Living This Creative Life

I have two favorite quotes. The first one is by Emile Zola, "If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I would tell you that I came to live out loud". I don't know who the second one is by, but it goes like this, "If you're not living on the edge then you might as well jump". Both of these sentiments sum up my personal philosophy of this experience we call life on earth. Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013


Art Every Day, Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Good Afternoon,
Here is today's new piece and as with yesterday's piece, I was trying something that is new to me.  I've been doing a quilt & color technique for quite some time now, but I usually use ink to color with.  Then a few days ago, I did some trapunto quilting on one of my daily pieces and I colored the trapunto design, a fancy feather, using Shiva Paintstiks.  So I decided to mix the two ideas together with today's piece with nearly horrendous results.
I began with white fabric on gray/black batting.  I stitched the designs using white thread.  Then I chose a dark violet, dark blue violet, lighter pink, and mid toned magenta along with a lighter yellow green and a mid tone green and used those colors to color everything in with sponge daubers.  It was uglier, than ugly.  The colors were too bold, and bossy and every one of them was vying for attention.  
Not to be outdone by some bossy colors, I grabbed a dark bronze paintstik, loaded up a dauber and went over everything with the bronze and  saved the day.  I had forgotten one of my own "tricks" that I always tell my students when painting anything fabric, "If it doesn't look good, add another layer or more of paint".  Now, I think it is beautimus!

Till tomorrow,
Heather

1 comment:

me said...

Boy, this is really one I would have loved to see in progress- or at least a before and after of. There is no ugly in this anywhere, and for the life of me, I cannot imagine how you got this from ugly simply by using some dark bronze paint! I obviously need to do more paint mixing. lol

First and foremost, your quilting on this is absolutely beautiful. It's so organic and elaborate, it could be a view from under a microscope!

This is obviously a toned version of your original colors, and I am surprised (still!) that tones can have so much life in them!

You have added a lot of dimension to the large leaves by using the lighter color in the middle, and the bubbles all look suspended in liquid with the lighter stitch color.

I love the undulating lines, giving the sense of movement and life. The color variations throughout add luminosity and depth. The palette is rich and bright without being overpowering, and the leaves as the focal point are nicely balanced by the smaller leaves on the opposite side.

You made a great choice using white thread for the designs, it really pops everything out without being overpowering, and adds to the biological feel of the piece.

Even though the whole background is stitched and colorful, the piece has a restful feeling.