PUERTA DE LA JUSTICE (Weekly Art Project #3; the Alhambra)

 

This magnificent horseshoe style gate is the Puerta de la Justice, but it is also known as the Gate of the Esplanade. This would be because of the grand esplanade that leads to it & because it was the largest & most impressive gate found in the Alhambra walls.  Built in 1348 it soon became the most often used entrance into the Palace grounds as well.

I remember a few things about the experience of encountering it for the first time.  It's size made an impression on me & you can see in the photo above how it's height compares to the average human!

This Hamsa symbol also attracted me as it is unlike any Hamsa symbol I have seen before. This is a protective symbol in the Islamic faith & represents the hand of Fatima, Mohammad's daughter.

And because I have an interest in symbols.... above the inner archway is another Islamic symbol, the key.  I particularly liked this key because of the detail of it's tassle. It is believed to represent Islamic Paradise, which I can well imagine the Nasrid Palaces within the Alhambra complex were designed to be the earthly equivalent of.  However this symbol could also represent authority, & perhaps this is where the connection with 'justice' comes from?

What impressed me most though,  are the glazed tiles that decorate the upper section of the second arch. They are so high up we mere mortals need a zoom lens on our camera to even see them properly.  When we do see them though, they are as exquisite as if they were just made yesterday.

 

For my weekly art project this week I wanted to create something new using some of these features. 

I started by drawing a rendition of the tiles & then cut it out into a paper stencil.

I'd made a couple of fresh gelli plates, so I was keen to see whether they worked okay.  This seemed a good opportunity to print off a few pieces of fabric using my tile shapes & hopefully in the course of that process I would have a brilliant idea about how I was going to bring it all together in one 20cm2 piece!

I moved my more successful prints around to see how they looked with each other.

Slowly I began sewing some together & appliqueing others over top to create an interesting base.  

Scale was a key word when I thought about this gate, so with that in mind I made my hand & key rather smaller than my tiles!

This was the end result & I'm quite happy with it.

Only 'quite' because in hindsight I wish I'd just left the tiles as themselves & maybe pushed them a little further to perhaps look like this variation, which my Layout App came up with.  This REALLY appeals to me & perhaps I would have got to it on my own if I hadn't have been so determined to include the Hamsa & the key, both of which could have been subjects for another week's project.

When setting my own guidelines for this project I have been deliberately open ended, not giving myself too many rules except size & a stitch requirement.  Today's outcome is a very good lesson for me, I keep telling myself 'less is more', but sometimes even less is more!  

Even so, I'm not disappointed with my outcome & it has certainly been fun to work on.

ARCH OF THE EARS (Weekly Art Project #2; The Alhambra)

 

Partway up the hill alongside the path to the current Alhambra complex are the remains of the Puerta De Bibrrambla.  

Although this fragile mudbrick archway is now guarded by trees, it was once the entrance to a communal Square where criminals were displayed after justice had been meted out on them.  At one time it was known as the Arch Of Ears, which was derived from the practice of hanging the dismembered ears of the criminals in the archway for display. Gruesome.

This history must have something to do with the odd mix of tranquility & unrest that I felt when passing by.  It was a place where ghosts might wander.

On a visual level, there is something dramatic & spellbinding about the contrast of the lime green leaves of new growth & the crumbling decay of the eleventh century public entrance.  Therefore it was important that I capture these two characteristics in this week's art project.

After some preliminary drawing & note taking I'd made a decision that I wanted to keep this piece as symmetrical as possible, so I measured & drew my design straight onto the backing cloth.  I then began to cover all my drawn lines by building up the background.  I wanted a variety of greens to represent the differing shades as light penetrated through the trees.

The tree trunks were also to represent the bars of a jail, referencing the criminals in it's history.

A little texta added a tad more depth!

The Arch itself was layered with both fabric & a handmade paper with torn edges, in an attempt to give that crumbly fragile edge to the building.

The final outcome includes a hand drawn mirror-image pattern of ear-like shapes!

I'm very pleased with how this looks & I enjoyed working with paper, although I feel stitching around the edge of the structure, which I had to do to secure it, detracts from the lovely edges. I did wonder about softening the paper with some coloured pencil, but there is something eye-catching & engaging about the stark white in the centre of all that texture & colour, so for now, it stays. The white does look very new & perhaps it's important to remember that once upon a time this was a new gate with many people eager to walk through it. Both the present & past seen together in this art project....I like that!.

FIRST GLIMPSE (Weekly Art Project #1; The Alhambra)

 

In 2014 I was asked where I would like to be to celebrate my 50th birthday (later that year).  My response was almost immediate; the Alhambra!

 I had been there before.  

When our children were younger we'd lived in the UK for a while & during that time made the most of school holidays to visit different places in Europe.  One of those places was The Alhambra, but whilst I was able to enjoy the visit, my role as Mother was paramount & I couldn't really lose myself in the beauty of the place whilst also watching my children. Hence my desire to return.

Sure enough on my actual birthday, there I was in Granada, Spain about to spend my 50th birthday in one of the most breathtaking places I'd ever been to.  I was horribly jetlagged having just flown in from Australia, it was very humid & I was overwhelmed to actually be there.   I was determined to make this day last, because to be there a second time in my lifetime was a privilege I was very very grateful for.

 

The past few Weekly Art Projects have focused on my travels.  This WAP continues that theme, with the difference being that my whole weekly art project will be inspired by this one place & my time there during one single day.  Ideally, I'd like to do 50 projects. Realistically, it will probably be over 21 weeks, as my other projects have been.

Glimpses of the Alhambra can be seen as one meanders through the cobbled lanes of the city of Granada. Equally spectacular is the upward glance from the the banks of the Darro.  With my first project, I wanted to capture the colour & dominance of this beautiful complex sitting strategically uphill.

This year I have asked myself to use my tools!  So with a new project I decided to use a tool I haven't used before; masking fluid.

My goal was to paint a map of Granada in latex masking fluid, so that when I'd painted over the dried latex & peeled the it off, I'd be left with a cool batik effect map.

Unfortunately, I didn't do a lot of research before attempting this.  I was sure I'd read it could be used on fabric?!!!

Whilst this map would be very hard for anyone who has walked Granada's streets to navigate from, I was pleased with how it looked.

 

I was also pleased with the colour & texture I managed to achieve with my roller & a few paints.

However, to cut a long story short, the latex wouldn't peel off! It wouldn't iron out either & I wasn't prepared to spend a whole heap of time trying to wash it out.  Therefore...it stayed!  With it's rubbery stickiness the lighter paint has adhered to it & although more subtle than my original plan, I like the result.  This was to be my building material!

Tracing a simple drawing onto thin paper I stitched the outline through the fabric...

 

...and then had the laborious task of removing the paper!

 

A little cutting away & I had a sky in the background & a building in the foreground.

I'd been given perfect tree fabric & I thought I would use it.  However, it felt rather too illustrative for me.  I'm trying to capture more than a recreation of a photo, I wanted an impression not accuracy.

Raiding the scrap bin I came across a variety of pieces that interested me & began moving them around, trying to find a pleasing composition.

With a little hand stitching to highlight the map I completed my first project in this series.  I'm pleased with it...except for the little bits of paper still trapped in a few of the stitches! It is dramatic & intriguing.  It alludes to a rich history.  It draws me in. Once again I get to visit, this time with my imagination & creativity. I'm already looking forward to next week!

BIRDS AND BEASTS (Weekly Art Project #21, 2020)

 When I started the discipline of doing this weekly art project back in January, I made the choice that I would complete my 'Egypt' series in 21 weeks/projects.  Why?  Because I only managed 21 weeks of the project in 2019 before life interfered & I had to delay resumption until 2020. Also, 21 feels like a good number!  Today marks #21 in this current project, therefore it is my last one with Egypt as an inspiration.

It might be hard to believe, but I'm feeling some emotion!!  The whole process of focusing on a theme like travel has enabled me to relive the experience, which was one of my life's highlights. With that in mind this week's project had to be super special. What was I going to do???

Last week I used the Artisans of Egypt as my inspiration, this week,  my starting point is this incredible mixed media painting by Egyptian artist Ayman El Sameray.

Imagine my delight when we returned to Cairo after travelling around Egypt, entered our hotel lobby to discover that their lounge had been transformed into a gallery space showcasing this artist's work.  Oh my goodness. Sigh!  The piece above, the name of which I cannot find, was my favourite & I WANTED it sooooooo much it hurt!  Aside from the fact that transporting it back to Australia would be difficult, it was seriously way outside our budget.  Having grown up with the mantra "you can't always get what you want" did not help!!!

My attraction to this piece was due to a number of aspects, the colour palette & impacting composition of the huge white orb with the golden halo & sky blue background hit me first.  But what won me over were the simple line pictographs of what I interpretted to be symbols of everyday rural life.

 We'd had the privelege of visiting a number of rural communities, the farmers & crop growers who fed this ancient nation, all so very dependant on that all important River Nile.

During our travels I had become particuarly fond of one particular beast of burden, the donkey.  We saw so many. The majority were weighed down with overflowing loads and most were very poorly treated.  The photo above is one showing the healthier well looked after version of donkeydom!

I wanted to honor the donkey in this last project.

 As always, my process started with drawing.  I sat at the computer, flicking through the photos drawing donkeys and other reminders of life in rural communities...baskets of produce, hand woven crates, pigeon coops and of course everywhere, town or country, there were cats!

 My aim was to give that impression that lines had been scraped away from the surface layer, so not only did I have to keep the outlines of the design simple, I had to be mindful of where my stitching lines would need to be.  It took a bit of concentration, but here's how my plan stitching looked!

 The colour palette I wanted to stick to was sand & blue. Choosing blue as the background I made a fabric layer by ironing applifix to some calico & ironing on some strips of blue fabric scraps. Quick & easy because time was ticking on!!

 I had this beautiful variegated sand coloured fabric which was perfect for this project.  It took quite a while to stitch all those lines into my A4 sized piece!

 There was only one layer to cut back, so here's how it looked at the end of that fiddly cutting!  The pigeon coop does look a bit like a darlek but I was pleased with how my donkeys looked.  It just needed a bit more oomph!

  The addition of gold paint added depth & added interest to this composition & I'm really pleased with the outcome.  Were I to do it again I think I'd vary the background scraps of blue to be more random rather than the stripes.  Having said that the change from dark to light makes it less flat & more interesting. A very pleasing finish to the series.

At the conclusion of my 2018 weekly art project which was inspired by Istanbul I compiled each project piece into a page that became a fabric book.  It is wonderfully tactile, beautiful, rich in memory & is also an excellent display of samples showcasing how effective contemporary reverse applique can be.  Consequently, I plan to turn this project into a book too.  Therefore that's what I'll be working on next week during my usual weekly art project time slot.  I'll also be thinking about which travel adventure to be inspired by next.  Will it be Norway, France, Morocco, Spain, Iceland or Jordan? Hmmmmm!  You'll just have to wait and see!!

ARTISANS (Weekly Art Project #20, 2020)

 It's weekly art project time again & this week I wanted to honour the Artisans of Egypt.

One of the purposes of having a few extra days in Cairo was so that we could go & see the extraordinary craftmanship of equally extraordinary artisans that this city is blessed with.  As we visited metalworkers, glass blowers, jewellery makers, plasterers, ceramicists, marquetry experts, weavers & painters we had to constantly be mindful that we had a budget!

It was extremely hard!

There were two sites that were topmost on my to-see list; the quilters of the Tentmakers Street & the Souk El Fustat Gallery representing the Akmeem embroiderers.

The small stall like shops where the tentmaker men sit & applique their exquisite cushion covers & wall hangings was a kaleidoscope of colour in a dusty unassuming alley. The men were welcoming & keen to know where we were from & excited to share their beautiful work.

 In a complete contrast the Gallery showcasing the Akmeem embroideries was in a modern (& dust free) complex & there was only one person on duty who really couldn't tell us anything about the embroideries.  This meant that the brightly coloured works had to speak for themselves, so they told us visual tales of life on the land, the growing of vegetables, the management of stock and the importance of water.

How was I going to honour these artisans in my project this week?

 It has taken more thought than you would imagine, but in the end this faded and tatty cushion cover helped.

It is one I bought from the Tentmakers & gave to my parents-in-law who are now deceased.  I actually rescued it from the rubbish pile when we were sorting through their household.  I wondered whether I could use it as a base, a starting point for my project.  Perhaps I could alter it in some way without losing it's charming qualities.

 I sat at the computer scrolling through my photos, making visual notes of motifs that leapt out at me & gradually my idea started to unfold.

 Rummaging through my (newly tidied) box of plain coloured fat quarters I found what I needed & began the process of bringing my ideas to reality.

 Having carefully traced the lozenge shape & cut out enough fabric needed to place over the existing ones, I began to stitch in the lotus design I'd drawn on each lozenge.

 With the addition of a new centre, I was ready to let the cutting back begin!  Here's how it went...

With embroidered embellishment & a bead in the centre it was ten folded back to maintain the A4 size & shape I've kept with all the other weekly art projects.
I don't think I've ever attempted this type of repurposing or upcycling or revamping...(whatever one wants to label it), but I am very pleased with the outcome.  If I wasn't restricted by time I would have liked to have added more running stitch.  It is an appropriate reminder of my visits to see artisans at work, as well as remembering my in-laws who never had the opportunity to visit Egypt but were fascinated by our adventures there.  It never ceases to amaze me how art making can link so many seemingly random connections!  I hope your art making is making you feel as satisfied this week. :-)

MUSEUM PORTRAIT (Weekly Art Project #19, 2020)

Our time traveling in Egypt was quickly coming to an end.  With a few days in Cairo before flying out there was a LOT we wanted to pack in to that brief amount of time.  The most important being a visit to the Egyptian Museum.

Sadly, as with many museums, cameras were most definitely forbidden.  Therefore I have no photographic images to remind me of the extraordinary artifacts I was privileged to see in just a few short hours.  Let's just say...I had to remind myself to breathe.  The sculptures, the carved wood & stone, the exquisite plaster work, the gold from Tutankhamen's tomb, the sarcophagi....sigh...EVERYTHING!  When walking through a place like that, knowing that this is likely to be the only time in my life to see these remarkable & beautiful objects, it feels that if I don't breathe time will slow down so that I can absorb it all the more permanently!

One of the sections I most wanted to see was focused on Akhenaten . I have long been fascinated by him, partly because of his bravery to change the whole way in which his people worshiped, but mainly because I've found the elongated body features with their exaggerations visually beautiful.

The above photo was taken in a museum where I was obviously allowed to take a photo, but sadly I don't recall where that was.  It may have been Alexandria. I can see why I took it though, & why, even though it's slightly out of focus, I kept it in my photo collection. Not only is the face  elongated (albeit slightly), but I LOVE the hair treatment.  Therefore, I'm choosing her as my muse to represent 'the Museum experience'!

After drawing a resemblance of her within an A4 space, I gathered my fabrics, stitched in the design & got ready to cut back.  Here's how it went...

Here she is, the final outcome.
I did consider doing this piece in a landscape orientation, but to do so would have meant losing that wonderful long sinuous neck, & I felt the neck was important to keep!
One of the successful aspects of this piece is that I achieved it in a relatively short period of time!  Yesterday was rather time-restricted in terms of studio work, & when that happens I need to be able to adjust my expectations in terms of design complexity.  This is quite a simple design, but it captures the components I wanted it to; exaggerated eye, long features, skin tone & a nod to that fabulous hair.  I'm also pleased with the choice of background fabric too. It may not be perfect & is certainly not a resolved enough design to reproduce for sale purposes, but it is a sufficient aide-de-memoir for me.  Sometimes sufficient is enough!!