Painting 'Tideline - After the Storm'

' Tideline -After the Storm' ( detail)

 

This is perhaps  my favourite quilt of those I've made over the  last few years, summoning up a particular time and  place in Greece. For many years  we stayed in a holiday apartment in Paralio Astros, a very Greek resort  in the Pelopponese  popular with Athenians. In 2008  we participated while we were there in the 'World Beach Project' . When we were collecting orange coloured stones for our starfish artwork , there had been a storm the day before and the patterns of seaweed , and the banks of sand and stones were fantastic - the next day they'd all gone (along with our artwork!)

 

Home again , after some watercolour sketches, I was ready to choose the fabric - some African dyed cotton damask ( for the sample I used the sleeves of a shirt - there  was enough left in the body for the final piece).I inset some thin strips of seaweed like colour.

I stitched it by machine with twin needle and by hand - seed stitching with cotton perle.  This photo is of the back - wherever possible I use the same fabric front and back so that people can see 'before' and after' - also gives me a second chance if it all goes horribly wrong!

After painting.

Detail of painting

 As so often,  I crammed too many ideas and techniques in for the  sample piece to work entirely successfully in itself . But it achieved its purpose,  I got a better idea  how to proceed -  to leave more of the underlying fabric showing through and to introduce more colours into the paler  areas.  The twin needle worked really well.

Stitched surface before painting

Stitched area before painting (detail)

Stitched and painted area (detail)

As it was quite a large piece (approx. 1m  square at this stage) I didn't have a board large enough to stretch it on  so  I had  to wrap it round a board to paint one half and then the other. I used Photoshop to merge photos of each side  and then printed out  a couple of merged photos to scribble on  to identify which areas needed further attention.

The  final quilt won a Judges Choice when it was exhibited at the Festival of Quilts that year. More recently it  was featured  in the  'The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting' by Linda Seward  and it was shown in the  gallery  to promote the book.

I'm in very good company, sharing the page with Annette Morgan and Pia Welch.

 

 

Using Freezer Paper Stencils: Figure It Out

 

An early acrylic  paint experiment was the A3 piece I made for the  Contemporary Quilt Suitcase challenge  'Figure it Out ' It was cut down from a rather dull 24 inch quilt I'd made a  few years earlier  in shot silks with a  backing of a hand printed fabric bought in Australia . The painted results were much more exciting! ( both this and  2 A4 Journal quilts)

"Inspired by Australian aboriginal rock paintings of Arnhemland, particularly the spirit figures ’Mimis'. The act of painting is considered more important than the finished picture which results in layers of paint and patterns, where individual shapes are initially  difficult  to recognise .

 

• Front constructed from ‘shot’ silks in blue green and orange ( colours of rock), turned at 90 degreesto reflect light differently. 
• Screen printed fabric produced by the Injalak is used on the back. The ‘Mimis’ are  outlined by machine quilting from the back following printed figures then contour quilted.

 Acrylic paint in ochres applied by sponge over  freezer paper stencils of handprints.

 

 

Painting 'Gythion Glow' Part II - Scaling up

After preparing my 1/4 size samples for 'Thin Blue Line'  challenge , I was ready to scale up! The original inspiration was of boats moored at Gythion in Greece with the 'thin blue line' of hills in the background. I snipped sections out of the photograph to compress it down to a composition and proportions I was happy with and matched some of the colour in fabrics to insert as thin strips. Having to work to a fixed size of 30 x 120cm meant I had to use some maths and measuring to PLAN where I was going to insert them - not my usual style at all (normally I judge by eye and let things evolve)

 

I used the technique shown by Alison Schwabe - the strips are 3/4 inch wide and using a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance and careful adjusting and matching under the machine, can achieve gentle curves without using bias strips.

 

Then I started quilting( using the same fabric on the back although without the inserted strips means that if it all goes horribly wrong when painting, I get a second shot!) I used  Vandana variagated thread and a double or triple needle  managing to break 2 new double needles by not re-adjusting settings before inserting the needles. Next steps  were  quilting from the back with perle in the bobbin to emphasise the boat masts and some serious hand stitching

 Then I  taped it onto a board and painted it- with sharp intake of breath!  It worked , mainly because I'd learnt my lesson and erred on side of caution, working slowly and leaving some areas unpainted

 

 

 It was exhibited in several places and sold ( and apparently could have sold it several times over) It captures a particular time and place which is why I think it resonated with others. I still have the original watercolour done in  Greece and the 1/4 size sample.  

Painting 'Gythion Glow' Part 1 - Inspiration and Samples

After my success with 'Strindberg Shore'  I was keen to continue the themes of the sea and apply my newly learnt techniques to the Contemporary Quilt 'Thin Blue Line' challenge, a strict  30 x 120 cm format. I wanted to look at different proportions of sea, sky and shore, with the horizon line between sea and sky being the blue line. Some of my inspiration (besides some more Strindberg paintings ) included photos and a drawing from Ireland and Greece, paintings by Terry Frost and monoprints by Trevor Sutton. I tried out a different material - a cotton yukata fabric from Japan in blues and blacks. I quilted this with a twin needle to get slightly raised lines on a 12 inch square  finished size ( CQ Journal Quilt size- cunning eh!) I marked off 2 areas with masking tape to the same proportions as the Thin Blue Line and painted with acrylics, varying the horizon line.

With the masking tape removed, I quite liked the contrast with the unpainted fabric. Not sure which horizon line/ proportions I prefer ( if any) - I'm afraid I 'fiddled', always a danger when working on such a small scale and the painting is not as fresh and lively as it could be.

 I wasn't that happy in particular with the 'sea' part or the definition of the horizon line. I'm confident mixing blues in watercolour but  was struggling in acrylics ( got round that in 'Strindberg Shore' by using indigo dyed fabric after a few abortive attempts). Maybe it needed a line of blue fabric introduced or a left unpainted? More experiments  were required!

 My next experiment  was a 1/4 scale sample piece to test out ideas and fabrics. I made it double sided - both main fabrics used were kimono/yakuta ( conveniently already a narrow width ) and painted with acrylics both sides. The woollen slubby fabric didn't work that well (at least on this scale)  but I was pleased with the results on dark blue/black patterned cotton yakuta fabric which has a slightly starched finish.

 Woollen slubby side

Cotton yakuta side



Cotton yakuta side detail



Next step scaling up!

 

 

Painting Strindberg Shore

In the next few posts  I'm going to be show you some of my painted quilts and share with you some of the stages involved in their creation. Early on I got into the habit of taking photos as I went along. One of the big disadvantages of acrylic paints is that once it's on, it's on for good , you can't take it off. Photos  helped to pinpoint the point sometimes when things went horribly wrong so  that I'd know better  next time! I've learnt with practise to  paint sparingly to start with and gradually build up the layers.  

So I'm starting out with my first large scale foray into painting with acrylics on quilted fabrics: 'Strindberg Shore'  This was made for Quilters Guild of the British Isles (QGBI)  'In the Spotlight' exhibition on behalf of Region 1 (London) at Festival of Quilts 2007. The theme was 'August'  - I based my piece on a book and exhibition of paintings by August Strindberg , as I said in my statement:

 " He was as innovative in his painting as his writings, exploring the use of colour , texture and composition in impasto interpretations of sea and sky, merging contrasting images" 

 

 

 

As I explained in my previous post, I make lots of  stitched samples which I then paint. This is when I discovered how quite unexpected fabrics such a  wild African prints produce a more vibrant effect than plain fabrics.  Having both machine and hand stitching gives interesting variations in texture : hand stitching gave deeper peaks and troughs while fancy machine stitching  created different density of patterns. This  sample  was one of my  more successful.

 

 

Working with African fabrics brought the challenge of how to mark for stitching (I used  more than one spool of 1/8 inch masking tape ) and then after months of stitching the sharp intake of breath knowing there was no going back once I applied the first brush stroke....

 

 

 

Detail before  and after painting

 

 

I sometimes find I have to make further samples to solve problems as I go along ,  in this case assembling off cuts.  These can  often result in interesting pieces in their own right.

 

 

I was really pleased how  'Strindberg Shore' turned out, it's one of those pieces that rewards when you look closer. And I was thrilled when it was chosen to travel to National Quilt Museum Paducah as part of the 'acCent' exhibition highlighting UK Quilt artists in 2012- I was among some very prestigious  company.

 

A slight cautionary note. As fabric painted with acrylics becomes rather stiff, quilts have to be rolled for transit rather than folded. When it came back from being exhibited at Festival of Quilts in 2007 it had been folded resulting in  some fine vertical creases. I was lucky in that they eventually came out  but  the experience made me wary of sending quilts for exhibit where rolling could not be guaranteed. It's also the rather pragmatic reason behind the choice of  size and format of quilts that I make. 

Painting Experiments

 When I first  started experimenting with using acrylics, I used failed projects and the samples  I use to test machine quilting  tension.  A layer of gesso and they're already looking interesting !

 Now though I will usually make up some test samples while I'm thinking of projects  using a variety of different fabrics . I use Dream Cotton 'Select' wadding in the sandwich and then machine and hand stitch often  in ripple patterns. In the examples I'm showing here  I applied acrylics (Liquitex firm body) straight from tube with a palette knife but not to the whole piece so that a strip of the original fabric can be seen. It's a bit distracting to look at ( as you can see in the 'studio' shot below) so I've cropped the image in Photoshop and shown the 'before' stage separately.

Fabric 1: A heavy cotton canvas (pattern called 'Tipsy'!) I liked the pattern already printed on it but it was difficult to hand stitch and also to paint and the texture of the canvas showed through when painted.

Fabric 1 Before

Fabric 1 After

Fabric 2 : A vintage black/brown cotton sateen with abstract orange pattern. Easy to stitch and paint and like the result- only concern is the stretch and distortion of sateen when used on a larger scale

Fabric 2 Before

Fabric 2 After

Fabric 3 (top)and 4(bottom): An African damask shibori in orange and blue (still with starch in ) and Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass - an old favourite of mine. Both fabrics easy to stitch. The damask didn't take paint that well (probably because of the starch) and the pattern showing through was too dominant. Its also too gorgeous a fabric to hide under paint! ( which is why I was a bit mean in the size of sample)

The dots and circles of the Roman Glass were not as prominent as I thought they might be - definitely one for consideration

Fabrics 3&4 Before

Fabrics 3&4 After

Fabric 5: African wax fabric mainly of wild large pink and black leaves. These African wax prints really stitch well and are a good surface for painting on. I rather like the vibrant pink and black showing through but perhaps wouldn't want too much of it!

Fabric 5 Before

Fabric 5 After

 

 A different palette of acrylic colours (greens) would have given a different effect-  the shapes of the stitched ripples also suggest land forms  to me.
You have my permission to play!