WEEKLY ART PROJECT #49; GRIDIFYING NATURE

For the past few weeks I've been working through an online art course with Lisa Call.  The subject we've been looking at is abstract art & Lisa has been taking us on a fascinating journey through the history of this particular art genre.

This week I've been particularly focused on the work of Mondrian, whose grid paintings are his most famous.  Mondrian's grid paintings were non-objective, which means they weren't inspired by or meant to represent anything in particular. 

Because I LIKE referring to something real in my own art creating, and because grids have been on my mind... I wondered whether I could try developing a grid pattern inspired by a plant?

There's no reason why not!

There have been a lot of interesting flowers emerging in my garden, especially from the succulents, this being one.  It's flower is particularly interesting & inspired me to try the grid idea for this week's art project.

By already knowing the style I wanted to attempt, I leapt straight into exploring with pens, paper & paint.  Only minor changes were varied from drawing to drawing, but even so, lots of thought accompanied each one.

Composition was important, as was proportion...then there was the balance of colour!

Using a simple colour palette, I set to work tracing my final design onto the uppermost layer before...

....sewing the design through all of the layers.

The first lot of cutting back revealed the orange flower segments. A good start I thought!!

The next cutting back revealed the strappy succulent leaves... well...the rectangles that represent them!!

The third layer cut back revealed the white background.  I'd chosen a white fabric with a small floral pattern (also in white), which adds texture, even if the camera wasn't able to pick it up in this photo!  At this point I had to make some decisions.  Art is all about decision making!!

The one I needed to make was whether to leave the heavier black lines in situ, or whether to cut them back creating more pockets of white.

I opted to cut them back, leaving just the one very strong black line marking a vertical third!
The piece could have been left at this point, but I felt it needed a little more movement & variety of line.

So I added some stitched lines, which make it look far more interesting.
Looking at it now, having completed it a few hours ago, I think those thin lines need a little more weight to them, as they are just a bit too spindly looking.  Never the less, I'm very pleased with this outcome and I certainly enjoyed the challenge of it.

One thing I've learnt both from my course work and from this little exercise is that, just because something LOOKS simple, doesn't mean that it has been simple to complete as a resolved composition!