While I was in the studio this morning stumbling over stuff and trying to shoot pieces on the design wall, I stumbled over this old troublemaker that I started this time
last year. I'm so ambivalent about this piece that I've decided to make a project out of rescuing it from UFO oblivion. I was inspired by
Tricia McKellar's "Flowers - Still Life" series and bits and pieces of this one fall right in line, but on the whole, I'm bothered. I'm going to take it to work with me and hang it up in the cube and study it for a couple of shifts and see if there are any revelations.
6 comments:
One of the things I learned in the Expressive Stitch workshop with Dorothy Caldwell. When someone was having trouble with a design she would often advise them to look at the edges and consider strengthening the shapes. I don't know if that's of any use to you now but it might come in handy sometime!
I think it's a really interesting piece, can't wait to see what you do with it!
I happen to love this piece as is. But... if I had to offer any constructive criticism I would say that maybe(???) you need to define/seperate more the three different planes (the pink, the white the "flowers") right now, they are kind of in the same plane.... or, it's that the pink, with all of the stitch detail, seems to be the foreground, when it maybe should(?) be the background???? I think maybe it's a question of deciding on the perspective of this piece, and fixing it more... It might even be worth handpainting in much darker tones over some of the pink areas?...
I still love it as it is though! I'm not sure why, but it reminds me of Emile Nolde's art. Infact, there are often similar elements of his work in your lovely quilts... and vice versa! :)
Thanks Catherine - I've decided that the machine stitching on the pink has to go. The batting is a piece of strange cotton felt - very thick and heavy which account for the depth and strength of the stitching. Once that's accomplished, I'll be considering overpainting, a technique I love and too often overlook.
I was going to suggest that it's probably the pink background that's bothering you. It's too "flat" in color or texture compared to your other work. Do something with that and I'm sure you will love it more.
After studying on it, everyone is right about the pink background. I am picking out all the stitching there and will be overpainting it and doing some hand stitching - a flock of big fat french knots I think.
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