Paint splat and all that.

Paint and colour & interpretations.

These are some drawings I did on the allotment trying to focus on just capturing a spread of colour, without getting too caught up in the detail. Interpreting these drawings might look something like the following...if you don't have lots of coloured paint maybe you can substitute something else - coloured paper or coloured thread and fabric scraps.

BANDULU SPLATTERED JACKET 

 hand embroidered paint splatter embellishment.

Farfetch Jacket

Gucci bleached jeans

This artist, Lisa Smirnova does this sort of work with sublime elegance, the her link shows some sketch books, which are equally interesting. This first link is to a good looking article on combining paint, fashion & styling.

Embroidering Paint on Clothing

Lisa Smirnova

Ink Blot Exploration

I really like the un-predictable results with the ink blot technique so after doing some leaf inkblots last week I revisited the technique to draw this Small tortoiseshell visiting the allotment in the sunshine.

I planned out some of the markings on tracing paper, concentrating on the dark areas and a layer for the reddish orange. The trace was drawn in soft pencil and then burnished from the back onto cartridge paper just to give a faint outline.

I experimented with block printing ink, slightly thinned so I could draw with a pipette. It worked better for blotting the thicker it was, I also let the thinner ink dry a bit before blotting, I could experiment infinitely.

Once dry these ink blots were copied to photoshop for editing, initially playing with the blots not worrying too much how close it was to the original photograph. Partly this was because these blots were done quite small and it is difficult to get details, in the past I have done larger scale images like the one below trying to more faithfully replicate the markings, these were originally done in ink at A3 size paper.

Marbled White Butterfly

This inkblot style can be applied to textiles in the form of tie dye and shibori techniques.

Designer Marion Clayden

Work held at Cooper Hewitt design Museum NY
















Another interesting project using shibori..

Migration Museum

Search Results

Web results

Ceyda Oskay

Maps on Monday

Too cloudy to see any shooting stars, but maybe next time.

Star gazing tips from BBC

As the growing season really feels like it is starting to get off the ground I am trying to finalise some kind of working plan...which I do with a map.

I love maps and artwork inspired by maps, some images I have collected over the years for inspiration.

 

a favourite image combining
geometry natural forms and light. By Rirkrit Tiravanijac.1999

Rirkrit Tiravanija

 Ellsworth Kelly

Map above and plant drawings below.

 

Once things get back to normal screen printing would be the medium I would be using to print any maps or map inspired works, with potentially a look back at the history of maps printed on fabric like the ones in the Silk Museum in Macclesfield just down the road.

Paradise Mill Silk Museum

Commercial printing still goes on in the Macclesfield area

Rampley and Co. Contemporary silk accessories

From functional maps printed on silk during WWII to luxury band Hermes

Scarves by Hermès

Coffee break

Break time...

One of my favourite times at the allotment is break time, feasting outdoors always heightens my enjoyment, plus if you have earned a break its great to feel smug.


Photos of coffee and tea dregs, reflections on ceramic and enamel.

These Talented Artists Turned Coffee Stains into Works of Art

Coffee And Tea Turned Into Beautiful Art By Giulia Bernardelli

Much of this stuff is coffee based but there is always time for tea...

 RUBY SILVIOUS

LOVELY MISS ELVIS

stained tablecloths

After making some 'mug rings' of my own I also played around with the negative, brushed a wash of coffee onto cartridge paper, let that dry and and then make water marks back into the coffee. A ceramic cup leaves a lot of water, you can blot this carefully with tissue or use a pipette (I have lots as I like drawing with them) or if you can find a paper cup that will leave less water behind as it absorbs some.

slimmer lines done with paper cup

While the water is still damp it makes the paper translucent in this next photo the sketchbook page is backlit. All good potential backgrounds or mark making ideas.

Below is a tray designed by InDetail Interiors

Rorschach test and Inkblots

Bright sunny days are bringing leaves out and those first bright green leaves are tantalising.

The hedge around the allotment is made up of beech, hawthorn and poplar.

In searching for the identity of the leaves I came across this great resource for identifying a great deal of our native flora & forna, free downloadable identity posters...

Discover the Wild

I really like the mixture of symmetry and almost symmetry and enjoy mixing paint to try and capture the vibrancy of the leaves.

As I am using cartridge paper I have made the fold first and smoothed it out, then applied paint on one side and re pressed the fold to transfer some of the ink to the opposite side of the folded paper.

I use this technique a fair bit, so it will reappear I'm sure, partly for my own reference I'm leaving this link here to the more sophisticated use of this simple method, Rorschach prints...

Rorschach

The vivid green evokes memories of a pice of work I saw several years ago in the V&A, London.

Breathing in the Beech Wood, Homeland, Dartmoor, Twenty-Four Days of Sunlight

Garry Fabian Miller is a pioneer of the contemporary camera-less photographic image. This work represents his return to nature after a period exploring abstractions in light and colour. The leaves came from several trees and were gathered over a 24-day period in spring. Each vertical row of nine leaves represents one day of collecting and printing. Their careful arrangement shows the gradual effect of chlorophyll entering the leaf to make it green, offering a comparison between this process and photography, both of which rely on the transforming power of light. More on his works in the link on his name in this paragraph.

And lastly for today as I gather together scattered thoughts, a short extract from Wildwood, while this extract is written about autumn it still resonates in spring... (p205)

Wildwood 

A Journey Through Trees

Roger Deakin

"It has taken no more than a fortnight for the entire mountain side to change colour...with the shortening of the days, the mountain is displaying its geology through the minerals in its leaves....The chameleon leaves are litmus to the chemical changes going on inside them. The tree senses a particular moment when the balance between day and night has altered..."

The paragraph details some of the chemistry going on in the leaves, water sustained chlorophyll makes the leaf look green by absorbing blue and red light from the sun and masking other pigments in the leaf with varying effectiveness. Fascinating to think about green tree leaves in more detail and that what we perceive is to some extent an optical illusion.