Art Every Day, Wednesday, Sept 4, 2013
Good Evening,
Here is today's new piece and you can probably see, it is very similar to yesterday's piece.  This one has the focal point on the horizon line too, however, the horizon line has been shifted to encompass the lower two axis of thirds and the piece has a horizontal rather than vertical orientation.  I really just wanted to see how the energy, weight and depth change depending upon where the perceived horizon line is and where that line is in association with any focal point.
For today's piece, I kept the warm reds for the focal point using squares of fabric rather than wild threads and I changed the background to a warm brown instead of the cooler gray from yesterday.
I also changed up the quilting style, but kept the contrasting thread color.  For this piece, I made the quilted shapes larger in the portion of brown background along the bottom (so it could appear closer to the viewer and then I stitched the same type of design in the upper portion of background, but made it smaller in scale and added additional wavy lines.
I think it's interesting how much heavier the focal point is.  It could be because there is physically more of it; it's fabric rather than thread and the line of it is longer. Or, it could be because it is closer to the bottom of the piece, where we perceive things to be closer to us and of greater import. 
Either way, it makes for a great comparison to yesterdays work, but I find yesterday's piece more interesting.
Till tomorrow,
Heather

 

 Art Every Day, Tuesday, August 3, 2013

Good Evening Again,

Dinner wasn't quite ready so I figured I'd quickly throw this one on. I really like the simplicity of this little guy.  The two gray backgrounds, darker on top with hints of brown and lighter on the bottom with darker vertical lines and a herringbone texture are the perfect setting for the bold textural color of the thread bits from the washer.

I decided to try a composition with a high horizon line which is why I made the two gray's the size they are and overlapped them up on the top two axis of thirds.  I kept the quilting simple, but did it in a contrasting color; hot pink.  I stitched down all of the threads with a loose stipple then added the long, pointy designs in the negative space.

I love the quite energy with the explosion of color and texture.  It was both quick and fun to do and though it is quite modern stylistically, it is warm and inviting too.

Till tomorrow,

Heather 

Art For Last Weekend, August 31, 2013,

Good Evening,

In addition to tons of other stuff, like beginning to organize my office at the gallery, I managed to get two daily pieces done this afternoon.  I'll keep this short though 'cause the typing hurts my hands.

This piece features a large and a small portion of a stamped black and white design set on solid white on a black batting.  

The quilting began with the three red squares, followed by pebble stitching in the dark gray/black areas which was followed with stitching in the white areas of the block print and the background with white.  The piece is very graphic and bold.  The large amount of white tries, lamely, to overwhelm both the block print and the red, but I got the best of it with a tiny stipple.

Now, I'll eat dinner then be back with today's piece,

Till then,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Monday, Sept 2, 2013

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  It is needle felted with silk hankies and silk carrier rods with a bit of wool fibers for the tree and yarn for the fence.  The leaves are stitched with silk ribbon using a chain stitch. 

I rarely do representational work any more, but I needed a sample for hand felting and figured I kill two birds.... yada yada yada.  What I did instead was kill my right hand a make it curl up in a tight ball of agony once again.  It took me three days to get this done.  Now, no hand work again till I figure out what the hell is happening with this hand.

Also, I've got to say that I'm feeling a bit lonely here on the blog.  I really miss my constant commenter, Christa and though feedback from you guys isn't why I do this whole art every day thing, it really helps when I feel uninspired or overwhelmed to know that there is someone out there who's interested in taking a few steps of this journey with me.

Guess I'm feeling sorry for myself tonight so,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day, Friday August 30, 2013,

Good Afternoon, or is it evening all ready?,
Here is today's new piece.  It started with the hand painted Batik flower like shape.  I grabbed it along with the yummy watermelon colored background and the bright yellow orange strip along with some bright white then ripped and layered everything up. I cut the flower as a square and the white in a square the exact same size. 
I stitched in all of the white lines of the flower with white thread then stitched around the perimeter of the flower with orange thread then I cut the excess fabric from around the flower as close to the stitch line as possible then cut the white fabric beneath it just a tiny bit larger so the at would act as an outline for the flower.  Then I stitched concentric squares and rectangle in the orange and top stitched the white along the inner edges.  I finished the piece off with the addition of feathers in the negative space to add some visual interest there.
The piece is sunny and modern and it makes me smile.
Till tomorrow,
Heather

 

Art Every Day, Thursday, August 29 ,

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece.  I walked in the door of the studio this morning and just wanted to make a tree. So, I grabbed some of this weird, loosely woven cotton to use for the trunk and a bunch of threads that came out of the washing machine from dyeing for all of the greenery on the tree.  

I topped a piece of violet batting with some blue hand dye.  Next I set the large square of the woven brown fabric on top of the blue so that the frayed bottom edge could act like weird roots then I quilted the trunk and some simple branches along with some finer stems.  I added a bit of quilting in the blue background then spread out a bunch of the fibers to form the boughs of the tree and stitched them down with loose, loop d'loops. 

It's kind of fun and kind of weird at the same time.  I like the design, but not the color way.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Another Make up Piece; for 8.19.13,

Good Evening again,

For this piece, I really just wanted to use the silk that I had dye painted with thickened dyes.  I just love the color way of soft red tones with golden yellow and dull black.  It's yummy.  So, I put it in the background on top of a piece of soft, pale red, dyed bamboo felt.  I added the bold, yet somewhat dull, black and white print which I in turn topped with another bit of dye painted fabric. 

I quilted the background in light, dull tone of red using swirls and undulating lines.  Then I stitched in white in the white areas of the block print.  I stitched the printed grid in yellow in the central square then stitched on that fabulous bone bead.

I really, really like this piece, mostly because of the fabrics and colors, but I think the quilting is doing a great job too.

Till tomorrow,

Heather