Category Archives: stitched textiles

Skyscapes, preparing new ideas

22 Monday May 2017

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

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Working towards a new exhibition is always challenging. I recently joined a group of  contemporary artists called Artel, all of us based in, or near the city of Chichester in the UK. The theme is Transience. This started a train of thought that began with my passion for the natural world. One of the most transient aspects for me is the sky. Skies change as you look at them, colours and cloud formations drift, move, merge, disappear. The light changes constantly, and the winds create rhythmic patterns that dance and swirl, offering endless possibilities that are perfect for abstracting and experimenting.

Capturing moments in time like this with a sewing machine is not easy. Over a period of months I made notes or quick sketches that were no more than a series of hasty lines. I took photos to help me remember colours, although these were soon ignored as ideas began to form. I NEVER work directly from a photo but use them as aides-memoire. Here are some pieces. They are small compared to my usual works, between 4-6 inches square, (10-16 cms) but who knows, maybe they will lead onto larger pieces later this year.

The first image is from a sunset, and the second a late afternoon sky

Carol Naylor, Skyscape-sunset

Little Skyscape Carol Naylor

This is a drawing/collage from my sketchbook. It has helped me make decisions, although it’s not been used as a direct starting point as I had intended to make a much larger piece, but a broken wrist got in the way!

Transiense drawing001 copy

and finally an explosion of gold and blues influenced by the collage above- I think I like it best so far! Your comments would be interesting and helpful.

Carol Naylor, skyscape, early evening

Spanish and Italian Reds

02 Sunday Apr 2017

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

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

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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 revisited, the80s

06 Sunday Nov 2016

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

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With over 35 years of sketchbooks in my studio I decided to look back to see what I was doing at various times during my career. It has been somewhat revelatory! I drew differently, often more boldly, without holding back, used a wider variety of media, and  frequently explored ideas that I thought I could use with my students. Back in the 80s with a fulltime lecturing post and a young family, I did make my own work, and had several exhibitions in the south of England, but I have no real record of those in visual terms. Do take a look at my drawings and ideas from the 1980s. You might be as surprised as I was!

This is from 1986. I photocopied some images, including pieces by Henry Moore, cut fragments up, pasted them down, then drew freely from them, inventing a surreal landscape. It was an exercise I did quite often, I found several in different books during this decade. I did quite a lot of mono printing and also batik at this time.

journey-1-henry-moore001

Here’s a more formal drawing from 1983 and its one of the few drawings I remember doing. On a field trip with students to Florence and Venice, on a cold, rainy March day, I sat in the Duomo in St Marks Square, and drew what was in front of me. You can see the date in the bottom lefthand corner. Its bolder and more direct compared to my current architectural studies and stays in the memory far longer than a photo!

journey-st-marks-1883001

The following mixed media piece shows me playing with pastels and pencils, thinking about land and sea in an abstract way. Its dated 1986. I did a lot of papermaking at this time, and this would have been part of my thought processes. I rather like it!

journey-1-mixed-media002

We spent several years as a family on a gite in France in Brittany. Here’s a drawing I’d totally forgotten, of the lake at Le Lendu. 1987 Pencil, pen and pastel

journey-1-france001

and finally, from my 1989 sketchbook, an abstracted drawing from a friend’s garden using pastels. Now I’m thinking I need to look at these again and start stitching from them! More to follow in my next post–

journey-garden-89

Spanish Studies

02 Friday Sep 2016

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

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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 in Exhibitions, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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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

www.textileartist.org

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Inspirations, Processes, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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The owners of this terrific website have started producing ebooks for sale. This is such a good idea, bringing the world of contemporary textiles to a wide audience at very affordable prices. I am delighted to say that I have a chapter in their most recent book, A Response to Landscape. This includes some fabulous work by other artists so well worth taking a look. I’ve now created a new PAGE here on my blog called http://www.textileartist.org which has links to several books including the aforementioned one. Do take a look.

In the meantime here are some of the images of mine that you can see. I talk about the way in which landscape has been a major influence on my life and my work. Both these images are based on the South Downs where I live. A summers day catching glimpses of poppies in the distance, and the Downs near Goodwood, which I see as soon as I start to travel north out of my home town Chichester

CN Where poppies bloom

downs near Goodwood

Petworth Revisited

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by in Commissions, Drawings, Embroiderers Guild UK, Exhibitions, galleries, Inspirations, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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I wrote about my work for the Capability Brown Festival in my last entry, explaining how Petworth House in West Sussex was my inspiration, but this was not the first time I had used this beautiful venue for my work. Back in 1997 I relinquished my  post as principal lecturer in the Fine Art department at Chichester University in order to free lance and concentrate purely on making my own work. This was a pretty scary step at the time, waking up each day with no timetable and no commitments other than going ot my studio to stitch! I began to apply for anything that looked possible for textile art, and saw a Festival of Craftmanship advertised. This was being organised by the Surrey Guild with Crafts Council support. Nothing venture, nothing gained, they wanted applications for commissioned pieces. I had  carried out a commission for St Richards hospital in Chichester earlier in 1997, and this had been the catalyst that made me stop teaching. The brief for the commissions was to make work inspired by Petworth as the festival was to be held there in 1998. I was delighted when my ideas and designs were accepted.

As you will see from the images that follow, my work was completely different nearly 20 years ago! At that point architecture was the theme I had been working with, so the house provided me with wonderful starting points. I made a diptych (approx 55cm x 130 cm) each panel for the commission, and made several more pieces that explored architectural features in Chichester and Petworth. I don’t have really good photos of the work, but I think the following gives a clear idea. Here is the diptych where you can see the architectural features of the house and gardens, followed by a detail.

Petworth hanging

Petworth detail small copy

 

drawings of building features Petworth drawing 4 copyPetworth urn 2

and finally one of the other embroideries I made which I still have at home! September Haze, Petworth, 76cm x 60cm approx

Petworth, September copy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capability Brown Festival

18 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by in Drawings, Embroiderers Guild UK, Exhibitions, Inspirations, Processes, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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Capability Brown Festival with the Embroiderers’ Guild Guild CB logo - Docs res copy

This year is the tri-centenary of the birth of the landscape architect Capability Brown, often referred to as England’s greatest gardener, who in the 18th century transformed the gardens of many of the country’s stately homes by his radical approach. The formal layouts so popular in France and Italy that had influenced the UK, were abandoned in favour of the natural landscape. This is what the UK Embroiderers Guild say-

“As the first ever celebration of Brown’s work, the Capability Brown Festival brings together a huge range of events. The Embroiderers’ Guild is delighted to be a Festival Partner and is contributing to the celebrations with a series of unique textile exhibitions at venues across the country throughout 2016”

For more information visit the guild website at https:// http://www.embroiderersguild.com

I am honoured to be amongst the textile artists invited to exhibit in a series of exhibitions throughout 2016. For this, I visited Petworth House near our home in West Sussex. I’ve been there many times, and indeed nearly 20 years ago made work for a festival in 1998 there, when I used the house and the iconic temples in the grounds, as my starting points. This time the grounds were much more significant. I walked, looked, made mental notes and took photos, as early winter isnt the best time to draw outside. 

The piece I have made especially for the Festival is called “The Lake at Petworth” as the lake proved both a challenge and a change of imagery for me. The paintings of Turner, who drew and painted there provided additional food for thought, and I used his glorious golds to inspire my sky.
You can see this at venues that include the NEC Birmingham and the Knitting and Stitching shows in London and Harrogate.  I am delighted that it has already featured on the guild website to advertise the Festival, and by the Landscape Institute (Royal chartered body for landscape architects) in their February newsletter.Lake I never try to imitate what I see, but I adapt aspects of form, colour and light and once I start stitching, the photos and sketches are put away, so that I simply create my own response. The whole piece follows where you can see the free edging. This has been sewn to a white box canvas. Embroidery size 35 x 45cm approx, mounted to 50 x 60cm

Naylor, C The Lake at Petworth 1 new

And here is the centre part so that you can see the detail. In my next post I will show you the work I made in 1998!

Petworth Lake, Autumn_edited-1

Looking back

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

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

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I’ve recently been looking back at some of my much earlier work and can see how much it has changed over the years. When I lectured full time I spent most of my time exploring ideas and techniques with my students. I began using a mixture of hand and machine embroidery, but made paper, explored felt making, used dyes, batik and other textile media. Behind it all were my sketch books. Observation and experience was always my starting points, no matter how much I abstracted or changed the initial imagery. Here are some much earlier pieces going back to the 80s and 90s  to compare and contrast for those who are familiar with my recent work.

This piece was based on the local landscape meeting the sea. 1983, 60cm  x42cm approx. Hand made paper with mixed media drawing, embedded pieces of dyed of silk and threads, and some simple hand embroidery

Paper sea001 copy

The next piece from 1988 uses pulp poured onto a ground of handmade paper with additional fibres and stitch and is part of a larger piece which was 50cm x 37cm. The starting points were menhirs and other standing stones

Dolmen006

Moving on to the 90s I went back to machine embroidery, where I’ve remained ever since despite huge changes in imagery and style

Carol Naylor Beach Umbrellas 1993

The piece above was based on drawings from the Costa Brava in Spain, made in 1993. Some variegated threads were used alongside a limited palette of bright colours to reflect the heat of the day

Heres the first drawing done in situ. pencil, so quite delicate but I hope it’s clear enough

beach Umbrella sketch001

and one of the designs I made from it, although I only used aspects of this in the embroidery as I felt it was too fussy!

beach Umbrella sketch 3