just black, just white

If it made a black or white mark then it could be used. Inspired by the blocking out and filling in exercise featured in Steven Aimone's book Expressive Drawing. White and Black acrylic paint and charcoal were the starting materials and as the paintings evolved black permanent pen and white chalk pens were introduced. Totally enjoyed the process and working with this style, the three images are available as prints through redbubble.

Exploring Expression

Soup de Trepidation

B is for bewildered

the lion roars

Top: acrylic and charcoal on paper

Middle: charcoal on paper

Bottom: acrylic and charcoal on paper

moving ideas forward

Moving On - Stitch on paper

I'm quite enjoying doing the stitch on paper portraits. 

Timeout Please - acrylic & charcoal on paper

Also finished working on another painted piece.

stitched portraits on paper

I've been really enjoying the acrylic painting but I tend not to stray to far from stitch or textiles so a few weeks back I started to explore with free motion stitching onto various types on paper. The first picture is stitched onto white paper, the second picture I have painted a background and then stitched over it. The third picture I have painted various pieces of paper, stitch one piece, cut the others up and then collaged them onto a piece of watercolor paper and further embellished with hand stitching. I've been really enjoying this adventure - paper isn't as bulky as a quilt but is doesn't have the flexibility of a quilt so there has been a couple of little challenges with maneuvering  the larger paper pieces through the machine.

All three images will be availble as prints at mels redbubble gallery

spin

acrylic, charcoal and collage on paper

The other piece I finished over the weekend.

I've called the piece 'Spin'

Acrylic and stitch on paper

Finished off a couple of pieces over the weekend, this is the first piece. I started this piece during a recent abstract painting workshop. I had alot of fun with this piece experimenting with different acrylic mediums (impasto & moulding paste), acrylic paint, collage and of course a little bit of stitch all onto A3 paper.

exploring further with acrylics

first layer started here

Since returning from the workshop with Peter Griffin (see blog post re workshop) I have been exploring/playing further. I was quite nervous leading upto the workshop as my experience with acrylic painting has been gained through lots of reading, a willingness to just give it a go and some folkart painting a few years back. I gained so much from the workshop and I've been enjoying the journey since. I'm also enjoying working more intuitively rather than to a plan. Looking forward to exploring/pushing further and also crossing my learnings into art quilts.

currently here may/may not add more

also exploring with transferring text onto the other work in progress

writings on the wall #2

current work in progress

Following my return from the McGregor Art School, I've been playing/experimenting further with acrylic paints onto various textile types to see what effects I can achieve, how the handle of the fabric changes and what I can still sew through. 

During the process the above collage piece is evolving - acrylic paint, quilting fabric onto primed canvass.

After the creative barriers I worked through with creating my first piece from the saying the "The Writings on the Wall". I didn't think a second piece would evolve but I'm loving the process and certainly enjoying the journey.  Looking forward to finishing off the piece.

Writtings on the wall

Hooray, Hooray - finished as well.

This wall quilt was my response to the saying 'Writing's on the Wall'. I'm part of a creative group called 'Broad Strokes' and we set little challenges throughout the year. We've all had a turn at setting a challenge theme and this one was Kate's (a link to Kate's blog is in my blog list). When Kate first suggested the theme I really had no ideas bounce into my head and felt rather blocked and blank about the saying. But I also saw this as the perfect reason to tackle it.

I ended up doing a word play exercise and just writing down every word or group of words that was my response to the saying. I then went to the dictionary to look up the definitions of some of these words and in some instances that took me in another direction. Through this word play exercise I discovered that there use to be a religious belief/group called 'Positivism' in the early 1800's, seemed to disappear by the 1900's.

Anyway once I had all the words together I had play around with different ways of putting words onto fabric. I've used acrylic paint, sharpie pens and ink jet printing. I also scanned one of my pencil drawn portraits and played a little with it in the computer (both faces on the quilt are from the one drawn picture) and then printed them onto 'TAP' paper and ironed them onto fabric. I've also taken one of my photos of Alcartraz and used the kaleidoscope feature in the computer to alter it.

I really did end up enjoying this challenge and wouldn't mind exploring another saying. So if anyone has an idea for another saying please let me know or pop it in the comments section.