'If you make happiness your goal, then you're not going to get to it… The goal should be an interesting life."

Dorothy Rowe

Saturday 23 May 2009

Playing with paint

and oil pastels. That’s what I did yesterday at the Contemporary Textile workshop. [‘CTW’ might be easier.]

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We were asked to bring a design source. It may surprise you that mine was this.

The we used isolaters to select a section – we were encouraged to choose a very small detail as the aim was abstraction. And then drew it using oil pastels.

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I’m amazed to realise that I can work out which bit I used for this!

 

 

 

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Then we did another one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And another one, changing the colours.

 

 

 

 

 

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And then used isolators to select a bit of that and did another drawing.

The tutor told us she didn’t like landscapes.

It wasn’t deliberate – but all of these look like landscapes to me, if you turn them the right way …

[How can you not like landscapes? It’s like not liking blue.] [Now lots of you will tell me you don’t like blue. Or landscapes.]

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Incidentally, scanning this one in grey scale shows one reason why it doesn’t work. Not enough contrast.

 

 

 

 

 

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Next we took textured fabrics, painted them splodgily with acrylics mixed with emulsion for economy and splodginess – and had lunch while they dried.

After lunch we reproduced one of our designs in painted fabric and stitch.

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I think I prefer it as an abstract.

I found the whole session very good – more product oriented than process, which I preferred, and which we haven’t had so much in the previous sessions.

 

It was made clear to me that the piece needs a lot more stitch.

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So I have spent today tidying – and making books. Sort of half tiles. Inside they are triangular concertinas, if you see what I mean.

 

 

 

 

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Today’s photo is more shadow appliqué. That coppery sheer isn’t as bright as it appears, it is reflecting the flash.

[Yes, I did make a lot of samples – partly having a long summer holiday [the first after I retired] partly a moving of goalposts which meant I ended up making more samples because I hadn’t done what I was supposed to do.]

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