Friday, May 17, 2013

A Great Week in the Studio

I gave myself a gift for Mother's Day.  I haven't had a lot of time recently to create.  Well, that's not exactly true.  I've been creating, as in creating a new class, but not art work.  So for Mother's Day I gave myself a week to create.
I really wanted to get a piece ready for the Annual SAQA auction.  They are due June 1 so I decided it's now or never.  I still have some work to do on this, I am going to add some beads.  Don't usually do beads but decided this was a great candidate for some beads.


 12 X 12
A Study in Green









 Close-up of A Study in Green













 Another project I've been working on this week is a portrait created using thread painting.  I think I have a good start but it is so hard finding the right color of thread.  I have blended threads in order to get just the color I want but this is not an easy job.  I do love to do this through.  Can't wait to get the wild white hair in his eyebrows and hair line.














Okay, here is my dilemma.  I belong to a wonderful fiber arts group.  We have a challenge where we are to make a monochromatic quilt. I love this group and I want to be supportive and make a piece for this challenge.  I took a wonderful photo last Summer of a sunflower. with the sun shining from behind the flower.

I've wanted to make this into a quilt since I took the photo.  Easy, right?  Not quite.  I dyed fabric last week in graded colors using Tangerine. It turned out beautiful and with a little added brighter yellow the flower develop beautifully.

Now I need a background.  If you know my work you know that I favor bright fabrics.  However, I am trying to follow the guidelines and make this monochromatic.  The piece to the left would fit the bill.  Do I like it?  I'm not sure.


So I auditioned some different backgrounds.  If I used this one it doesn't fit the bill for monochromatic but if it's better then it doesn't matter. Right?
















Then I tried this piece of hand dyed multi color.  Not quite as good, in my opinion.


















I feel like this is me.  I need to add some leaves and a steam.  I plan to do some hand-quilting in the center maybe add some beads.  No way does it fit the bill for the monochromatic challenge.  I have to make a decision.













Tomorrow is back to work on prepping for my class.  Which by the way is June 2-8 at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.  There are still a few openings in case you would like to learn something new and exciting.

This post is long but I hope you will bear with me I want to add two more photos to give you an idea of what the students will be learning in this class. .





Spirit of the Kive

The technique I used to create the image for this piece will be part of my class presentation.  Included in this process is creating a four-value portrait.











A is for Aubrey


Typographic Portraits will also be taught in this class.  I will also be teaching other techniques as time allows.  Would love to see you there.  




I am linking this post to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

9 comments:

  1. Just an opinion, but I seem to like the monochomatic background best.

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    1. Thanks Judy the mono just may be the one. I'm afraid there might not be enough of that fabric but ordered a piece off the internet last night that might work.

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  2. Marilyn,
    I like the monochromatic background best. The others are just not quite right. Just my two cents.

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  3. Guess I am different :). I like the blue the most - the yellow in the green background draws my eye away from the flower. However, there is nothing wrong with the mono background.
    Think your auction piece is coming along beautifully too!
    Judy

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    1. Thanks Judy. I'm leaning toward the mono. But the blue is a close second.

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  4. I agree, I like the mono (first one ) the best. Your work is awesome BTW.
    How did you do the study in green? Is it painted? If so what did you use for paint?
    It's great!

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    1. Thanks for the compliment. The cabbage is from a photo I took in CA. I loved the different colors of green in each cabbage. I manipulated a little in PSE and printed on silk. I then thread painted and am now in the process of beading. I am really liking what is happening with the beading.

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  5. Everything is wonderful....love the piece for SAQA and the beading adds a lot....your thread painting is beautiful...love the addition of white you're thinking of ...The Sunflower looks great and actually I do like the first one which fits the monochromatic challenge...the Blue/yellowish background is more you but the first is elegant and works well colorwise...a hard decision.

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