This week I worked on two projects. The first was to finish "Prairie Autumn III", which will go in the mail to its new home later today:
If you're interested, I blogged about the process and inspiration
HERE. :-)
The second was to get my 'blocking' assignment finished for this month's EB Master Class assignment on "line". In the initial sketches, I "de-constructed"
this quilt that had been inspired by
this photo and gave EB
three possible design options to critique. Her response?
"Looking at
this first image, I wonder if you could connect the lines in some way...it seems to me in a landscape that the lines usually do connect....the vertical one would then stand out even more as being the focal point.....the implied triangle is very strong,,,on the very edge of the piece, drawing the viewer's eye to the edge and out of the picture...see if there's a way you can pull that triangle shape back into the central area...the center of interest..."
Hmmm. I agree about the vertical line and perhaps moving the 'implied triangle' on the left more into the piece, but I rather like the disjointed lines.
What else?
For the remaining two options, EB commented mainly on this one:
She found it "...difficult to see what's actually happening" and was a bit distracted by "the surface texture of the fabric" but thought it might be interesting for me "to think about a very high key (i.e., very light values), low value contrast, abstract quilt with repeating blocks...repeat 6 or even 9 times. I do think that would give you the feel of the high prairies..." and she referred me back to
Agnes Martin, whose work I don't understand but
really like (Agnes spent most of her artistic life in Taos, NM, but she hailed from Saskatchewan.)
So this week I produced this paper mock-up of 9 repeating blocks:
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| 9 repeated blocks on design wall |
Then I created 6 blocks for my potential design -- pinned only, thus:
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| "Green Fields" mock-up - WIP |
When I submitted these to EB I told her that I thought 9 would be best, but made up only 6 to see what she thought first. :-)
Her response was, I thought, quite positive:
I love the idea of the spring look...I'd just make one or two more of the greens a little more vibrant... even though you're high key you should have some variation in values...and I'm not sure about that blue grey fabric...it doesn't have the same feel as the others...which look very good very springy with the light showing through...d'you have any that have even more white in them? or one or two sprinkles of a pale pink blossom??
I agree a bit about the blue-grey fabric (it's actually more blue-green, but "dusty", a hand-dye) and will see if I can scrounge for an alternative from my stash, or dye more.
However, I couldn't help but chuckle about the "pale pink blossom". EB is a Brit living, I believe, in the southern U.S., so I forgive her for thinking romantically about flowers dotting the prairie grasslands...but blossoms don't much appear out here on the rolling lands of Central Alberta in the early-mid spring. It's far too chilly! The closest I might get is the pale purple of a
prairie crocus...and I might just see if I can hint at that in the fabric strips.
Off to Calgary today for a variety of errands...but this weekend I'll be lining up those strips under the needle of my machine...so stay tuned.
Linking this up to
WIP Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network. Let's see what my Canadian colleagues are up to, eh?
