixing oil was clear and called "the medium".

International blue

Klein died tragically young of a series of massive heart attacks.  He was only 32.

The programme ended not with a painting but with a photograph taken from space in 1968 by Bill Anders.  After the long search for the perfect blue it was amazing to people to discover from this new vantage point that the earth itself was blue

.

Taken from space 1968
airspacemag.com

The History of Art in Three Colours BBC

Televised 02.08.2012

Project 3 Research point

Batik skirt    

I’ve had this skirt since 1997 when I bought it from a batik workshop in Yogyakarta, Java.  This town is a centre for artwork in Java.   In terms of British health and safety the workshop was a nightmare with vats of wax and dyes in all manner of tin cans all over the place.  The process was divided between the sexes with the men doing the dying and the women the wax painting.

My skirt is cotton and not of remarkable quality.  It is starting to show little pinpricks of wear.  The fabric is cream with bottle green, mid brown, dusky blue and a claret red.

The printing is many layered  and from the mark making point of view very busy.  The only bit of hemming is along the bottom edge the sides are selvedges with distinctive printing.

The visit to the workshop was a treat during our holiday and I got the opportunity to see the batik process in detail and was able to have a try at wax painting.  It was very much a cottage industry with no mechanisation at all.

I have worn this skirt every summer since it was bought.  If I put a bit of weight on it really doesn’t matter at it is a wrap round and infinitely expandable.  Last summer I bought some batik material to make a new skirt knowing this one is not going to last much longer.  I used the original as a pattern and to all intents and purposes they are the same; except they are most definitely not.

The skirt is special because of its memories and because there was such a lot of care taken over its production – the women were justifiably very proud of their skill.  As well as that it always feels lovely to wear and as I’ve indicated it just cannot be replaced – ever!

Project 3 Stage 5

Coloured stitches

Testing colours

I chose a running/satin stitch for this exercise. I used yellows and blues of various shades and I varied the thickness of my thread as well.  Some of the results surprised me.  These are the things I noticed most:

The dark blue disappeared on the black fabric;
when I placed it between paler colours it reappeared

Pale yellow sometimes looks green

The pale blue appeared to be white

Denser colours at the edge defined what was
in the middle it was insignificant until then

The less dense the thread the harder it was to distinguish the colour

The pale yellow almost always looks dirty

The orange/yellow held it's colour well amid everything

I wondered if the yellow would appear so changeable if I put it with red.  I chose a chain stitch and stitched a red spiral with the thread diminishing in thickness the nearer to the middle it got.  I then did the same with yellow.  I put some running stitches between the two chains again in red and yellow.  The yellow remained bright.

However when I was stitching I started to feel as if I had vertigo; I was dizzy and felt quite nauseous.  I'm not sure why but I think the spiral and the effect of the negative space that had something to do with it.

Regarding colour I found that at different angles I got shades of lilac and grey in electric light.

This is a sort of vortex effect that is very powerful

All of the things I spotted changed with the light.  Morning light gave different effects to dusk; electric light, and even the source, was different again.

Project 3 Stage 4 Ex 2 (2)

Colour moods and themes

It seems an awful waste to let the beautiful Autumn colours we've had this year go to waste so I've had a quick trip around the garden and picked up a few to photograph.  I plan to select just one and make a colour bag for it.

My lovely bundle of leaves

                                               ....but which to choose

..in the end it was these

I liked the idea of photographing leaves on newspaper; there seemed a real connection.  I've pressed the leaves and when they are dry I will add them to my bag.

In spite of the colours being a symptom of the end of a season and decay the yellows and oranges are vibrant and exciting.  The more muted corals and browns dilute that a bit and add a mellowness that I find attractive.

In preparing my colour bag it was soon clear that the yellow tones were very similar to the ones I put into my Picasso bag a day or two ago.  I used some bright yellow poplin and a scrap of a brown polyester fabric.  For my yarns I selected embroidery silks; two browns, 3 yellows and three coral colours.  I also popped in some silks tops which I'm sure I could find a use for.

                    

I've really enjoyed doing these exercises and never again will I take colours I see so much at face value.

Zandra Rhodes

Zandra Rhodes

Zandra Rhodes

As a teenager I well remember Zandra Rhodes unconventional and well beyond my means clothing.  I longed to walk through the small market town where I lived in one of her creations.  It’s a pity I was both poor and shy.  Looking once again at her work it amazes me that what I liked all those years ago still looks wonderful.  Then it was the overall effect of the clothing that appealed to me today it is more an appreciation of the work of a multi skilled artist.

Rhodes was born in 1940 the daughter of a fitter for the House of Worth in Paris. Her mother was a flamboyant figure and brought Zandra up to value the different and off beat. Rhodes became interested in printed textile design and studied at Medway College and the Royal College of Art in London.

Rhode’s designs were considered outrageous and because she found it hard to get anyone to manufacture them she decided to do the whole thing herself and made the printed fabric an inherent part of the clothing she created.  The way she integrated the use of print into her designs reminds me very much of 1970's Clothkits clothing I used to make both for me and the children.

dianepernet.typepad.com

Lipstick Print 1968

birdsofoh.blogspot.com

In 1967 the Fulham Road Clothes Shop opened with Rhodes and her friend Sylvia Ayton working together.  By 1969 Rhodes was ready to launch into a solo career and took her collection to New York where it was featured in American Vogue and her career took off.

Rhodes entire lifestyle is as dramatic and theatrical as her appearance.  Whilst Paris plodded on with St Laurent she was in the vanguard of the new wave of extrovert British designers who placed the British fashion scene in the full glare of international acclaim in the 1970’s.

Rhodes style is very distinctive and has a timeless quality.  The very feminine and flamboyant prints from the 60’s look as fresh as more recent work. 

Throughout her career Rhodes has explored colour and pushed the boundaries.  What at first were thought of as garish colours have since become recognised as vibrant and exciting.  Rhodes uses unexpected combinations not only of colour but of fabrics.     A boring colour can be revitalised by using an unexpected fabric to print on.

Her most famous creation was produced in 1973 and is still available today.  It is "73/44". The dress has a deep V neck with a high waist, full skirt and long, graceful sleeves and a contrasting sash.  In its many variations this dress has graced the frames of anyone who is anyone; princesses, pop stars and actors.  

The Dress Installation shot by Anthony Scoggins

                    bankstonphotography.blogspot.com

In recent years there has been developments into areas like the theatre where she has designed both sets and costumes, licences including jewellery, wrapping paper and even a limited range for MAC make up.

Rhodes had an ambition to set up a Fashion and Textile Museum in London, which would show the work of fashion and textile designers from the 1950's onwards. It was officially opened in May 2003 and the museum is now part of Newham College of Further Education and it has been awarded the status of: National Skills Academy for Fashion, Textiles, and Jewellery.

At the opening of the Fashion and Textile

 Museum in May 2003

I've given up on owning a Rhodes creation but I can maybe have some wrapping paper.



Zandra Rhodes, 2005, A lifelong love affair with textiles. Zandra Rhodes Publications, Camberley, Surrey

Project 3 Stage 4 Ex 2 (1)

Colour moods and themes

Last night I sat in front of a fire, curtains closed, glass of wine in hand reading a book and it was called work!  I was looking through The Sketchbooks of Picasso (ed Glimcher and Glimcher, 1986) and really appreciating the skill of Picasso in the light of what I have been learning.  I selected this piece to make my first colour bag.  At first sight the colour range seems quite obvious but on closer inspection and looking with my eyes not my brain the wealth of colour was quite astounding.

Sketchbook no 66, p21
Picasso 

Sketchbook no 66 p21
Piccasso - detail

My threads

I found I needed far more colours of thread than I first thought.

Fabric swatches and threads

I decided that the feel of the work was restrained and subdued (but not calm).  It was linear so I looked in my ribbons and my fabric store provided some swatches the right colours.

I have noticed that the brown is a red/brown and on reflection I think my choice of ribbon is a bit too saturated.





In Picasso's picture it's the brown that stands out and the other colours seem to recede except for the orange/red on the right that jumps right out.  The blue and green are very pale and they provide a harmonious background for what seems to sit on the top.  I can identify two tones of orange; a red/orange and a yellow/orange.  The tones of yellow are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel so they harmonise.  Within the yellow range there are cool colours (lemon) and warmer ones (the orange/red.).

The yellows I found in the Picasso

I have a long standing ambivalence towards yellow generally but I find my view changing a bit.  When I think carefully about it whether I like yellow (or not) seems to depend on what sort of yellow it is and what it's with.  In this case I think it's the effect of the warmer yellows that makes the difference.

I mixed some gouache to see what I needed to do to make accurate colours for this picture and found everything except the yellow needed some white with it.  All of the colours (except the bright yellow) in the piece are unsaturated; that is they are all mixed with something else.








I feel quite content that I've chosen as accurately as I can with the materials I have.



Arnold Glimcher and Marc Glimcher eds, 1986, Je Suis le Cahier,The Sketchbooks of Picasso, Thames and Hudson, London