Highkeyart

  ‘The more you look, the more you see’. Contemporary embroidery a by-product of an acrylic painting. The nearest famous artist I can relate this work to is the American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell. Her intention was to create paintings which conveyed emotion, and not a recognisable image. An objective I hope my work achieves. Process I used a scrap of old linen cloth to clean acrylic painting off my brushes. The cloth was allowed to dry, then both sides were examined to see which looked best. Having decided on the side,  the paint marks were enhanced with stitches. Stitches used Couching, satin, seed, spoke and irregular cross stitch. Thread 6 stranded cotton, 2 strands at a time. Needle Crewel embroidery needle no 7 The Learning curve  You cannot stitch through thick acrylic paint.  The brain attempts to interpret unrecognisable marks. You can create a more desirable colour by mixing 2 different coloured threads.

The Blackberry flower Creating a piece of work that has blocks of colour as well as linear qualities. The tonality of the background was taken into consideration. The process The paper was stretched onto a board and given a light wash of sap green. Using 2 individual preserve jars one was mixed with ultramarine and the other violet, in turn they were thrown at the paper, the board was wobbled about to spread the paint. The paper was left to dry overnight. The ground was dark so I directed a spot light on it, thus making the drawing easier. I applied 3 layers of acrylic paint to cover the ground. Highlights were created with POSCA pens. Review Initially just the flower was put up for critique. The idea of creating a diptych came about, so a petal was extended to the work. This made the work more interesting.

  Building up layers of pigment, to create dynamic work Making marks and preparing the ground Big brushes can be used to splatter and throw pigment Palette knives/credit cards for scraping and layering  Paint markers to draw faint, bold or broken lines Rags,  news paper for Tonkin or smearing  Spray bottles to create drips and runs Jars in which to mix paint and throw at the surface No studio, no problem, work outside.  Just make sure you leave the space as you found it - clean! My abandoned first attempt, put one side for another day. Second attempt,  I spread  a mixture of permanent rose and neon pink over the surface. Once dry I dripped orange ink on the ground and used a straw to blow the ink across the surface. Finally the image of the ribwort was drawn and painted. It took 3 layers of paint to coat the surface, but the surface still looked drab. I found drawing with acrylic pens made the image brighter. The background lacked tonal interest, so a ...

Rags - contemporary embroidery  Computer screens vary the colours of threads and fibres, so often when I purchase goods on line the colours don’t meet with my expectations. With restricted human contact during lockdown  this led to me abandoning my felt work. Until I discovered Patricia Brown I was left with a heap of unused fabrics. She is a New York abstract artist who transferred her gestural approach to painting to stitch. Read all about her on  textile artist.org Not having a collection of paint cleaning cloths; I decided to allocate a cleaning rag for each painting. Thoughts before I start Avoid using a hoop (personally I find them restrictive), use a lining fabric instead Avoid “twee”, it is so easy to fall into this trap Avoid oil paint as it rots untreated fabric First attempt Thick acrylic paint is too hard to stitch through. Dilute paint is easier to stitch and makes nice marks. I added more painted fabric to give the work interest and relief. The linen frayed ...

  Session/assignment 2 Tim uses a limited pallet of very bright intense hues. Taking inspiration from his work paint a flower/plant that fills the page, touching all 3 sides of the ground. Consider the negative spaces and create a free flowing, energetic composition. Oscar Wilde said, ‘Art only begins when imitation ends’. Doing the research: Quickly done thumbnail sketches helps me work out my composition. A conundrum, the teasel is a very structured plant, so how do I get the painting free flowing? I decided the negative space that is the area around the plant will have to have the movement. Hopefully this will make the image energetic  Process -  I used acrylic extender to do the background, this provided the opportunity to get some directional marks using a paint brush. It took a few hours to dry before I could proceed with drawing and painting the image.

Autumn Term 2024 Focus: Learning from a professional artist; Tim Fowler. I missed the studio visit, but a short documentary video is available on his website  timjfowler.co.uk Tim’s success has really accelerated since he explored and created paintings using his heritage countries plants. Session1 Create an A4 black and white drawing of a plant that is significant to your heritage. Use any material; ink pen, graphite, charcoal or biro. It need not be a botanical illustration, but one which captures the energy and vitality of the plant. Heritage plants - are not necessarily native, but could have become culturally significant after their introduction hundreds of years ago. I chose the wild teasel because I thought it was a native plant, plus its link to woollen fabric. In medieval times teasels were used to raise the nap on woollen cloth. Apparently the teasel used for that job has a different shape and is called Dipascus Sativus  whereas the wild teasel is called Dipacus ...