textile paintings
Posts tagged textile painting
Jacks Are Wild
012 years ago
I am currently working on a piece for an invitational show — my third animal portrait in a row. It’s not that I’m done making portraits of people, but I’m acknowledging the marketability of an animal piece over one of a specific person. People typically see one of my portraits and say “I’d love to have you make one of my grandchildren” — which is great, but moving people from the inspiration of a commission to the commitment of one is much more difficult than them finding inspiration in a piece you’ve already made and then committing to buying it. I’ve found that if I make a piece centered around a particular breed, everyone that has had that breed as a pet can see their cute little snuggly in it.
What I’m considering here is an antelope jackrabbit. This is a very large and muscular rabbit with huge ears. This pic shows the highlights — the beginning.
I’m using my new large pressing sheet — but it still wasn’t big enough to capture the tip of the ear — so I have taped my old pressing sheet behind it to catch the space at the top.
This pic shows the second value.
This shows the third value.
Once I cut the pieces small, I realized there wasn’t as much contrast between the second and third values as I saw in the comparison of larger pieces of fabric — but that’s ok. It happens sometimes. There isn’t enough of two or three to matter much.
The fourth value definitely shows the creature emerging.
The fifth value is a fun brown I found with creatures leaping across it — rabbits as well as deer. It’s a fun detail for someone that looks close enough to find it.
Then I finished with the sixth value of brown and then black. I completed him with an orange eyeball. This is him on my black design wall. I brightened up the pic so you could see the prints better.
He looks at home there.
Tomorrow I’ll start thinking about where he’s going to live.
2013 Georgia Artists Reception
012 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
Last Friday was the Georgia Artists reception at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs. I was excited to go. This is my 3rd year to be included in this exhibit and it’s always a great way to meet other Atlanta artists.
So this year, I prepared myself. I designed business cards & had them rush printed. I even went so far as to buy a new dress — something I never do. I came prepared as the professional artist.
I’m still glad that I did that — I should always do that — but this year was different. The artists didn’t mingle. I didn’t have the opportunity to meet one other artist other than the one that I already knew — and I pushed my card on her so I could at least have given one away. In retrospect, we didn’t have name tags like we have in previous years. Maybe that made the difference. Also, there was only one artist in the show that had been included previously. I wonder what damage the economy has inflicted on its community of artists.
Lincoln was beautifully hung. I always love to see my work hanging in a professional gallery.
This is me with my Lincoln.
And this is SPLAT! created by Leisa Rich. I’ve known her for a few years although we have mostly conversed on Facebook. I was blown away by this piece. It looks more like sculpture than fiber given the way it undulates from the wall. It’s mostly stitching on a vinyl material but there are holes filled with what I think is fine silk.
SPLAT! by Leisa Rich
And here is Leisa with an Honorable Mention! Well deserved. Probably my favorite piece in the show.
SPLAT! with creator Leisa Rich
Completing the Raven
012 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Quilting
I have finally completed The White Raven. The bird was wonderful — the Tower of London was tedious — but I think in the end that it all came together. It’s ironic that I now have such a creative flow while constructing portraits and my more difficult moments are in the backgrounds.
I used a stacking type of stitch while quilting the raven to give the impression of feathers — it was interesting to see how the white thread changed the character of the darker fabric shades. I am becoming completely reliant on Isacord thread for free motion quilting. I can run my machine at a high speed and the thread is less likely to shred. It’s also available in a huge selection of colors. A thread run before I start quilting is almost a must for me at this point.
The Tower was not as much continuous line quilting as I would have liked. There was a lot of stopping and starting — so it took much longer to do — but hopefully I’ve created the impression of the Tower in a minimalist way. I still wanted the focus to be on the raven.
The background was also difficult because of the Tower peaks. I started in the middle between two towers and echo stitched a wavy line upwards — but once I reached the top, I attempted to echo stitch back down between another set of towers. Any quilter knows that you have to quilt from the inside out — especially if you’re quilting densely. By quilting from a less dense to a more dense area, I created some ripples that could only be resolved by ripping out all of my quilting and starting over in the correct direction — from the more dense outwards to the less dense area.
At the end, after I had washed it, blocked it, and added the label, I went back and added more quilting in the raven’s eye. It’s the focus of the piece and it did not have enough quilting relative to what was around it. I didn’t want it to sag over time.
The raven isn’t exactly like the original — I had to take liberties with the beak especially — but I think it is definitely reminiscent of the pictures of Mike Yip. His photographs of the white ravens in the Vancouver Islands are really wonderful.
Adding the Tower of London gave the piece whimsy — a story — which I think adds to the visual interest of the piece.
Applique and the Stabilizer Snob
012 years ago
I’ve never really addressed applique on my blog. I’ve stated that I do it — I may have even specified that I use a tight zip-zag — but I’ve never really talked about it or why — which seems a great omission given how often I’m asked about it from other quilters.
Some people fuse and then go directly to quilting. I’ve considered this, especially recently. Applique is tedious and is probably the least creative process I do. However, it gives a very neat finish. Raw edge applique without it can get rather messy over time, and I like the completeness that I get with a secured edge. I’ve used a blanket stitch and a satin stitch, but I prefer a tight zigzag — 1.0 mm length & 2.0 mm width (although I vary the width in tight spaces).
Why use stabilizer? I had someone ask me that recently. Years ago, I started using stabilizer and haven’t really questioned why in a long time. The answer is that it gives a professional finish. Yes, there are many layers of fabric which can stabilize the stitch, but in some areas, only two fabrics of cotton are too flimsy. The stitch will look much better if you use a stabilizer.
For years, I’ve been using tearaway stabilizer from embroidery shops. I had one that was soluble for a while but paper-y like a tearway that I really l liked but eventually couldn’t find anymore. When I was making the raven, I used the scraps of all of my old stabilizer. They were all good — except one. We’ll get to that in a minute.
This, by the way, is the beak on my raven as I showed it in my last post. It wasn’t right.
This picture, although taken when my studio was growing dark for the evening, shows how I changed the colors a little.
The raven shows up a little better on my design wall. Whenever I lay something on my design wall, I’m tempted to just lay it on black fabric and call it a day. BUT, my intention in making this piece is part of a story — and I had plans to work on the Tower of London.
I drew a stylized version of the towers and hoped that my fabric choices would get me where I wanted to go. I had no idea if it would work — but I took a leap of faith. This shows the two right towers with the brown decorated with the white architectural details. It was almost like frosting a cake. I was careful to use a white print that wouldn’t show the brown behind it. I would usually put the lighter value down first to avoid shadowing, but this design was more structurally sound to have the full brown background with the white fabric carefully cut and laid on top.
Then I added the black details.
And finally the rusted copper turrets.
The left towers were constructed in the same way.
With the darker details and turrets added, they make more sense.
I put the towers on my design wall — and you can clearly see where the raven will sit. I posted this image to my FB Page and was surprised to find EVERYONE wanted me to finish the piece just like this. It does have a fascinating quality to it — but it isn’t the direction that I was working on. I will certainly consider it for another piece.
This shows the raven sitting on the design wall with the towers. Again, the black background makes everything look good.
This next photo shows the raven and towers once they were appliqued to muslin. Keep in mind that I had run out of my stash of stabilizer. The fabric stores only carried Pellon, and unwilling to take the time to traipse over to an embroidery store, I decided to try it. I use Pellon’s Wonder-Under all the time — how bad could their stabilizer be?
It was AWFUL. It is much thicker than any other stabilizer I’ve ever had, and it often interfered with my ability to move the fabric nimbly under the needle and get the thread where I intended it to go. It is my hope to never have to use it again. So there — I suppose I’m a stabilizer snob.
Certain in the belief that I had nothing in my stash that would do for the sky, I went to the fabric store and picked out a beautiful blue-gray — only to bring it home and find, in the bright natural light of my studio, that the fluorescents of the store had deceived me. The color was more powdery blue than what I wanted. So I searched my stash and found this funky batik. I love its contribution to the story of the piece. It’s a strange choice, but I’m happy with it. This is what the piece now looks like, fully appliqued and ready to be pinned for quilting.
Next week is Spring Break. I may not be able to begin quilting for a while, but I hope to at least get it pinned tomorrow.
One last thing — Martha Sielman has written a second book in her Art Quilt Portfolio series — People & Portraits. My piece, Celtic Woman, is on page 32. I feel privileged to be included — although I’m not overly happy with the photograph. I’ve always prided myself in taking my own pictures — but I’m missing something in terms of color. The printed picture is not anywhere near as good as what I see on my monitor. I need to start using a white balance card when photographing and re-calibrate my monitor.
I received my complimentary copy a couple of weeks ago. Beyond the thrill of having one of my pieces in publication, it’s a nice compilation of work. Several of my FB friends are included and it’s been fun to read more about their work.
Finishing Firecracker
212 years ago
I finished the Yorkie piece on the last day of February — which is great so now I can put February on the label. I know it seems silly but it validates that I worked really hard in February. I had it blocked and drying by the end of the day but didn’t attempt to photograph it until today. It took me a while to get it just right. I even used white as a background so I could align the edges just so. I think I’ve been using a black background as a crutch. Using the white makes it much easier to see whether everything is lined up correctly before I go open the file on the computer. It’s best to go ahead & do it right the first time than have to re-photograph it later for an exhibit application. I know I can always fix camera distortion in Photoshop, but most shows won’t let you make those kinds of digital corrections.
I decided to call this piece Firecracker. This Yorkie has such an explosive personality, it seemed only fitting. Her page can be found here. And in case anyone wants to know — yes it really is an applique piece. This is NOT a photograph — this is NOT an inkjet printed piece. It was insanely difficult but I feel like I’ve solved a difficult puzzle.