Tag Archives: thread

Art and Textiles from Spain to Scotland

10 Sunday Sep 2017

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

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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

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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 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

The Colour Red-poppies and memories 1

06 Monday Mar 2017

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

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I find red one of the most difficult colours to work with, and tend to add it into a piece of work to provide richness, splashes of colours, and to represent flowers such as poppies without trying to “copy” a flower. In this post you will see some of the landscape that has inspired me, and I explain some more stitch techniques. Sizes given are always for the actual embroidery and dont include mounts, or framing.

This poppy field in France was the start of what became a gentle obsession, looking for glimpses of scarlet amongst the corn, grasses and wheat in France, England and Italy. This post looks at French and English imagery

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I made a series of works where I used photos to jog my memory, and then drew directly onto my base canvas having put the photos away. The following piece is one that I felt worked well. I used cable stitch from the reverse side for much of the work (explained in my last post, From Drawings to a Stitched Landscape) and then put a heavy red woollen Burmilana/lana no 12 in the bobbin, loosened the bobbin case screw horribly(!) tightened my top thread, a normal no 30, and stitching on  the correct side of the canvas the top thread whipped the red thread through. If you try this be prepared to scream and shout a lot as threads do sometimes break! Its called “Glimpses of Scarlet and Gold” 21 x 28cm approx and was based on fields on France.

glimpses-of-scarlet-for-website

In the first smaller piece the red contrasts with the softer colours of cornfields as this is from my local landscape, The South Downs 14cm x 18cm approx embroidery size. The second one is smaller still, 10cm x 13cm, and is called “Poppies Ablaze”. Here I went back to cable stitch couching the heavy red from the back, then turning to the front and wandering across the red freely with greens and golds to get a feel of intensity broken by line

downland-poppies-cropped

poppies-ablaze-cropped

In my next post I’ll look at reds used in other landscapes from Italy and Spain and a private commission where “red” was requested!

 

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

Brighton Art Fair 2014

21 Sunday Sep 2014

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

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I’m busy preparing my work for Brighton Art Fair which takes place from September 26th-28th. For non UK readers of this blog, Brighton is situated on the south coast, a really lively and historic town centre.  I shall be showing the Skyfall series, some of which have featured in earlier posts here, as well as smaller, more intimate pieces. I like to contrast detailed, impressionistic works with larger more gestural pieces. As most of the other exhibitors will be showing painting and printmaking, I’ll be one of a handful of textile artists. Here are a couple of images for you. The first is a smaller piece that measures approximately 20cm square mounted onto a canvas and in a box frame to make the overall dimensions 33cm square. The second image is a detail of the sky from Skyfall 1, a windy day on the Downs

Hints of Lavender001EPSON scanner image

Lavender Fields

10 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Commissions, Inspirations, Processes, Textile Art

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I’ve been working on a series of small images inspired by a visit to our local lavender farm in West Sussex, as well as using ideas observed on my travels in France and Spain. I build line over line in different blues, purples, greens, trying to suggest my experiences rather than copy what I see. The techniques I employ in this and all my works incorporate cable stitch, where heavy threads are put in the bobbin. I turn over and stitch on the reverse side, so that the top thread couches the heavy thread on the right side. This allows me to use a really wide variety of rayon, metallic and woollen mixes that would otherwise be inpossible to stitch. Here’s a piece that was commissioned by a client, called ” Shades of Blue and Lavender”

Shades of blue and lavender

This is a follow up piece called “Where the Lavender Grows”

Where the Lavender grows001

And here is a detail of the stitching

Where the Lavender detail

Spanish Pilgrimage

29 Tuesday Jul 2014

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

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After a hectic summer of exhibiting and teaching, not to mention family occasions, we leave soon for our annual pilgrimage to Spain. Certain places and areas have always offered inspiration. The changing light, the colours, the different crops each year, when sunflowers previously grown turn into fields of lavender, distant mountain ranges that are blue, grey, rose, depending on the weather conditions are all things I look  for. I make drawings, never quite sure which ones will lead to a textile, and often return to earlier sketchbooks which are like diaries for me. Here are some images from a previous visit taken from the wonderful landscape of the central plateau, the Meseta

This is near Covarrubias in Castille, one of our favourite places. Lavender grows next to the burnt sierra soil and  golden wheatfields

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This is a drawing taken from here,

. As you can see the farmhouse doesnt get into my drawing on this occasion!

Landscape with lavender, drawing

 

–and here is a machine embroidery that found a new home last week! The end result is never the same as the starting point, as once I’m on my sewing machine anything can happen, but it wouldn’t take shape without the knowledge gained from looking and drawing

Shades of Lavender, 30x24cm

Robert Frost influences

21 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by in Exhibitions, Inspirations, poetry, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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With the Chichester Art Trail over, a number of works have found new homes, which is always gratifying! In particular a favourite piece of mine called  “Sierra 1” went to a new customer. It was one of four pieces I made inspired by the poem “Nothing Gold can Stay” by the wonderful Robert Frost. An image follows with images of Sierra 2 and 4 as well. I was trying to look at the way in which the light changes throughout the day, altering the way in which we perceive colour, which is so beautifully expressed in this poem.I havent reproduced the poem here as I’m not sure about copyright! Sierra 1 is about early morning, and the other three pieces looked at different times of the day. Read the poem and you’ll see what I mean. Poetry and songs have helped me formulate ideas on a number of occasions. Thomas Hardy is another, and even titles from Joan Baez songs have found their way into my visual repertoire! I’ll save those for another post!

Here is Sierra 1, early morning in central Spain, the source of so much personal inspiration

Sierra_edited-1

Sierra 2, as the golden light turns to green

Sierra 2

 

Sierra 4, morning light revisited

Sierra 1V

Textile Artist.org

06 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by in Inspirations, stitched textiles, Textile Art, UK textile artists

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Textile artists, ideas and processes and where to resource these are important for us all. If you don’t know the website http://www.textileartist.org then do have a look. This excellent site has regular articles by practising textile artists, as well as articles offering advice about all sorts of textile matters. I’ve written three articles now for them and have been delighted by the response from visitors to the site from all over the globe.

I’ve spent the last few weeks making a series of small works that I’ll be showing at exhibitions in the coming months, a couple follow for you as does a full image of a larger piece, Downs in Winter. I did put a detail of these on an earlier post but now I have a good image of the whole piece which also shows the framing process, attached to canvas in a box frame, unglazed.

Downs in Winter

and here are the two small images from my new series, the first is called “Silver Lining” and the second is “Spring Light” part of my Spring sequence, maybe if I stitch it Spring will get here!

Silver lining 1

Spring Light001