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Carol Naylor

~ Contemporary textiles, making, exploring and communicating ideas

Carol Naylor

Tag Archives: water

Isolating, Artel and Alchemy

30 Monday Mar 2020

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

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Art, drawing, embroidery, skyscapes, stitch, sunrise, thread, water

No need to explain the word Isolation, but Alchemy is the title and theme of an exhibition that has been postponed. This is a group of contemporary artists  I belong to in Chichester, called ARTel. We all practice different art-forms, including painting, printmaking, sculture, photography, film, textiles. Motivation, whatever we do, is so important to everyone now, not just artists, so my “alchemy” is this-

I have found old embroidery threads and little bits of fabric hidden away in my studio. Some threads are 40 years old, others may be 10 years old but not used since then. I am using light in the sky, over land or sea, and machine embroidering as usual, but trapping fabric fragments and adding tiny areas of hand stitching ! I have never done this before. Hope you enjoy my efforts so far. The aim is to increase the hand stitching as I develop my ideas. You may need to search for the stitched in fabrics and added threads! COMMENTS welcome!

Golden Light of Evening001_edited-1

Above, “Golden Light of evening ” 5 in sq/13cm sq embedded fragments of fabric and fibres Below “Early evening sky” 6in/15cm sq– remembered from my last train journey back from London 4 weeks ago – added threads are hand stitched over machine embroidery with embedded fragments

2020-03-17 13.53.12_edited-1

Below, “Scattered Light” with embedded gold fabric and hand stitching, 6 in / 15cm sq

Scattered light

“Orange Sky” sunrise, hand embroidery in the skies 5in/ 13cm sq

Orange Sky

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

Skyscapes, preparing new ideas

22 Monday May 2017

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

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

abstraction, Art, Artel, Chichester, clouds, colour, rain, skies, stitch, sunsets, threads, water

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

Sketchbooks revisited, the80s

06 Sunday Nov 2016

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

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

abstraction, Art, drawing, embroidery, galleries, gardens, landscape, painting, paper, stitch, Venice, water

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

Developing ideas and techniques

04 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, Inspirations, Processes, stitched textiles

≈ 6 Comments

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)

EPSON scanner image

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)

Hanging-Harbour

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)

Fading summer light detail

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