One of the problems of having garden areas completely surrounding ones home is that there is a LOT of watering to do!
I was out with the hose, rehydrating the poor plants, when I looked up & noticed there was some form of blossom peeking out of the top of our big-spikey-plant. I dashed inside for the camera (with a zoom lens) and with it, saw this...
A few days later I took the camera out again, zoomed in to see it had transformed to this...
A few days later still it had become...
...this! It was such a rare occurrence in our garden that I chose to make it my focus for the weekly art practice this week.
Where to start? Of the many photos I took of this flower, I chose to work from...
...this photo. I chose it because I liked the way the thick linear leaves broke up the space & framed the buds in the centre.
Time was in short supply again this week, so I spent minimal time playing with design options. I did two quick pen studies.
The first, which I REALLY liked, but soon realised it had way too much content in it for a 15cm square to be completed in contemporary reverse applique!
This pared down sketch became much more do-able & was the basis for my design. Although the flower is off white with green tinges & leaves , I LIKED my black & white version & chose to follow through with that option for my piece.
I found a few different white fabrics, with the difference coming from weave & pattern. These differences don't show up very well in the photographs, you'll just have to believe me...they are there! For the background I came across a scrap of grey fabric that I had speckled with black paint years ago, obviously for another project. I liked the way it looked, giving potential movement & energy to the background without overpowering it.
I carefully sewed my outline through the sandwich of fabric layers & drew in my first lot of cutting lines before getting out the scissors.
Cutting back went from this to these...
Hmmm...it's a bit hard to see the difference isn't it?
I decided to add a little bit of visual help.
Using a fabric pen in a limey green, I added some detail to give it a lift.
It was all coming together quite nicely, but I wanted to add a reference to those wonderful bold leaf lines, so chose to add some stitch, the results of which also contributed to the 'framing' effect.
All in all, I was very happy with the end result, even if the camera really didn't like those whites! I was glad I had had that moment, albeit whilst doing a tedious chore, to look up & see this beauty!
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