I am not ready.
Not ready to make the series of quilts that I planned a month or so ago: square, precise, Milhazes-inspired mandala-like flowers and stripes in vibrant colors. (Sounds pretty, doesn't it?)
After many false starts, a few paintings, and 2 quilt-ish pieces, I have learned:
- I can't do precise. I like messy, or shall we say irregular?
- I seem to prefer square-ish to square.
- I don't like to do intensive thread painting. For example, below, I copied my painting Roses onto cotton and then adhered it to stable cotton duck. Ideally, I would cover the surface with stitch to mimic the paint colors. But no! I just don't enjoy it.
... and on the positive side, I learned:
- I lean toward an intuitive, even spiritual, method, not necessarily the mandala style I'd planned.
- I love working on a single subject, in this case flowers. My pop-around brain benefits from focus. There is no end to what flowers can teach me of color, line, shape, mood, etc., etc.
- I love layering.
- I love colors.
- I love stripes, even precise ones. (One of my hero-artists is stripe master Bridget Riley.)
- Most fun for me has been painting. I thought I was painting to become a better quilter, but I love painting for itself.
My style emerges.
For my next "series" I'm going to paint flowers freely, and experiment with painting on cotton, linen, and silk and combine that with stitch.
In addition to recording progress online, I'm taking notes the crazy way I did in graduate school: big and messy, sometimes upside down -- sitting on the floor and writing/drawing with colored markers on a newsprint pad. One page or more per project, no other rules.
It works for me!
 |
| Notes so far |
No comments:
Post a Comment