HORUS IN THE SACRAL TREE (WAP #2/2020; Inspired by travels in Egypt.)

From a tomb to a temple. This week's art project took me back to Edfu, where at dusk, we traveled by horse to the magnificent temple of Horus.

Walking past this large granite sculpture of the rather stern looking falcon god we entered what is considered to be the largest & best preserved Ptolemaic temple in Egypt.  Hard to believe it was buried under sand for nearly 2000 years!

Of the many photos I took of the incredible relief sculptures lining the temple walls, it is this that I chose as my source of inspiration for this week's project.  I don't recall reading or hearing what this panel represents, but from what we'd seen already in Egypt the imagery was not a common one.  What was this tree or bower? Was it some sort of Tree of Life?
With that question in mind, my day started with a scroll through Mr Google's fount of knowledge & from the little on offer, I'm making an assumption that this may have been the Sacral Tree. However, images of this tree seem to be shrouded in mystery.  This quote seems to sum it up;

"Portrayals and historical uses of these motifs remain an enigma to most historians and evoke little agreement with respect to their botanical identity and allegorical significance." (Atac 2008: Giovino 2007.)

Regardless of the extent of it's symbolism, I was attracted to the stylized lines of branches & leaves, so started to decipher how they worked together using pen & paper.
Because this was the temple of Horus, I felt it important to include him in some way, so flipped through my photos & made visual notes of the various falcon forms I saw.

How to take those few notes of imagery & try to create something fresh, interesting & achievable took a while to work out.  I drew thumb nail design options, not really happy with any of them.

As the clock ticked closer to lunchtime & my stomach began to growl, my executive-self declared that it was time to just choose one option & go with it!  So I chose the first option I'd drawn & worked & reworked it on an A4 sized sheet of paper until I was happy with my design. There was an audible sigh of relief when that point was reached!!

Whilst drawing up my design options I'd also been thinking about how I wanted my project to look.  What if I used ONLY layers of calico & cut some back to give the appearance of relief sculpture, whilst leaving other features just outlined in stitch?
This is the challenge that most excited me & so consequently choosing fabric options was the easiest  part of the process!  Eight pieces of calico were cut, ironed & layered up before my design was stitched through them all creating quite a solid wad!
With scissors at the ready it was time for the cutting back to begin...

I was very pleased with how effective this looked.
I wondered though, whether Horus might look better with a bit of colour added.
One of my intentions this year is to use my tools (ie; paints & print making equipment) & not be quite so precious about them. This was a good opportunity to put this intention into practice!

I chose Jo Sonya's acrylics because they wouldn't run & I felt sure I could also get a dry-brush effect with them.   The colours have dried stronger than I expected, but I'm still happy with the outcome.

The big question then was, do I add some colour to connect the Sacral Tree with Horus?

Throughout Egypt the painted reliefs are old & worn with many parts having no colour at all or tiny splinters of colour that hint at what it might have looked like in a by gone age.  With this in mind I got out my embroidery thread & did a little colour matching.

This is the end result.
I'm very happy with the outcome & particularly like the sculptural look of the tree branches. It was a new variation of using contemporary reverse applique & it honours the temple visit.

The piece feels wonderful to touch!  I realise that that is not often spoken about when talking about textile art.  There are so many times one must refrain from reaching the fingers out to stroke the cloth!  But with my own work, it's an added bonus to the experience of making.

Almost instantly I wanted to try this technique style again with a bigger art work.  However, on pinning this small piece to my pinboard & stepping back from it, I realised that it doesn't take many metres of distance for this to fade into next to nothingness! From across a gallery the colour might draw an audience closer, but not much else would.  Any larger piece would need a lot of consideration given to the coverage of dense cutting back & the percentage of paint.  All good for the ongoing learning curve.
Until next week...happy creating!