COPTIC DOVE (Weekly Art Project #13, 2020)

Even with the restrictions in travel & venturing forth generally, the week still seems to pass pretty quickly! However I do look forward to my Monday weekly art projects & the fact that they take me away from my present reality & make me remember my visit to Egypt.

What a wonderful gift memory is, or can be! I'd like to think that the act of remembering exercises that recall part of my brain!

This week my inspiration source is from a very tiny but special stop in the Western Desert.  We felt a sense of loss leaving The Valley Of the Kings.  It had been such an overwhelming experience to see these ancient sites that we had read about.  Heading into the desert we had no idea what to expect, but  needless to say...we were in for a treat.

The Necroplis of El Bagawat is where, up until the 7th century AD, local Coptic Christians buried their dead.  On site are the remains of dome topped chapels made of mud brick.  Some of the features on their arches & pillars are still barely visible.  Inside the white washed walls had traces of painted decorations, although a lot were damaged & some were quite faded.  Even so, there were glimpses of simple yet stunningly beautiful motifs of meaning.

The above Coptic cross intrigued me.  On close inspection I could see that it has borders of dots inside & out.

Sadly, because of the low light & not being able to use flash, all of my photos are out of focus.  One of the better ones is of this painted interior of a cuploa with doves in each corner.  The central part of the decoration looked like cascades of tear shaped droplets.  Such a simple colour palette & all the more effective for being so minimal.

With Easter coming up this weekend, I thought this dove was an appropriate subject for me to practice my skills with this week.

Unusually for me, I sat at the computer to begin the drawing stage of my design.  I hoped that being out of focus the larger scale might help me distinguish features & it certainly did.  Using the magnificent tool that a computer is, I also engaged Mr Google in helping to work out what some of the less obvious features were.  The page began to fill with the visual notes I drew down of the shapes, motifs & colour combinations I was particularly taken with.

Creating an original design with these elements took some time!  Fabric choice though took less than a minute!  I was so grateful to know I had pieces of fabric in my stash that would be relatively true to the original. My colour scheme was very simple; white, pale pink, mustard & burgundy.

Fabric cut & ironed, then layered up, the design traced & then sewn in, it was time to start cutting back.  Here's how it proceeded...

One of the things I hoped would work was that the painted dots on the background would balance the heaviness of the solid colours & density of the top section of the design. It works for me.  In hindsight I wish I'd curved those tear drops around the arch a bit more so that there wasn't a gap at the top.
I had wanted to allude to the Coptic cross & had initially put a very obvious cross in the background behind the dove.  However I removed it as I felt less was more & included the mustard colour into the dove design so that she became the embodiment of the cross arms & leg! I am very pleased with how my dove looks & the bigger bead eye is more balanced with the whole dove than my initial french knot was. (Which I didn't photograph so you'll just have to take my word for it!!)

I wish you all a very happy Easter break, no matter what beliefs you hold. My weekly art project will take a week off next Monday & I will return the week after that with fresh inspiration from the Western desert! Stay safe & keep creating!