• About Carol
  • Contact
  • websites
  • Teaching and Lecturing
  • www.textileartist.org

Carol Naylor

~ Contemporary textiles, making, exploring and communicating ideas

Carol Naylor

Category Archives: Spain

Fragments, lockdown 3 in the UK

10 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Commissions, Drawings, galleries, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art, UK textile artists

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Art, stitch, landscape, drawing, embroidery, sketchbooks, stitch

My first post for some months, but I’ve been looking at all my sketchbooks recently and my mark making seems to have been intrinsically linked to my embroidery, not necessarily with the intent to stitch, but to record information. They are my diaries and often bring back happy memories of places visited, some returned to many times, others one off holidays or work trips as I am lucky enough to have taught in many places. This year for all of us has been one where we have stayed at home or only visited local areas. I prefer to draw on site where ever I am and then often develop and invent from there. Sometimes I don’t like the end results so I cut up pieces then in my sketch book I extend the piece. I enjoy doing this and people who follow my instagram amd facebook will have seen some of these! I have many more. Your comments would be welcomed!

Fragment drawing from central Spain

Poppies on the South Downs near my home in West Sussex UK, followed by another fragment drawing from a piece based on central Spain

This one uses drawings I cut up and then extended with further drawing in my sketchbook

EPSON scanner image

Travels and drawings, Cantabria, Spain

20 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Exhibitions, galleries, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

embroidery, galleries, rain, seascapes, stitch, water

A much overdue entry here from me, but after a month of travelling in Spain I am ready to start working again. I find the contrasts in the land and sea utterly inspiring, and never tire of looking at looking at the way  in which things change hour by hour. I often re-draw the same views. If Cezanne could draw and paint endless views of Mt St Victoire then I think its allowed!   So this blog entry is about Isla in Cantabria, Spain, a place I first visited in 1983, and my next one will be the landscape.

Isla rocks001

Above, drawing of rocks and sea on a stormy day, and rock studies below

Isla rocks

Isla beach001

Isla, Cantabria, just a few of the many photos I’ve taken there

2018-08-08 09.50.02
2018-08-10 15.37.13-2

 

2016-08-20 19.58.32

and finally 2 pieces I made a year ago inspired by these visits both now in new homes. I never copy drawings or photographs, but they inform my thinking. I have ideas for new ones, so we will see what happens! The first is called Cantabrian Nightfall, and the second  Summer Storm, Cantabria.

Cantabrian Nightfall

 

Summer Storm Cantabria 1.jpg

Art and Textiles from Spain to Scotland

10 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, Embroiderers Guild UK, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

abstraction, Art, drawing, embroidery, landscape, Scotland, Spain, stitch, thread

As always a busy summer schedule included work and play! Our usual month away in Spanish hideaways, wonderful landscapes for inspiration, staying with friends who are like family, was swiftly followed by a flight to Glasgow to teach for the Scottish Region of the Embroiderers Guild on the stunning campus at Stirling University. You can see some of my drawings here, plus examples from the summer school, an amazingly responsive group of students who played and worked hard in equal measure! The first images are from Spain, followed by a selection of work from Stirling summer school.

Sunflowers near Sepulveda, sketch book drawing. I hope to use this and the second drawing as starting points for embroideries this autumn.

 

2017-07-30 10.25.32Carol Naylor drawing

This is the wonderful Posada de San Millan in Sepulveda where we stay with our delightful friend Pilar.

2017-07-29 16.17.17

 

Lavender and sunflowers growing in fields side by side on the tiny road between Santo Domingo de Silos, and Lerma inspired this memory drawing as there was nowhere to stop the car safely!

Lavender an Sunflower001Carol Naylor drawing

 

And now for Scotland. The wonderful campus at Stirling University

20170826_162725

Here are some if the wonderful pieces made by my students. The theme was The Land we Know so nearly all had images from the wonderful landscapes of Scotland. Many of them had only done basic machine embroidery before. It shows what you can achieve in under 4 days. Maybe the late evening wine helped! There were 15 students so I can’t really show all the work here, but I felt so proud of their achievements.

,20170827_172106 By Ruth Blakey, taught by Carol Naylor

20170827_171035by Isobel Shaw, taught by Carol Naylor

20170827_171838by Maureen Griffiths, taught by Carol Naylor

20170827_195234 (1)by Susan Gray, taught by Carol Naylor

I think these give an idea of what is possible if you are brave enough to fly on your sewing machine!

Spanish and Italian Reds

02 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Commissions, Drawings, galleries, Inspirations, Italy, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Art, drawing, embroidery, France, Italy, poppies, red, Spain, stitch, thread

I’m not talking wine here for those who know me well (!) but this is a follow up to my last post, where I looked at using the colour red in my work. Below you will see a number of contrasting pieces where different red tones and threads have been used either as one of the main colours or as highlights within the compositions. I always use first hand experience, even if its just a fleeting glimpse of something that can inspire a series of works. The first embroidery is called “Sol y Sombra” which translates as sun and shade. The image comes from the landscape of central Spain near Santo Domingo de Silos. The light  was pouring through the valley, with golden wheatfields, terracotta earth, and blue shadows reflecting the mountains, catching my eye. After drawing on  site, when back home, I stripped out the vegetation so that I could concentrate on the land’s surface, and the act of stitching took over.

I am always interested in hearing what readers think so your comments are welcomed.

Sol y Sombra cropped

This next piece is called “Winter’s Song”, memories of cool light and chillier weather and the changes wrought by these conditions on the landscape.

C Naylor Winters Song

I showed this next piece in my post entitled ” From Drawings to a Stitched Landscape” where you can see how I developed the piece, but its so very red it needs to be seen again here! The cascading fields were seen against a backdrop of wheatfields and distant blue hills, Spain at its hottest and best, rich with colour and the sounds of insects.

looking-towards-clunia-final

From the fiery reds of Spain now to the rolling Tuscan hills peppered with poppies. I use a crimson rather than a scarlet thread in this series as I feel it echoes the landscape more softly. I called this “Tuscan Serenade”. I never tire of playing with ideas that take me back in my mind to Italy, with its cypresses, hills and late springtime poppies that permeate the fields.

Tuscan Serenade

Finally the following embroidery was a small commission for a French family who requested a red landscape. I took the reds from Spain and mountain ranges from France, and really enjoyed the challenge of adding richer scarlet colours combied with metallic copper and gold threads. Its about 20cm square.

Bouton 1_edited-1

From drawings to a stitched landscape

16 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, Exhibitions, galleries, Inspirations, Processes, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Art, Castilla y Leon, Covarrubias, embroidery, galleries, landscape, Madeira Threads, Natesh threads, Spain, stitch, textile, Wonderfil threads

I have recorded here some of the stages of my most recent embroidery, completed this week, and would welcome your comments. The drawing was done in central Spain near Covarrubias last summer. I have shown some of the stitching as it develops, explaining the processes that resulted in this final piece, a Spanish landscape that contrasts strongly with my gentler South Downs pieces.

Here is the drawing, A4, pencil, pastels, watercolour pencils, and pen.

looking-towards-clunia-drawing

The planning stage with mainly Madeira threads, Natesh and Wonderfil added later

dsc00714

I draw a few main lines directly onto the painters canvas, stitch them in and then turn to the back as most of the work is done with cable stitch. This technique means putting threads that are too heavy to go through the eye of the needle on the bobbin. I stitch on the reverse side of the canvas, couching down the heavy threads to give long, uninterrupted lines of threads- the next image shows me workimg from the back. The top thread colour is important as it affects the bobbin thread adding new  colours to the piece eg the bright red is couching down a heavy metallic copper underneath.

dsc00719

I have to keep turning to the front, shown next, to make sure I’m happy with what I’m doing, but as the bobbin runs out every 3 minutes I get plenty of opportunity to correct any errors and add any fine details. You can see below that the fabric starts to move and undulate. I “go with the flow” in the hope I can control the final results!

dsc00718

-and here it is, 24cm x 35cm approx. The drawing is  only ever a guide, as once I start stitching, the thought processes and techniques take over. I never try to copy my sketches, but aim to translate and interpret. Hope you found this useful and interesting!

–looking-towards-clunia-final

 

Sketchbooks, the 90s

15 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, galleries, Inspirations, Processes, Spain, Textile Art

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Art, drawing, embroidery, France, landscape, Landscape Architecture, painting, Spain, stained glass, stitch, textile, threads, windows

My first entry for 2017 and it’s a look at my sketchbooks in the 90s. All the drawings here are from 1991-92 and there’s quite a change of direction. I started looking at architecture and architectural features, so here are drawings from France and Spain. I also show two embroideries that evolved from the drawings.

Carol Naylor Beach Umbrellas 1993

Beach Umbrellas, Costa Brava.( machine embroidery onto muslin) The embroidery came after making about six drawings. The first, which is the delicate pencil drawing below, was made in situ on the beach. Then I made several others, extracting shapes and lines until I felt I was ready to stitch. The final piece in no way copies my drawings but I hope shows the developing ideas

beach-umbrella-sketch001

beach Umbrella sketch 3

I visited France on a field trip with students, Chartres and the Matisse chapel at Vence were just two venues. Here are some designs I did after looking at Matisse’s amazing windows.( the on site sketches are difficult to show here) I eventually did a series of embroideries based on stained glass but with my own take! So you see. I didnt always makw landscapes! Art evolves all the time– The embroidery below was onto calico that I painted and then stitched.

matisse-chapel001

 

matisse-chapel002

window-5

 

 

Spanish Studies

02 Friday Sep 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Art, Cantabria, Castilla, Cepeda, Covarrubias, drawing, Isla, landscape, Sepulveda, Spain, stitch, sunshine, textiles, thread

Four weeks away from home in our favourite Spanish haunts gives plenty of time for drawing, absorbing and thinking about art. Each area we visit has its own charms, from the sierra south of Salamanca, to Sepulveda and Covarrubias, both stunning  little medieval towns, and finally to Isla in Cantabria in the north. Here are a few drawings that might simply act as my visual diary, or could lead to further work on stitching on my sewing machine. I have 35 years of sketch books in my studio. Maybe in my next post I will revisit some of those.

Las Batuecas, parque nacional de la Sierra de Francia

Las Batuecas002

Sepulveda

Sepulveda001

The road from Santo Domingo de Silos to Covarrubias

Road from Santo Domingo001

and our favourite beach in Isla in Cantabria

Isla beach001

Art in Action 2016

07 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Exhibitions, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Art in Action, embroidery, exhibitions, landscape, Oxfordshire, south downs, Spain, stitch, textiles, thread, Waterperry House

I am really lucky to be demonstrating and exhibiting at what is going to be the very last Art in Action at Waterperry, in Oxfordshire from July 13th-17th. This extraordinary event was started 40 years ago and has gone from strength to strength. It is surely the best of its kind in the UK and will be sorely missed. Where else can you see hundreds of artists working in every media imaginable, showing you how they create their work, alongside concerts, performances and lectures all held in the stunning grounds at Waterperry. So if you havent got a ticket and can make it come along and see it, its your last chance! You can even watch a flamenco performance this year! So if you come along you will find me in the textiles Demonstrators Marquee working on my sewing machine!

I’ve been busy making new pieces all year, from small portfolio ones to a range of stitched and framed canvases. Here are two of the smaller pieces.

“An Abundance of Poppies” 12cm x 15cm aprox (South Downs UK)

An Abundance of Poppies small

“Amber Glow” 11cm x  14 cm approx (Spanish memories)

Amber Glow

News Update June 2016

18 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, magazine articles, Spain, Textile Art

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Art, drawing, embroidery, exhibitions, landscape, lavender fields, Spain, stitch, Textile Fibre Forum magazine, textiles

It’s been a busy few weeks for me with some great promotion. Firstly my first spread in an Australian magazine, TFF (Textile Fibre Forum) #122 June 16, which shows the way in which my work has changed and progressed over 40 years of making and exhibiting, and then a piece from the wonderful Diana Springall collection of contemporary embroidery was featured and discussed on “MAKE! Craft Britain”, an hour long programme presented by Martha Kearney, on mainstream UK TV BBC4 June 9th 2016. This foray into the world of stitching set about de-bunking the theory that embroidery is craft  rather than art, and Diana eloquently explained why  Britain is still at the fore of embroidery. From the mid 1950s art schools taught  embroidery students alongside the painters and sculptors. Students had to draw, and had to acquire the same skills as well as heir own technical expertise, and I was lucky enough to study at Goldsmiths Art School in the mid-late 60s in this way. Drawing has been fundamental to my own personal progress in textile art, and I have all my sketchbooks since 1980 in my studio, a permanent  reference library, as well as a visual diary.

Here is Spanish Lavender, the piece featured on the TV progamme, 43cm x53cm approx.Spanish Lavender DS collection

and here one of my many drawings Drawing Castille 2

and another

Cepeda drawing001

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 196 other subscribers

Blogroll

  • Stitch-Pretty
  • Dawn Thorne
  • Protect the BISHOP OTTER COLLECTION at the University of Chichester
  • texteyelsbyhazel
  • Donna Cheshire Textiles
  • fran Brammer
  • Art by Susan Ferguson
  • 28gumtrees
  • Creating something every day
  • wildsherkin
  • Christy Turner
  • Meta Heemskerk
  • womanwithafish
  • Sew Path
  • Somewhere over the rainbow
  • susan chapman
  • The Haberdasher

Recent Posts

  • 2022 new works for exhibition in Chichester
  • New works exhibited in 2021
  • Fragments, lockdown 3 in the UK
  • On location, inspirations and drawings in lockdown.
  • Isolating, Artel and Alchemy

Recent Comments

carolnaylortextiles on 2022 new works for exhibition…
clementinecrafts on 2022 new works for exhibition…
carolnaylortextiles on Fragments, lockdown 3 in the…
Christine Higgins on Fragments, lockdown 3 in the…
carolnaylortextiles on New works exhibited in 20…

Archives

  • May 2022
  • September 2021
  • March 2021
  • August 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • August 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • November 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013

Categories

Blog at WordPress.com.

Stitch-Pretty

Handmade Bags & Quilts

Dawn Thorne

Printed & Stitched Textiles

Protect the BISHOP OTTER COLLECTION at the University of Chichester

Save Art Galleries at Universities

texteyelsbyhazel

Donna Cheshire Textiles

2016 Gold Award Winner Craft & Design Selected Maker - Textiles & Needlecrafts

fran Brammer

textile art, art and costume.

Art by Susan Ferguson

portraiture landscapes & figurative

28gumtrees

Dream house, dream life, yeah right. Dream on...

Creating something every day

Life without creativity is very dull - a pictoral diary

wildsherkin

Once upon an island...the musings and makings of a part-time islander

Christy Turner

printmaking, embroidery & artist books

Meta Heemskerk

womanwithafish

sue stone textile artist

Sew Path

Layers of paint and stitch leading to original fabric and paper constructions

Somewhere over the rainbow

Théa Oz - Créations textiles

susan chapman

welcome to all that is happening around me

The Haberdasher

- using stitch to explore nets, networks and family trees

  • Follow Following
    • Carol Naylor
    • Join 196 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Carol Naylor
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...