Mixing the old with the new.

My close-up photo of the top of the pier. I like the diamond shapes, so thought I would play around with them, and cut out a panel from black paper. I placed the stencil over various backgrounds, one of which is below. The pieces that were left over after the cutting, I painted with some white acrylic, and outlined, layering some of them, and then placed them onto various backgrounds that I have created in the past. They now remind me a bit of standing stones! Good fun to play around like this.

My pier photo above, and a drawing in black ink below.

I made a couple of stencils from that photo, and again have played around by placing them onto various backgrounds.

Still not sure where any of this is going, but it is fun to play with ideas, and using some older bits and pieces of artwork adds to that fun. Never throw anything out, you never know when it may come in useful!

Cloth,Stitch,Paper and Paint

Our new KAIROS challenge is to make a container/box every day for 7 days. This idea came to us through a blog post by Debbie Lyddon. Three of us are going to spend a week at the same venue as Debbie and her friend in Cornwall this year, and we are hoping to do the same thing while away there. I have made the above 3 from some scrappy bits of quilted cloth I made some time ago, and I'm hoping to make 4 more. The shape reminds me of small boats, which I though very apt for a week by the coast in Cornwall. I have also been experimenting with paper containers, which you can see below, but I definitely favour the little cloth boats!

Meanwhile I am still exploring ideas inspired by the pier structure, and I think I am getting closer to making up a few ideas in cloth and stitch.

Oh dear! What does the above image remind you of? I need to make a change or two to this one I think!

My sketchbook of ideas is getting thicker and heavier, something that I'm sure will be giving me design opportunities for some time yet, so watch this space! 

Pier and Pattern.

The new theme for our Tuesday art class is inspired by structure, and something associated with whatever we choose. Pier and pebble was suggested as an idea, or maybe tree and leaf, you get the idea! I decided to go with Pier and pattern, mainly because I can see so much pattern within the structure of Eastbourne pier.

From the photos I have taken, (above) I decided to make some small sketches by isolating areas with a small paper viewfinder.

I had previously sketched the image above from one of the photos, but felt it was a bit too involved.

Keeping the idea of pattern in mind, I also decided to explore the diamond shapes from the edging above the pier strutts. Some of the internal structures are visible through the apertures, giving some interesting opportunities for design.

I have tried to simplify the arches and struts under the pier, using a background of pastel colours for the collaged metal arches to stand against.

Rubbings, or frottage from the collaged areches have given me further options for development. 

Adding colour and texture is giving me yet more interesting options. 

I have also made a collagraph plate from the diamond shapes, with some of the structured shapes I can see through the apertures. I used yellow and dark blue ink, which when overlaid with each other has given me areas of green.

Lots more ideas to work on from all of the above, I'm really enjoying the process of playing around with it all at the moment.

The rough sketch above was made during today's class, and each one of us had to think of an object that can be found either on the beach or the pier. We then made a quick sketch of each with our chosen drawing tool, without taking it from the surface of the paper. I must confess that I made another one when I returned home, before isolating areas and sketching them into small squares.

Plenty more work, (and fun) to be had from this yet, and I'm looking forward to finding out where it will all lead me!

Hope you've enjoyed reading about it, and thanks for joining me.