On Instagram recently (link in the side bar), I posted these details among others of the tiny Miniature Reflections pieces that I have recently shown hanging in a group in the Lansdown Gallery.
Charlton Stitcher
Working with mixed media stitched textiles gives me great pleasure. As well as the joy in the art of making and exploring, there are the friendships formed as work grows.
Thursday, 23 September 2021
Developing an image
Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Monochrome
Our exhbition at Lansdown Gallery in Stroud has now ended without me posting photos of the last two sets of my work so this post is set to remedy that. The theme in both series is monochrome and the striking black / white contrast that it offers.
First is a group of pieces developed from photographs looking up into an outdoor tented theatre space near Cairns in Queensland Australia. These photos were converted to black and white and manipulated and cropped in Photoshop and then digitally printed onto glossy photographic paper. Finally, marks were made with a fibre pen extending lines and detail beyond the photos and a small number of stitches were added to give texture.
As seen in the gallery this time, Australian Landscapes I - IV* (apologies for the reflections) were the result.
Thursday, 16 September 2021
An Artist's Book and Window Panes
This time, I'm posting three pieces with a very similar colour palette, all of which have imagery originating from the same high rise building in Sydney which has featured in all my most recent posts - but with colour manipulated.
The first is the artist's book High Rise that I mentioned in the last post.
This book includes a short piece of text hinting at the destruction of ancient ways of life which can occur when large modern cities proliferate without sufficient control over building and with limited respect for those already living there, perhaps for millennia.
High Rise
Soaring shards of hardened steel and gleaming glass storeys high clean cut
Undeniable
symbols of a future secured at cost the land ignored
The past eclipsed by archaeology of the most permanent most destructive kind ...
Also included in this post are two digitally printed, stitched and framed pieces working around the reflections in high rise buildings. They are heavily stitched in the same limited colour palette mostly using two strands of DMC and Anchor embroidery threads.
Window Pane I and II ...
These were unfortunately photographed in the gallery and behind glass (apologies!) which has reduced the definition.
Monday, 13 September 2021
Brunel Broderers in Stroud
Brunel Broderers is currently showing work in the Lansdown Gallery, Stroud, under the title Inhabit. Details of the exhibition can be found in the side bar of this blog.
Members work in a variety of methodologies, although embroidery is generally at the centre of what we do. On show this time, there is a mix of wall work of different kinds and 3D installations. There are pieces on paper and card as well as on cloth.
As I have explained in several previous posts, the work I am showing this time mostly explores the spectacular skylines of modern cities with their high rise office blocks and reflections. In the main, it was developed from a single photograph of a high rise building in Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia. This photo was enlarged, manipulated, overlaid and cropped repeatedly in Photoshop.
Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Exhibiting in Stroud, Gloucestershire
I may have been silent for the last few weeks but I haven't been inactive. Although textile work has had to share time with much needed meet-ups with family and friends and escaping to a family holiday cottage in Scotland as soon as we were allowed to do so under Covid regulations, I have been busy making work for this exhibition with the Brunel Broderers. We will be at the gallery in Stroud from 8th to 19 September.
It has been such a strange time for everyone. My stitching and art work have been a mainstay for me during all the restrictions. Most important has been the focus provided by this exhibition. The theme of Inhabit has encouraged me to make a varied response and has resulted in work both on paper and on cloth.
As so often, my work has been developed from overseas travel (not of course possible recently). I have written much on this blog in the past about my trips to Sydney, Australia, and Vancouver, Canada. Both of these vibrant modern cities continue to intrigue and fascinate me with their dramatic modern architecture, high-rise office blocks and many reflections.These buildings have provided rich scope for me to develop abstract digital imagery through manipulation in Photoshop.
But behind its outward appearance, there are hints in the work at the destruction of ancient ways of life and possible damage to landscape and archeology when modern development proceeds largely unchecked.
The exhibition shows new work from all the members of the group. More details of the approach adopted by each member can be found on our blog at brunelbroderers.blogspot.co.uk.
We will be stewarding throughout and look forward to welcoming anyone close enough to come.
Monday, 31 May 2021
Making changes, joining and finishing off
Why does it always take so long to finish off a piece of work? It doesn't seem to matter if I'm working with paper or fabric, or with print, photographs or mainly in stitch. It always takes me longer that I expect to get everything how I like it.
The Tower piece I first showed as a small maquette in April, has needed many changes to the individual images that make up the final tower. This sort of piece in particular seems to evolve slowly.
Since this is a 3D hexagonal piece with no practical possibility of printing the whole in one go at A3 size and then joining down one line, I'm considering several joins. Do I print out the separate strips of tower images in threes so I have only to make two sets of joins on the opposing sides of the piece, or do I print them out separately and join each one to its neighbour which makes it much easier to cut out the look throughs which are an integral part of the piece but may result in a distracting forest of thread ends?
Next, I'm pondering how to make the joins to best effect. The options would seem to be joining with thread, with bent staples to reflect the metal structure of the original building, or using tape or small cardboard joins on the the inside of the piece. The card option seems clumsy and can be seen when looking down inside the piece and bent staples have practical issues as they are difficult to do consistently and the card can easily become damaged as photo 3 below shows.
I have therefore opted for thread sewn through and tied either on the inside of the piece, or on the outside to make a feature of the join. A variation of the latter seems to offer the best option.