Trial and Error, but also lots of fun.

In my last post I showed a photo of the above, but at a stage that I wasn't happy with. After printing off some photos of it and playing around with them, I finally took the rotary cutter to it today! First I removed the large stone, covered the background with a very fine voile to knock back the colour, and after the slicing procedure, rearranged all the pieces onto a batik background and added a few more pebbles onto the foreground.

Before taking the more drastic action, I had tried to knock back the darker shadow areas around the stone with light grey pencils and crayons, and also added more texture to the sandy parts with acrylic paints. Unfortunately this just all seemed to add a 'heaviness' to the piece that I wasn't at all happy with. I hope you agree with me that the finished article is now far more interesting, lighter and brighter.

I've also been thinking about another idea that came to me after photographing a number of  dead trees with lopped off limbs in the area. To me they have a beauty of their own with all the interesting shapes, and markings on the bark, and some with ivy wrapping around the trunk. I almost want to call them 'Natures Totems', and may well do so if I manage to produce a small project on them.

Above and below some sketches that I've made when out and about.

At the moment I'm not too sure where all this is going, because on the one hand I love the natural shapes, colours and textures of these trees, but then again wood is often fashioned and worked on by artists, wood carvers, wood turners, cabinet makers and sculptors to create beautiful objects. I'm feeling very tempted to create some textile pieces that allow me to use my imagination with these natural shapes, and to glorify them with colour, textures and patterns. I suppose, in a way, they are maybe just a starting point for something that my imagination can really go to town on.

Above and below some investigations into the use of wild colours, or black and white with textural patterns. In fact, the one below almost reminds me of a decapitated  naked female form!!!

These last two images are playing around with the idea of either silhouettes or ghost shapes on a textured background. I have tried to take the bark patterns away from the tree shapes and to use them on the background instead.

Lots to think and play around with but at the same time lots of fun! Whatever you are working on at the moment, I hope you are also having as much fun, and many thanks for looking in.