WEEKLY ART PROJECT#10; AGAPANTHUS BUDS

Another Monday has arrived & once again I am distracted with things OTHER than my weekly art challenge.  This week is week #10 of this discipline, and whilst I didn't want to miss out on producing something, my heart just wasn't in it.

 Still...I showed up & got on with it, & I'm glad I did.
There are many exciting changes happening in my garden, on a daily basis.  My muses this week are the Agapanthus  buds. We have a few clumps in various parts of the garden, this grouping alongside the red geraniums got my attention because they each had their own unique bud shapes & looked as if they were dancing whenever a breeze blew.

I began with a pen & some quick sketches which I enjoyed doing.  Then I made solid blocks of the bud shapes.  They make wonderful shadow shapes.

Having no sense of direction as to where I wanted to take the Agapanthus inspiration for my exercise, I quickly scrawled a map of the group of buds & the angles of their stems to add to my 'information gathering'.

Because I liked the quick placement map I had done, I decided to use that as a starting point for my background.  Out came the paint & brush!!

A foreground of strappy leaves also appealed.  Somehow I wanted to include the red of the geraniums, so I tucked some red into the fabric sandwich & hoped I'd have a better idea of what I wanted to do with it once I got to cutting back that layer!!  Quite unintentionally, I placed the frayed edge of the red along the base & I REALLY liked that, so....there was one decision made...I was going to keep that!!

Stitching in place and then...

...cutting it back. The leaf proportions are way off scale with the background shadowy shapes, but that's okay, I still liked them!

Instead of  cutting curves, I decided to cut the red straight across the horizon line. Don't ask me for an intellectual analysis as to why I chose to do that...it just seemed right to me!  I added a super sized Agapanthus bud & realised it wasn't enough, so...

...I added part of another one.  Using an air erasable pen, I experimented with additional lines, to see whether they might add something more to the piece.

With a bit of hand embroidery & a bit more machine stitching, this is the final result.

It intrigues me, as it isn't a typical 'style' for me & I find myself looking at it & saying "Wow! that's different!"
 I am really happy with it, especially given my mind had no idea in which direction the Agapanthus would lead me. As Christmas draws closer & with life happening, as it does, it is becoming more & more of a challenge to keep going with this project.  The benefit of making the effort has definitely been worthwhile so far...let's hope I can keep it up.



All photos in this blogpost are my personal property.  Please do not copy without permission.  Thank you.