I have been enjoying working on a series of works, using the same sort of stitching. This is one I am working on. I am sure the stitching will look very familiar.
Let me explain about the scraps of paper. (If you read my newsletter, you will know about this. Click here if you would like to sign up.)
My art practice has moved away from more botanic art influences, so I am rethinking my connection to those past works. At the same time I am wondering what I will be creating when I emerge from this strange time. This work in progress, and the others below, have come out of those thoughts.
I took a watercolour painting of a limpet shell and tore it up. Rather extreme, but I have also been thinking about the impermanence of things, how unfamiliar and unsettled our lives are. I selected some of the fragments and stitched them down. The couched threads go under and over the paper ~ emerging, disappearing. To create the texture I am using an open, quite random herringbone stitch.
These are the other two I have finished. One is a torn eggplant drawing. The other is another watercolour limpet shell, in blue tones. In this one I also added some material scraps ~ you can see them on the left, behind the paper fragments. They are small, so are quick to work on. At the moment it is important to not overwhelm myself.
I am part of a group of stitchers that share their personal stitching work every three weeks. Go and have a look at the wonderful work that is being done all around the world. Everyone is doing something very different, but always interesting.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen
Anne Lawson Art 
48 replies on “SAL”
I love the contrast between the orangey thraed with the blues. If we wanted to create permament art works we would all working in stone.
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So true Emma! As for the colours, I was vaguely thinking about beachy things as well as following the colours in the original painting.
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Love the way you create and recreate things, it’s very expressive 🙂
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Thanks Margaret, although it is all rather random ☺️
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The eggplant is my favourite!
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Mine too. It was the first, and probably the most expressive.
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Your work is very unique and beautiful
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Thank you Beth…it surprises me at times too!
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Particularly like the colours in the aubergine! Lovely.
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That was the first one, and I used the colours I had on hand for another project. I put more planning into the other other two.
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Your work is very pretty and obviously very personal to you.
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It certainly is, Cathie. Thanks for your support.
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I love seeing what you create and these two do not disappoint Anne. How do you come up with these ideas for your work?
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I am glad that you like them, MaryMargaret. Often I respond to an aspect of the environment that captures my eye ~ trees, rocks etc ~ but these are quite left field. They are more a response to this strange time, as well as thoughts about my past work. The short answer is “I am not sure”!
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I think we’ll remember this time as a time of experimentation. It’s nice to try new things. Correction, it’s nice to allow ourselves to step outside the old boundaries. 🙂
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Most definitely Meeks. I am coming to respect the idea of play as such an important part of the creative life. And now we have time to play….even if there is not always the inclination.
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Yes. 🙂 Maybe this is the lesson we needed to learn.
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Every post from you is another surprise! Your creativity knows no bounds, and is quite inspiring, Anne. These are very random, but there is something very peaceful about them too, though I can’t quite put my finger on why I think that!
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Oh Thank you Kathy. That’s a lovely response. Perhaps it is the rhythm of them that is peaceful, the more flowing direction of the stitches. Something to ponder!
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I love how you and Margaret are creating textures with couching on your current projects 🙂
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I love Margaret’s couching too! Both of us seem to be finding it a useful way to get some swirly lines. (Isn’t Margaret’s work sumptuous?)
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I love these. I find myself studying them, looking at all the different stitches and colours. They’re beautiful works of art.
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Thank you Carole. That means a lot to me. They are very textural, and I like the contrast between the nubbly stitching and the smooth paper.
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this kind of textile art looks very liberating ^^
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That’s a great description ~ they are very liberating! Tearing up the old works was quite a release too.
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I always enjoy visiting your page. It always gives me time to pause and reflect on nature around me 🙂
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I am so pleased that you get that reaction. Our natural world is under such threat at the moment, especially with the horrendous fires on the West Coast of the US. I feel it is important to have space to help us look around.
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Love the mix media! The eggplant is definitely my favorite, but all are beautiful and unique. The colors in your current piece are perfection. I love how orange and blue compliment each other.
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The eggplant was the first, and so I had no expectations, just play. I think that gives it a spontaneity, where the others are slightly more planned. Aren’t orange and blue a satisfying combination?
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While it pains me to think of you tearing up your watercolors I appreciate the freedom you exhibit in your approach to your art and stitching. I love the texture you’ve created with the various materials and stitches.
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I also wanted to applaud you for keeping to smaller pieces so as not to overwhelm yourself. The way we soothe our souls looks different for everybody. Sometimes it’s quiet neutrals, sometimes it’s more dramatic expressions like I feel these are.
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Thank you Sue, I understand where you are coming from. I could only tear these up because I knew there was another purpose for them. I am very reluctant to just throw out older works. (I am lucky that they are flat works on paper and not bulky oil paintings!) I think the freedom comes from just playing, seeing what happens, no expectations.
Working smaller is an important part of it, maintaining the momentum.
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Love your new stance – particularly tearing up paper – yes I know it’s not any old paper but rather works you created before.
And look at that “freedom” that you created with this stance – a “choice” you made that has led you on a new pathway. I like the idea that the journey is in small.
It’s interesting how this year has unfolded within my own “journey” be it art or life at home. And in the process, I too have “torn up” parts of that life…in ways I truly didn’t imagine would happen…
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Good point, Catherine. Yes, tearing up the old works is a metaphor for tearing up/moving on from the older creative work. And my new direction certainly has more play , more freedom.
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And I’ve had another “radical thought” – maybe splash some more paint, add penned lines or similar – on the torn up original works; either before you layer them down or after you’ve stitched them – then the stitching gets more…
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Oh I love the eggplant one and I like how your art is evolving all the time:)
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Thanks AJ. The eggplant has a spontaneity about it, doesn’t it? Probably because it was the first one I did ~ definitely no rules!
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It´s always so exciting to see the projects you are working on!
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Nothing is ever quite the same, is it? Although there are ‘threads’ that carry through. 😉 Thanks for your enthusiasm.
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I am fascinated by your willingness to tear up paintings that you took time and trouble over and kept for some time. By your experimentation and randomness. It chimes with a couple of things I have been reading and feels as if you have come to the end of a path and are now wandering around looking for? waiting for? wondering about? the next path you will take. I am excited to see what it will turn out to be! Or maybe this is it!
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That is definitely where I am at the moment, Sue. The old path is definitely behind me, and I am doing all those things ~ wandering, wondering, waiting ~ to see where the the next goes. Thanks for helping me articulate some of these thoughts. However, I am enjoying where I am at the moment, so maybe it is where I might stay for a while!
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I certainly didn’t mean to imply you should be in any hurry to move on! Metamorphosis takes time. I am happy to wait to see what kind of butterfly emerges and I know it will be a beautiful one.
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Not quite getting this but I am sure it will turn out beautiful as all your past efforts have been enchanting,
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That made me smile, because I am not sure I get it either! It is certainly has a different feel to anything I have done before ~ way more abstract. Thanks for your faith on where it may end up!
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I really like your embroidery, emotions expressed with yarn and other materials … instinctive and sensorial. Very beautifull! Curious to see the rest …
Hugs,Carmela
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I love how you are adding paper to a fabric piece — usually it’s the other way around. The stitching is somehow soothing … it’s probably not what you were feeling, but it makes me feel like the paper pieces are being gathered into a community, like an upset person being held to soothe them, and the stitches are the community gathering around them.
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I signed up for your newsletter! I love how you are incorporating scraps of paper into the stitching! This was very reflective: “I have also been thinking about the impermanence of things, how unfamiliar and unsettled our lives are. I selected some of the fragments and stitched them down.” I can imagine how awesome your Artist Statement will be on this piece!
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[…] tore out around that shape, which left me with white edges around each shape. The other postcards, like this one, were larger shapes, in this case a shell, torn into smaller pieces. It wasn’t until I was […]
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