Trying to settle on an idea

I am in several online groups as well as some guild groups. Each one has some sort of challenge going, or something that is meant to get us going.
I have mentioned the challenge to be inspired by an artist, for my machine embroidery group, at the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria.
One of my online groups was looking for some inspiration and I mentioned that as an idea. So now we are doing 4 art quilts in a year, inspired by an artist, any artist, any technique, any size. Rather a large choice really.

We have had quite a while to get it ready but I have left it a bit late, it is due within two weeks.

I have been looking around at several artists, mainly Hundertwasser and Kandinsky. I have even done some collages that relate to them - remotely. This is yet another thing I am trying for inspiration, working with a couple of friends to try to get ideas flowing.

I think I may have too many ideas to be working on at one time!

Then, last Saturday, I was given a free ticket to the Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery, Victoria. As it was the second last weekend, there were LOTS of people there. Fortunately, I was with a family group and one of the boys, about 8 years old, was very enthusiastic. His enthusiasm has rubbed off on me, so now I am looking at Van Gogh as my inspiration.

The machine embroidery group has a couple of members who have been using their own photos to develop in the style of the artist of the month. I have decided, because of their inspiration, to use a photo of my own and try to do it in a Van Gogh style.

That's it, so far. I have just had the idea.

Oh, an extra thing, I found a site online that changes your pictures to a Van Gogh style image, among other ideas. It changed the colours greatly. I love it but I am not sure I am going to try for this image this time. Maybe my series could all be of the one image, in different techniques. I do rather like this one.

Inspired by Van Gogh - again

I have been toying with the idea of doing another piece inspired by Van Gogh.
As it is spring and the fruit trees have been in bloom, I thought I would try to use his Almond Blossom images.

Our trees are a very small almond tree  with white flowers, a nectarine tree with pink flowers and a very small tree with scrumptious flowers - it could also be a nectarine, I am not sure. But they are much more showy than the ordinary nectarine (which has delicious fruit - the possums love them!).

Van Gogh did the almond tree but I am not a fan of white, I really don't like using it much.
However, I have taken my time with thinking and now the trees have dropped their petals and even the little bits of stamens and such-like are falling off. The tree now has green leaves.

I will have to make up my mind soon and get started!

I have also been taking photos of the trees because of a theme that I am going to use for our tapestry group - Transformation (or is it Transition? Suppose I had better get that right!). My tenuous idea is to go from flowers to fruit. But I don't know if I will be able to do justice to the photos and I am not that keen on realistic imagery in my weaving - partly because I am never happy with my attempts at realism.

But those ideas have some time to be developed and I am taking pictures in the meantime.

Back to Van Gogh. I came across an image today of his twig of blossom in a glass, so I am feeling much freer to use part of one of my photos and not try to replicate his work too closely - not that I was feeling capable of that anyway but the tendency is to try to stick to the source.

So the plan, at the moment, is to just do a small part of a fruit tree, based on my photos, which haven't got good views of the trees. Hence the idea that it will be a study of a small part of a branch.

Now I just have to start!!

Taking advice

Thanks to My Camera and Me: see comments on previous post.

I have used the automatic selection tool and it got most of the image. Then I used the 'Inverse' command and this is the result.  Is this what you meant??
Anyway, I like it.

But I will have to let it sit there a while before I decide how to use it.
I do have a challenge coming up, for a tapestry group. So I will have a think about how I would weave it - if I can weave it.

But thanks for the idea.

On another note:
The Machine Embroiderers Group met at the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria today.
November is our month for displaying some of our work.
We have had the monthly challenge, Inspired by ... (various artists). Only a few of us have done all of them so far (one person has even done next month's one - overachiever that she is). So I was able to put my other group's Inspired by Van Gogh pieces in too.

Inspired by - Hundertwasser, Mondrian and Salvadore Dali

Inspired by - John Olsen and Degas

Inspired by - Van Gogh, Monet and Hans Heysen

Inspired by - Ainsley Roberts, Warhol, Miro and Matisse.

I have hung my small Matisse-inspired piece on a slant, due to my not knowing the best orientation. Twice, people tried to straighten it! So I expect it will be 'fixed up' by the time I see it again.

Plodding along

I just had to post today, the date is 7/7/17.

I am struggling with my 'inspired by Van Gogh' piece. I decided to try to use the photo that had been turned rather orange and blue - not sure if they are Van Gogh colours or not but it does make it good and abstract.

Anyway, I am not doing a very big size, about A3 (approx 12"x16"). I am finding that I have to lay out the pieces rather small. And it is very hard to tell the trees from the background, especially with the strange colours.

I will persevere for another day, see how it goes. I may end up trying to revert to more realistic colours, just so I can see the image.

I am also trying to work in the style I learnt with Kathryn Harmer Fox and I may not be doing it correctly. I am trying to put in the image and maybe I should just be breaking it up into colours and sections and then try to do the image. Not sure yet.

I needed a rest, so took the dog for a walk and found some lovely squiggly trees that might also make an interesting Van Gogh type of image.

OK! This one is rather abstract also.

But, I have just gone back to the site and found that there are choices for the Van Gogh style. So I put the above pic and got this! The colours are the same, and the image is not recognisable, well, not much. 

Now I will have to go back and try yesterday's image with the Starry Night choice - just because I can. 

I still like the look of this one, I was lucky with being there with my camera, at the right time.

Park bench inspiration

Going on with the Inspired By ... theme, I have another small piece done.
It is still inspired by Van Gogh and Kathryn Harmer Fox.
I used the seat in the garden at the asylum, by Van Gogh.  On my frequent walks with the dog, I came across many bench seats in parks.

The image I used as my model is nothing like the Van Gogh painting, but the painting was still my inspiration.

I have continued with the technique we learnt early last year, from Kathryn Harmer Fox. I used lots of small pieces of fabric, loosely attached them and then did some heavier stitching to give shading, etc.

Once again, it is roughly 12" by 16", or A3 size.

I actually quite like the back too, except that a piece of fabric got caught up in it, not that it matters as it is on the back.

It has taken me a while to get it finished, not for any good reason, just that life got in the way. But finally it is finished. Now to get the four framed. One day.

Using my small pieces of indigo dyed silk.

As I have mentioned previously, the Machine Embroidery Group, which is an interest group at the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria, is having a challenge this year. We are asked to make an A5 (14.8 x 21 cm, 5.8 x 8.3 inches) piece that is inspired by a different famous artist each month. This month it is Van Gogh.

I am waiting to go to the upcoming Van Gogh exhibition that will be at the NGV soon, but decided to bite the bullet and do one before I have the chance to attend.

I was all set to do an image using my fabric collage method. I got out all the bits and pieces I thought I might need. It is amazing how much stuff you might need to make such a small piece!

Then I came across the small pieces of indigo dyeing I had done recently. One piece seemed to be perfect for the sky.

I ironed it onto some adhesive interfacing, placed some other larger pieces (larger than I had planned to use) and then put a few fiddly small pieces, which had been Vliesofixed. Then I got out my newest favourite thing, silk roving (or whatever it is called). I laid that out over some Vliesofix, ironed it on gently, then sewed it all on to make sure it will stay. I also added a few small pieces of wool left over from some tapestry weaving.

Voila! My Australian version of a Van Gogh image. (You can see the inspiration as one of the scrolling images at the NGV site.)

Sunflowers

We planted some sunflower seeds in late October - 6 seeds, of which 4 grew.
They have been fascinating to watch.
The rainbow lorikeets have been interested too!! They have pretty much eaten all the seeds now.

Luckily, we weren't planning anything special for the seeds. But they are eyeing-off the nectarines now, and have had a wonderful time with the plums. So we may have to pick the nectarines just before they are ripe, in the hopes of being able to eat some ourselves. We did manage to get some plums that way.

I have been working on a series of Inspired by ... for one of my online groups. So far, I have done two Inspired by Van Gogh. Seeing I have soo many pictures of the sunflowers, and seeing Van Gogh did some gorgeous paintings of sunflowers, I have been inspired to have a go.
I am not trying to emulate his images, just his topic.

I loved the patterns on the flowers before they opened.

I have chosen an image of a flower that is still opening so that I could get the interesting patterns. Not sure I am getting it how I wanted but it is developing and I will try to improve the image further. That is the advantage of this method, you can overlay fabric and put more sewing onto it to disguise any areas you don't like.

Still lots of work to do but it is coming along.

I have so many gorgeous photos that I may have to do another later on.

Inspired by ...

This time, I am working towards the online group's Inspired By ... theme. We have set ourselves the challenge to make 4 pieces in a year. It isn't a calendar or financial year, just an arbitrary year. We are up to number 3. (Here are 1 and 2.)

I am sticking with Van Gogh and Kathryn Harmer Fox.
The Van Gogh influence is the choice of subject, a sunflower. It is seen from the side, which I don't think he did. But I am still influenced by him.

Part of the reason for the sunflowers is that we have been growing them in the backyard and we put thm in a spot that was off the ground and just outside the back door. They were perfectly situated for me to take close up photos, albeit not front on.

I chose one when it was opening up and pointing east.

The Kathryn Harmer Fox influence if from the workshop I did last April. I have also done my other two for this challenge in the same technique. One more to go.

It starts off looking relatively easy, then the making adjustments, shading, corrections, etc, comes in and there is a lot of sewing. But it is a very enjoyable technique that is also a bit forgiving.

Today I have spent a few hours mounting it onto foamcore.

I decided to leave off the ladybird because I had a bit of trouble with the background and it is now very thick and I thought I might just mess it up.

Now I have three of them, all the same size. Once I have made the next one, I will have to think about how I am going to frame and hang them. But that must be 3 months away, which may not be that far away, actually.

Online visual diary

I have finished the tapestry and have even sewn in the ends and put a backing on. Yay!

Actually, this has been done for a week or more, I just haven't done anything with it since then.

I have been working on several ideas lately, mostly in my head. One is for the upcoming exhibition at the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria, with the theme Art Deco Now!

One is to lead a Play Day group at the guild, making folded fabric books. I have not done that for ages and am trying to work out how to make them so they can have some texture but still fold.

I wanted to see how I had done something (the folded books) and the best place to find it was ... here, in this blog. I know I started it to be a visual diary (and to learn how to blog - so long ago!). I have dropped off lately. I used to try to post at least once a week. Now I am being productive if it is once a month.

Facebook and closed groups there have sidetracked me a bit. There is a lot of sharing of ideas, prompting new ideas, techniques, challenges, etc. So I have been distracted by that. And then you get even more distracted looking at stuff you had no intention of knowing about. Or wanting to know about.

So I think I will try to be a bit more self-focussed (in a good way) and start blogging a bit more often - really just as a visual diary.

I have this tendency to try various things and then forget how I did it, once I have moved on to something new. I also try to meld ideas from various workshops, books, discussions, etc and need to keep a record that is easy to find. I do have folders with examples, but it is cumbersome to find them, locate the exact bits you want and then see what use it might be. Here, you can put in a search and, if you have put in useful labels, it comes up rather quickly.

On the other hand, going through the old folders can be great - you come across things you had totally forgotten you had played with and get re-inspired.

So ...

Onto the current project. Actually, it is one of several things that are occupying my mind at present but I will try to just do this one.

One of my Facebook groups has set a challenge to come up with 4 more textile art pieces in the coming 12 months. The first one was due this month. Not sure of the date and it really doesn't matter as it is not for any deadline other than an arbitrary one.

The 4 pieces are to be 12"x12".
The overall theme is Micro/Macro.
Not sure how I will interpret this and expect things to change over 12 months.
The first one is to be rather monochromatic - approximately 80% the colour and shades of, the other 20% to be another colour.
I have photos that I have played with and played with and then not used, of the hollyhocks in the back yard.
One of the photos is of a close-up of the flower. That is my macro (or is it micro? It may depend on whether you are talking cameras or not).

I am going to stick with my current technique derived from Kathryn Harmer Fox's workshop in 2017.

So I have lightly outlined the image and then covered it with little bits of fabric. Due to my recent work with being Inspired By Van Gogh, I am tending to use that technique that replicates the brush strokes. This has caused some of the pieces to be very small indeed. But I have managed to roughly sew them all so that they are attached, even if some of them are barely attached.

I have put a frame with a 12" hole over it, to give me an idea of where the edges might be.
I liked the raw edge effect of my other Van Gogh pieces, so will try to do that. I think.

The next step will be to decide how to sew the fabric in, how to make it look more like I envisaged, more a part of the overall fabric.

Demonstrating a technique

Our Ebb and Flow exhibition is still on and I was rostered to be a demonstrator tonight.
I made three pieces for the exhibition and didn't have anything on the go for tonight.

However, I am also in an online group that has a challenge going - to be inspired by an artist and to produce something from that inspiration. That is due next Sunday - panic stations!

I think I have already mentioned that I am currently being inspired by Van Gogh but am also wanting to continue trying the Kathryn Harmer Fox technique that I learnt earlier in the year.

So ... Van Gogh did an almond blossom piece. We have a very small almond tree in the back yard, it is spring and it was flowering recently. I took photos. I manipulated one photo to have a clearer idea of where the tones are. I had those two photos printed out A3 size, as well as a black and white version.

The background is a water tank and some balcony fencing, I might have to change that as I go. 

I traced the outlines onto a piece of linen, backed with interfacing.
I wanted to have, at least, started to put some fabric on before I took it for demonstration.

Then, after a lot of procrastination, I got to put a bit more on while I was demonstrating. There wasn't a lot of actual sewing done, it was more me trying to work out where to put the little bits of fabric (and some were most definitely little). I sewed the pieces on as I was going, didn't even use pins. Some of the cheeky pieces moved when I was taking it to the machine (how dare they??) but I just ploughed on and decided that any mistakes can be adapted or sewn over later.

Actually, seeing in this smaller, photographic form, I can almost see it starting to take shape. I couldn't really see it while I was working on it. 

I hope to do a bit more in the next couple of days so that I will be able to have a clearer image to work on when I demonstrate on Saturday. I am rostered on all day, so I had better have a clearer idea of what I am doing.

Demonstration table at the Guild rooms. 

Then and Now

I took the dog to the local park today. I haven't been there is ages, partly due to too many snakes in summer and her being injured. She has had to have shortish walks, which means driving to a suitable park and then walking. Our local park is just too far to get there and then be in the park - much too close to drive to!

But it was such a beautiful day today that I just had to go out. I didn't want to face the increasingly busy roads, so a local walk it was. And she is a lot better.

I took my camera as I am feeling mildly inspired to try another Van Gogh type piece. I tend to take pictures of parks, trees, flowers, etc. So I will have to do some research into Van Gogh's images.

However, I walking into the park from the direction where I took the photo I have just used as my inspiration. So I took another today. No convenient people stand in just the right spot but it was good to be there anyway.

Penny was a bit surprised that I was the one taking a long time to move on, that is usually her forte.

As usual, I went a bit later in the day, so there are some beautiful long shadows.

I couldn't resist taking this one. The dog had been looking around for his person and this is them, just after reuniting.