WEEKLY ART PROJECT #7; HEAVY HEADED LAVENDER

We have a variety of lavender bushes growing in the gardens around our house.  They grow well, are great for the bees & smell wonderful whenever we brush past them!  The one that grows at the edge of our front porch has an amusing characteristic that the other bushes don't share.  It droops it's developing flower head, as if it is just too heavy for the adjoining stem!

Set against a backdrop of large leafed succulents, tree foliage and a water tank, I thought this made an interesting composition possibility for #7 of my weekly art project.

I began with drawing with black pen, a little colour variation in green & purple in a series of rough 4cm square thumbnail sketches.  I recorded what I saw...and then played with those components.

Eventually I had a design I liked!  Now...how to transfer this idea into fabric!

The fabric stash held some very exciting possibilities.  And so the sewing & cutting back began.

More cutting back & even more soon brought me to the realisation that I had somehow, accidently turned the background around the wrong way.  Oops.

Once it was all cutback, I was able to see what else it might need, as embellishment, to give it a lift.  It was clear that the purple I had used for the lavender head was too close in tone to the grey in the background, so I added some stitch.

That did the trick!  I was very pleased with my end result & I loved the colour combo!!  Using two different shades of green for the stems also adds energy & interest.  Only I would know about the mix up with the background & it still looks okay anyway. Phew!

WEEKLYART PROJECT #6; ROSE BUD CALYX

In one of our gardens we have a David Austin rose, which is deep red and has a true 'old fashioned' rose scent.  Sadly, the local possums like to eat it's beautiful buds, so I try & pick them before they become food.  Their calyxes are like a dancer's arms, so graceful & elegant.

Using two thicknesses of copic pens, I began by drawing line sketches.  Using flat colour, I highlighted the difference between the rose bud and the calyx.

It was the beautiful calyx lines that I fell in love with, so I traced each one, cut them separately, and had a little play with grouping & overlapping the lines.

It took a LONG time for me to find a combination that I was content with! 
Roses in  hand, I then rummaged through the fabric stash, auditioning fabrics alongside each other, finding the right combinations.

After working out which fabric would sit in which layer within my 'sandwich' of fabrics, I transferred the design and started sewing in the stitching lines.  In the process of getting my supplies for this little project together, I discovered that I was seriously short on red sewing thread! (Out came the shopping list!!)  In the end, I chose a variegated green thread, which shows up against the fabric, so I had to be careful my stitching was smooth!!

Then the cutting back began.  This is always like Christmas to me!  So much fun!  The first few cuts boded well!

A considerable amount of cutting back later & this is the final result.
Whilst I quite like the flowing nature of the lines, the background is perhaps a bit too busy & distracting.  There is something not 'right' with this piece.

Recreating it into greyscale, via the magic of computer photo tools, I can see that the tonal values of the focal shapes are too similar to those of the background.  They blend in rather than draw the audience's attention to them.

Perhaps if I had added some sort of shadow to break up that sameness,...as I've tried to illustrate above with my very poor computer mouse drawing skills,  it may have been a more successful composition.
This is the value of exercises...to learn!

WEEKLY ART PROJECT #5; POND IRIS

Our pond is home to four fish,  waterlillies that never flower, a pump that doesn't work,  lots of strappy plants and...currently...a beautiful water Iris.  This flower only appears when it wants to, so it is an extra special treat when that happens.

Although this means that two WAPs (weekly art projects) in a row have been inspired by an Iris, I don't think that's a problem! :-)

I took a few photos of this elegant beauty hiding amidst the straps of green before heading to my work books to start looking closer & exploring further.

This week I abandoned my black pens for sketching, and used only greens and purples to make visual notes and explore creative ways of interpreting the flower & the environment in which it sat.  It is good to change methods from time to time, it keeps the process fresh, interesting & it can inspire completely different ideas & options.

As you can see I ventured into the realm of abstraction, which was a lot of fun & I liked where it was heading.

Once set on a design, I gathered my fabrics together & began by preparing a background with the white.  I use an air erasable pen, which appears as purple, and eventually completely disappears.  This helps me see where I'm going.

To create the flower, I carefully cut vliesofix backed fabrics to the various shapes of my flower design & iron-appliqued them together.

It was then time to carefully place the Iris between the background & the foreground fabrics, before I could begin sewing those foreground lines in to secure them all together.

I held my breath during that first cut back.  Had I placed the Iris in the right spot? Yes, I had!!

Before anymore cutting, I gave the Iris some machine embroidered features, which also served to secure it in place more reliably.  Then it was time for the cutting back to begin.

This is the final result, and I'm very happy with it.
Definitely a fun & pleasing exercise!!