Tags
abstraction, aerial photography, Art, drawing with threads, embroidery, landscape, rivers, south downs, stitch, textile, threads, water
I’ve recently been re-visiting some of my earlier work and am surprised how much my techniques have developed and changed. Up to around 2004 my work was quite vigorous and gestural, but as my fascination for landscape took over, I began to work more regularly on a less dramatic scale, concentrating on building up line upon line. This allowed me to really draw more with the needle rather than making sweeps of colour. In the images here, you can see how the very heavily textured earlier pieces contrast with the more recent ones. THe first image is a detail from a series I made based on rivers. This was a trial piece for a much larger hanging. (1999)
I used a very loose top tension which was dragged over the heavier threads in the bobbin ( I do most of my work this way!) I’ve spent today repairing and re-working a larger hanging from this series and hope to show it at a later date.
The next image is a hanging called Harbour. One metre in width, it included ideas taken from aerial photography. I was happy with the ebb and flow of the watery section and the overlaid white highlights. I made a companion piece to this which found a new home last year! (2004)
Finally a more recent piece that shows the way in which I try to now build layers through over stitching with many different threads. This is a detail of a piece I made for a textiles challenge on facebook. I’ll write more about this next time! (2014)
Beautiful use of colour and texture. Atmospheric
thanks so much Cas, really appreciated
I like both the early and the recent. Working with my borrowed machine which gives up after 10 minutes of free stitching I can’t imagine how you can get such movement or coverage 🙂 They are wonderful
thanks so much Minuet! Well I’ve been doing it for ages and I have two workhorses for machines, Berninas 1008. I dont use anything computerised or will modern gadgets, its just free drawing
I love Harbour and how it’s so crinkled up. The large expanse of that deep purply blue (my favourite colour) probably helps too. How about showing that piece in the Textile arts group next time? I think it’s my favourite of yours so far!
I could show it Neroli! I need a better picture of it I think, but still have it so will try. It was one of two pieces I made, the other sold but I have a good image, I’ll give it some thought! Thanks for signing up!