Skechbook challenge: 7 days of drawing

Entry for February 19th

Opposites:Landscape and City scape

Entry for February 20th

Opposites: We make look the same but we are completely different

Entry for February 21st

opposites: Dame and sire



Entry for February 22nd

Opposite: Reflections of house on the water

Entry for February 23rd

Opposites:  Opposites of nature the effects of earthquakes

Entry for February 24th

Opposites:Sun and the moon, light and dark

Entry for February 25th

opposites: Beauty...Natural versus man made.



The Christchurch earthquake

I am just so saddened at the loss of so many lives in the Christchurch earthquake.  So much life lost,  homes destroyed, livelihood ruined and people displaced.  Every time I watch footage of the disaster my eyes well up with tears.  I feel a sense of loss and sadness.  All my friends are safe but it doesn't take away the feelings of helplessness for those who weren't so lucky.

 I have dedicated my today's sketchbook page to all those magnificent people who are risking their lives to save, find and help the injured,  the trapped and the dead.  The people who have given up of their time and talents to help absolute strangers.

My thoughts and best wishes go to all those people affected no matter how big or small.  God Bless you all.

Skechbook challenge: My days of drawing

Entry for February 11th

Opposites: Relaxed/tight:open/closed

Entry for February 12th

Opposites: Man made/natural

Entry for February 13th

Opposites: Line

Entry for February 14th

opposites:Shape

Entry for February 15th

Opposites:Black and white

Entry for February 16th

Opposites:Contrasts and shadows

Entry for February 17th

Opposites:  Negative of a palm leaf

Entry for February 18th

Opposites:contrasts of colour

 

quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week 38

This weeks card is a the start of a few weeks of similar fabrics and material laid out in different ways.   This piece of work is based on some of the techniques and designs of Beryl Taylor, an English fabric artist.  Her work is very creative and explores a lot of different ideas and techniques.



I have used alot of different materials: card, wire, beads, embroidery thread, metal ring, air dry clay, thread, gold thread, paper, and cotton material. 

I have used couching, enbroidery, glueing and wire techniques.  I was inspired by flowers and natural shapes such as rocks,  waves and landscape.

Process of new art work

Part one
When I begin a new piece of work I work through a a very similar process each time.  I find it is a process that I use without much thought as it has worked for me many times before. 

This new piece of work the theme was I see green.  I began by brainstorming ideas and then chose an idea to work with.  The choice I made was Limes.

I collected pictures of limes.  I spent time looking at the shapes the cut and uncut limes made.  I chose to use a cut lime as the basis of my design.  I drew and re drew ideas of this theme.

I also collected maori patterns to use in my design.   

This is the design I settled on.  After I had done the design I next chose a colour way to use.  Green was the main colour to use to reflect the theme of the challenge.  I decided to use yellow and a little orange as element of change and contrast.  

Over the next few weeks I will continue to blog about the rest of the processes I use.

Exploring line

One of the sketchbook challenge pages I have completed for this month is on the opposites of line.  I looked at the contrasts of mark making.



Line can make movement, contrast, pattern and representation of ideas and objects.  I am going to use this page as a reference for other work.  The first exploration of these patterns I used at our family night on Monday evening.  This year has been a bumper crop for zucchini.  Many have turned into marrow because they have been missed.  So as a family we spent time marrow carving as an activity this week. I used some of these patterns and ideas on my marrow.

It was lovely to work in 3D for a change.  I seem to always work in 2D.  I wanted to add everyone elses marrows too but they all got destroyed before the camera had it's chance to work.

Skechbook challenge: My days of drawing

Entry for Feburary 6th

Opposites:Positive/negative:colour gradients

Entry for Febuary 7th

Opposites: Trees the same subject -opposite shapes

Entry for Feburary 8th

Opposites:Tree of good and evil

An extention on my trees from yesterday.

Entry for Febuary 9th

opposites:Open and closed spaces

entry for Febuary 10th

Opposites: Jekyll and Hyde;Zach our ginger tom.

Thoughts for your inspiration

"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X+Y+Z, where X

is work, Y is play, and Z is keep your mouth shut."
-- Albert Einstein
(I love this one)



Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for
yourself."
-- Doris Lessing




"Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according
to the measure of thy desire."
-- Arab proverb



"You've got to get up every morning with determination if
you're going to go to bed with satisfaction."
-- George Horace Lorimer





"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they
just make the best of everything they have."
-- Anonymous




"Failure is never final and success is never ending. Success
is a journey, not a destination."
-- Ben Sweetland



"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where

you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your
command, and better tools will be found as you go along."
-- George Herbert

quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week 37

This weeks card is based on the stamp I made for the sketchbook entry on February 5th (below)

I used the stamp on fabric,  choosing opposite colour red and green.  

The machine quilting I chose followed similar shapes to the stamp details.

Close up detail of the quilting and stamping.

Sketchbook challenge: Februaruy

The new sketchbook challenge theme for February is Opposites. 

To start the month I have made a title page using water colours and pen.

Title page for February

Opposites

Entry for February 2nd

Opposites:Young and old

Entry for February 3rd

Opposites: Organic and geometric

Entry for February 4th

opposites:Opposites attract

Entry for February 5th

Opposites:Positive and negative



quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week 36

I am now caught up on my cards.  Having everyone back at school has certainly helped.

This card is based on a sketch I did yesterday in the sketchbook challenge. 

I have looked at the opposites of geometric and organic in this page. 

It is made from cotton fabric.  The pattern was crayoned on then diluted textile paint was

painted over the top.  The piece was then iron and stitched.

quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week 35

This card today is made with a shadow quilting technique.  I started with a batik fabric.  I painted the flowers on the fabric different colours.  I used watercolour paints.  Not to good if you are going to wash your work but as this is only going to be kept as art work it didn't matter.  Then I layered a gold fabric over the top and stitched around each of the flowers.  Inside two of the flowers I placed beads.

Shadow quilting is a technique that can be used to dull down a fabric behind,  capture items inside, to mute down painting,  to stuff,  put wool into etc.  This technique is only limited by your imagination.  the top layer needs to be see through for this techniques to work.

I've also seen this technique used on cushions.  The quilting on the cushion was done in a grid form and filled with beads of all different colours and textures. When you move the cushion the beads all move around to form new patterns with in each grid. 

quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week 34

This next card is made using mono printing once again.  this Time I used my finger to remove the paint off the glass to create a outline of a flower.

This card is made from red and blue textile paint mono printed.  It has been machine quilted with orange, red and blue thread.

quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week 33

I am catching up on my challenge after time away and getting my children all back to school.  This weeks art card is a mono print of a buckle that I have created a sun out of.  Mono printing is a neat and very simple method of printing. Paint is layered thinly onto a glass plate and rolled out with a brayer.  Then an object is placed onto the painted surface.  Paint will be removed leaving an negative impression that won't be transferred onto to material being printed.

This piece is monoprinted with red and blue textile paint and the quilted with blue and orange-red thread.

Opposites

As I have been contemplating the new theme, opposites,  for the sketch booking challenge this month I have thought about the opposites in the world of weather and natural disasters.........still/shaky,  dry/wet.....calm/stormy....upright/flattened......water/flames....cold/hot......snow/sun  

The earth provides so many extremes and opposites.  Australia are going through so many opposites at the moment.  In part there is drought,  another flooding,  storms and bush fires.

This site contains some wonderful photos of those extremes.
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/?source=NavPhoHome


Opposites are in all parts of our lives.  Sad/happy......joy/depression.....up/down.....life/death....plenty/few.....hot/cold......love/hate......on/off.......in/out....
good/bad.......  Opposition is important in our lives.  Without one we cannot know the other.  We gain understanding of the opposite by experience and learning. 

In art work, opposites are important in expressing ourselves more coherently and expressively.  Thick/thin....rough/smooth.....organic/geometric....complementary colours.....dark/light.....heavy/light....balance/unbalanced.....symmetrical/asymmetrical....positive/negative.

I am going to try this month to use these opposites more in my art work.  Hopefully as I practice in my sketch book the theme of opposites it will in turn help provide more depth in my quilts.

sketchbook challenge

Entry for January 28th

Highly prized: Art supplies

Entry for January 29th

Highly prized: My camera

Entry for January 30th

Highly prized: Insects

Entry for January 31st

Highly prized: My brain

Entry for February 1st

Highly prized fine architecture and the temple