And then there were five

Continuing the theme of change and new beginnings from the last post, we are very happy to share the news that we have a new member - Janet Donnell - a long-time friend of Cath's, who, like her, discovered textile art after retirement and has never looked back!

Recently, we spent a lovely day together at the studio to enable Deb, Dia, Vicki and Janet to get to know one another - chatting and working alongside each other. Everything went just fine and she fitted right in with the general exploratory fun and playtime that usually exists in our studio days!

Here's how Janet described herself for her page on this blog:

My approach to textile work is very much “What will happen if…?” I have a germ of an idea, then begin to explore materials and techniques to see what happens when various methods are combined and developed. I love to work with the soft luscious textures of wools and yarns, or the flamboyant brightness of silk, as well as sheer fabrics, paints and dyes, textured fibres, cottons, lace, beads, papers - or anything else that will add to a finished surface that is full of touchable texture.  Working with my sewing and embellishing machines, as well as a lot of hand stitches, something emerges. I find landscapes and maps, rivers and contours - and the finished piece of work is usually nothing like the idea I started out with….

Janet was working on this beautiful piece on our studio day:

Shetland Pathways - stitch detail

Here's the full piece, which was finished back at home and wrapped around a canvas.

Shetland Pathways

Janet wrote these words about the piece.

This is made with wool yarns, hand-dyed and bought in Shetland. It is worked onto an un-dyed wool background that has been machine felted onto a wool felt base fabric. It has connections to where I live, with Leicestershire Black-Faced sheep wool yarn running though it in spirals. It reflects the time spent in the very quiet and empty Shetland Isles during a gap in the Covid restrictions which allowed us a brief holiday up there in August 2020. The discoveries we made walking along the coastal paths are tied up in the swirls and stitches. 

You can see more of Janet's work by checking out her page by following the link above.

Meanwhile, here's a little look at what the rest of us were doing in the studio that day. Deb and Dia have begun spending regular days at Littleheath Barn and one of their projects has been stitching on small squares of dyed, painted or printed fabric.

Here's one of many lovely squares that Dia bought to show us ...

... and a beautiful one from Deb, from a series called 'Other Worlds'.

It was very interesting for me to see these smaller pieces as I imagined I would struggle to work on that scale but I might just have a go, sometime!

In complete contrast, Vicki continued working on the very large printed piece she began last time - making more great printing blocks and adding a third colour, which worked very well. 

I was looking ahead to our upcoming exhibition at The Sock Gallery, Loughborough and adding beads and stitch to a smaller piece, which I began a while ago, using angelina fibres on a velvet background, heated and then cut with a soldering iron - nearly ready to go into a frame now.

Altogether we had a very happy and productive day as we welcomed Janet to Traverse and we are now very pleased to be continuing our creative journey, moving forwards together as a quintet.

Cath

Did I say 'Winds of Change'?

My previous blog referred to winds of change blowing around Traverse and we really had no idea of what was coming or how far those winds would spread! Along with so many people all around the world, our day-to-day lives have changed dramatically - and we are still not sure of the true implications for Traverse's activities. So far, we have only had one show affected - the Quilt & Stitch Village, 17th - 19th April, at Uttoxeter Racecourse has been re-scheduled for 18th - 20th September, in the first instance. We don't know what is happening for the rest of our planned shows and we will wait to hear from them. As I write this, lockdown is slowly being loosened but there are still big questions regarding many aspects of 'normal' life.

I am just grateful not to have lost anyone to the pandemic and have tried to accept the changes with good grace - a life full of virtual choirs, gardening in the sun and possibly a bit too much baking, alongside my creative activities. I've been meaning to write about a piece I actually finished just before everything changed and have decided now is the time! It was conceived as part of our work on the theme of 'Senses', where I have focused on how sight and sound contribute to a sense of place.

Some of you may remember this:

Round and Round the Garden

It was inspired by the gardens of  the South of France, and in particular one in Menton, where we spent a glorious afternoon exploring. We particularly wanted to see the waterlilies and seemed to go round and round through all the other areas, spiralling in towards the pool - the jewel in the centre.

I actually began work on it last October at a workshop with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden but I had prepared the fabric beforehand - kunin felt, transfer printed with a heat press. The design was another link back to the art of Southern France - a homage to Matisse's collage, 'The Snail'. I transfer-painted  computer printer paper in a random way, remembering to note the colour as it always amazes me how they change when heated. The torn painted papers were arranged in a spiral and printed with the heat press, in several different layers, filling in the gaps with consecutive prints.

 

I intended to use my embellisher at the workshop to add loads of texture and also metal, wire and beads - but I came up against a problem with the embellisher. Although it has 12 needles, it proved very difficult to use on my prepared surface. I've successfully embellished kunin felt many times before so it seemed to be something to do with the heat process - the surface seemed to have melted slightly. I was a bit thrown by this but with perseverance, I found I could use a hand needle felting tool to add some yarn, wool and silk fibres.

Alysn showed us how to use shrink plastic to achieve some interesting effects and I decided to use one sample as the centre of my spiral, adding a little hand stitching and beads. I also found french knots very useful to anchor down some of my scrim and fibres that were rather precariously needle felted in,

 

In a classic example of 'design through process', my ideas changed significantly as I slowly worked my way outwards. I decided to keep much of the printed felt visible, rather than cover it up with texture as I'd originally planned. I decided against any more beads and wire, using only a few crescent shapes cut from metal coffee pods to give a different texture. I had a circle canvas, which I needed to use for my planned concept, so I outlined the exact size in a variegated running stitch before following the spiral and outlining some of the printed shapes with free motion stitch.

I wrapped the circular canvas and then added more running stitch through the canvas in selected shapes, which served to anchor the work securely. See wrapped canvas and close up of stitch details below (apologies for slightly out of focus image on the left).

 

When I posted this on social media, I said that it was still not finished and some people wondered where I would take it from here ... and now I'll show you what happened next. My plan all along was to make an ocean drum - it seemed like the perfect evocation of beach walks, with the sound of the ocean and also the amazing shades of turquoise in the sea. One side would be a walk round the garden and the reverse would be a walk by the sea.

During the second half of Alysn's workshop, I began preparing how to show those colours and the translucence of the water.  I made my own printing blocks based on a drawing of the shapes of the ripples in some of my photos of the sea on my holiday and then printed papers and also various stainless steel and copper fabrics with a variety of shades of blue and turquoise. Using soluble plastic film for stability, I cut some of the fabric and began stitching it together in wavy lines.

Back at home, after finishing the garden side, I used the printed paper to line the central well of the canvas, conveniently hiding the running stitches I'd used to anchor the felt and also giving a wonderful splash (!) of colour, especially after a few coats of acrylic wax.

After trialling the metal fabric to see how translucent it was, I decided to change the  scrunched line of copper (towards top of left hand picture) to make it easier to see through to the painted paper beneath.

 

 It was very difficult to photograph but this close up gives you some idea.

                                           
Feeling very pleased with the effect, I explored different sized beads to see which would roll easily and make the best sound. Trials in the open well of the canvas produced many spills and some interesting patterns on the kitchen floor as they bounced out and around! Then I stapled the metal fabric into place and turned my mind to how to hide the staples. I decided to make an embellished border, using yarns and stitch on bright turquoise felt.

I used double-sided extra strong carpet tape to stick it into position and slip stitched it invisibly to the kunin felt covering the edge of the canvas.

Finished at last ...

La Mer

... and it worked!

(Sound doesn't carry brilliantly in this but you should get some idea.)

Well, I've made up for the lack of blog posts recently by writing a mammoth one!

Hope you all stay safe and well,

Cath

Looking at Colour

“Colour can be a lifetime of study, the more you learn, the more you realise you don’t know!”   

 Julia Triston

Last week Dia and Bernice joined me on one of my organised workshops with Guest Artist Julia Triston. The workshop is held at a local community centre in Yate (near Bristol), my home town and the centre has been part of the community since 1840 first as a Union Workhouse, then a War Hospital, a Care Home and then finally handed to the community to be used as a centre with preschool, nursery, dance school, physiotherapy, conference centre along with rooms for hire. It is a fascinating place full of history and stories (including ghosts!) and I fall a bit more in love with the place every time I visit! This time was no different, look at the gorgeous lavender leading up to the entrance!

Julia was teaching a design skills workshop on “Analysing Colour” and it was a way for us to spend a bit of time re-investigating colour and looking at ways to use colour in our sketchbooks and in our own work. We started off with a discussion on colour – what is colour?; How is it used?; What words describe colour? And finally, what words describe shades of green – wow so many!

We each painted six 4” squares with a specific shade of green (Jade, Mint, Emerald, Olive, Lime, Parrot) from memory and once dry, Julia laid the squares in colour lines first without labels and then with:

My 6 squares of green

Labelled green squares

Dia painting her green squares

It was fascinating to see how we each perceive colour and in fact, how very close we were from memory!

Moving on, we looked at the colour wheel, learning how to create primary colours and then using these created colours to create secondary and shades of complementary colours. We’d all made our own colour wheels before but using purchased primary colours so learning how to create our own was new to us and I can certainly see myself using this technique for my own work in future.

Making a primary red using Koh-i-nor watercolour paint

Making primary colours and secondary colours

Shades of complementary colours

Using magazines to provide colours, we created two collages, one of warm colours and one of cool colours. We extended the collages by matching each colour with paint chart chips. I had a bit of extra time first thing on the second day and had a go at matching the colours with thread.

Bernice has her right hand in a support cast while her hand heals.
It was a struggle but she managed to create her warm collage.

Warm colours

Cool colours

Dia's warm collage and paint chips

Dia's cool collage and paint chips

On the second day we started to look at how we could use the techniques from day one within our own work starting from gaining inspiration for a new theme.

Like many artists, when I start a new theme, I gather sources of inspiration and create a scrapbook of images that fit the theme or make me go “oh” in relation to how I am intending to work. I use a sketchbook, keep a folder of images on my laptop or on Pinterest and I look at the colours but I don’t tend to study the exact shades or the proportions of each colour etc. This is what Julia asked us to do using a source of inspiration we had each bought with us.

Isolating a section of our images, we each worked out what the colours were and in what proportion. Using matching coloured threads on a piece of card, we created a thread chart in the exact proportions that was determined. I found it difficult to match my threads accurately so chose to have a go using paint chart chips, which was surprisingly accurate!

Inspiration Photo and Colour Proportions

Inspiration Photo with thread and paint chip charts

Bernice's inspiration photo, paint chart chips and colour proportion list

As on day one, we used magazines as a source of colour and this time chose colours that matched the image colours as close as possible and created a collage using the same colour proportions. My image is of graffiti on a brick wall so I chose to make my collage more landscape like as I felt the colours worked really well for that type of picture. Once we had completed our collages, we took the exercise into fabric, creating a fabric collage using the as similar colours as possible. Stitch could be added to complete the collage further and I do plan to do this if I have time.

Collage using Colours from the inspiration photo

My inspiration photo, paint chip and thread colour charts, collage and fabric collage

Bernice's inspiration photo, paint chip chart and collage

Finally we moved on to the last exercise which looked at creating new designs from a collage. Using my warm collage, I isolated a small square and made 6 copies of the square by just following and simplifying some of the lines. Using 3 colours in light, medium and dark shades, I was able to create new designs by crossing the boundaries of the lines I had drawn. It is a very simple exercise but very effective. Julia also suggested ideas of how to extend this exercise further and I plan to have a go at these in the next few weeks.

Creating new designs

It was a packed two days and we came away feeling we had learned something new and with more confidence in using colour in our work. I’m keen now to get going with looking at colour more!

Becca 

Looking

Looking at something – anything – is more interesting than doing anything else, ever…

                                                                                                                   Patrick Heron

I wasn’t sure about this quote when I first read it last week at Tate St Ives – my love of music means listening is also very interesting for me – but, in relation to my textile art, many of Patrick Heron's  words aptly describe my own impetus and inspiration. His approach to painting came from direct visual responses to the world and his belief that all painting is abstract to some extent also resonates with my own inclinations. I love the way he manipulated flatness, space, colour and line when depicting what he saw when ‘looking at something’.

(N.B. - all images are my own photographs from the exhibition, as photography was allowed. However, some are not quite straight due to external factors. All italics are Patrick Heron's words)

Window for Tate Gallery St Ives : 1992-93 – one of the largest unleaded coloured glass windows in the world

The picture is not the vehicle of meaning: the picture is the meaning …

For someone who struggles sometimes with the concept-based approach to art, trying desperately to decide what my work ‘means’ (if anything) I loved this quote. I could really relate to his belief that the impact of the work on the viewer does not depend on it describing the world outside and that any meaning comes from the balance between the different forms, shapes, light and colour within it. 

And what colour there was - everywhere - I revelled in it!

… the reason why the stripes sufficed as the formal vehicle of the colour, was precisely that they were so very uncomplicated as shapes … With stripes one was free to deal only with the interaction between varying quantities of varied colours…

                                                                                                                

Green and Mauve Horizontals : 1958

The organisation of the exhibition highlighted several recurring features of composition in Patrick Heron's work. I found the following few most interesting:

Each colour-shape or area, however large or small, is as important as any other.

Orange and Lemon with Small Violet : 1977

Balance is often created by bunching forms along an edge and by the inter-relation of different sized shapes.

Square Green with Orange, Violet and Lemon : 1969

I was fascinated by the significance given to the edges in a painting and the way he managed to achieve a sense of balance through asymmetry.

Dark Purple and Ceruleum : 1965

Painting should resolve asymmetric, unequal, disparate formal ingredients into a state of architectonic harmony which, while remaining asymmetrical, nevertheless constitutes a perfect state of balance or equilibrium …

                                                                                                 

Big Complex Diagonal with Emerald and Reds : March 1972 - September 1974

I noticed that the painting above took him over two years to complete and then was amazed to read this quote beside the following huge, glorious canvas and I understood why …

My fifteen-foot canvases, involving sixty or more square feet of a single colour, were painted (in oil paint) from end to end with small Japanese water-colour brushes. But one doesn’t hand-paint for the sake of the ‘hand-done’; one merely knows that the surfaces worked in this way can – in fact they must – register a different nuance of spatial evocation and movement in every single square millimetre.

Cadmium with Violet. Scarlet, Emerald, Lemon and Venetian : 1969

Patrick Heron's work is much more varied than it appears here but I’ve concentrated particularly on these large colour canvases as they are the works which speak with the most power to me - colour is certainly the most significant feature for me in my own work. However, the various composition features identified above also gave me much thought – and continue to do so now we’ve returned home and I begin to think of my own work again.

I did find myself looking a little more carefully as we wandered around St Ives later – specifically at rust in all its glory. I needed some photos as inspiration for a workshop later this year – more on that later.

Watch this space and keep looking ...

Cath