Whilst watering the pots this week, I noticed that one of the succulenty plants was flowering, so I whipped it onto the courtyard table, so that I can see it more frequently. Having it set with the black seat cushions forming a backdrop behind worked wonderfully at highlighting it's red colour.
I moved it to yet another location to sketch & here, I was struck by the shape of the negative space inside the cluster of florets. The leaves were also intriguing, they meandered all over the place & were quite fleshy & solid.
Finding it hard, from the position I was in, to work out a pattern or rhythm to the leaf placement, I chose to select a small, somewhat abstract 'window' of the leaves & took my design process from there.
One sketch led to another, as processes tend to do...& each new step was fun!
The point came to start playing with colour & eventually a design I was very happy with emerged.
Using a minimal colour palette this time, I layered my fabrics up & began stitching the design into them.
Usually, the top layer of fabric becomes the main outline for each part of the design. This time however, I was keeping the negative space black, which meant I wasn't cutting back to leave an outline. So as to prevent myself from reverting to form, I added a squiggle to the ONLY parts that needed to be cut back.
I love the bold design & way this piece flows. I could have left it there, but decided to go ahead as planned & add some stitch.
In my initial sketch of this plant, I had particularly liked the linear representation of the florets, so wanted to keep that in. My plan was to complete the stitch in black...then I wondered about green...and because I couldn't decide, I went with both! I think it was a good choice.
I am VERY happy with this result. I love the contemporary, bold look of it & the way the focus is geared towards the stitched flower. Part of me would like to try this again....BIG! This is so very different from my usual style of work...I think I'm a little infatuated with it!
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