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Wednesday 7 March 2018

Owl Moon

Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Sometimes I have an idea for a piece of work and I get started and make it right away. More often though it takes a long time (years sometimes) for an idea to become a reality. On our first night in Islay on holiday three years ago we were lucky enough to get very close to a Tawny Owl. It swooped down and landed on a fence post right in front of us as we gingerly drove down a track to what we hoped was our accommodation for the week. It wasn't terribly impressed with us stopping to admire it but the experience stayed with me and since that moment I've been wanting to make a piece about that owl.

Tawny Owl, Islay 2015

Layering up fabrics

Layering up fabrics

As much as I love owls, I've resisted making any pieces with owls for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I only really make work about birds I've seen and been able to observe properly as I want my work to capture a bit of their spirit and to do that I have to get to know them. It's hard to observe owls in the wild as they mostly come out at night and they're very stealthy! Secondly, owls are very popular (I own many owl embellished items myself) and I didn't want to fall into the trap of making a 'cute' owl.

Building up the owl, using my drawing as a template and photograph as reference

Rust dyed silk for owl wings

Starting to add machine embroidery

For our exhibition 'Wingspan' at RSPB Geltsdale Visitor Centre, Mr. Stitches has written a poem about an owl hunting, called Owl Moon. This poem captures the wildness and skill of the owl and inspired me to finally get around to making my owl piece. As I mentioned, the idea for the piece had been in my head for some time so Nick's poem was just what I needed to kick start the process.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

I'd found some interesting metallic fabric on a trip to Bombay Stores in Bradford and I knew that's what I wanted to use for the moon. I also knew that I didn't want it to be too shiny so I experimented with layering up pieces of silk organza that I'd dyed with logwood, giving a beautiful deep purple colour. I also used some indigo dyed organza and used some indigo dyed linen as a base as I felt the piece needed a more solid ground than the organza. For the owl I used pieces of organza that I'd dyed with rusty pins as it had just the right texture and patterning for an owls wing.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Like a lot of my work this piece was built up in layers. As always, I started by drawing and sketching my ideas before I started to play around with layering up fabrics. Sometimes the pieces of fabric come together really quickly and other times I spend a long time arranging and re-arranging until I'm happy. I used running stitch and star stitch to secure the background layers and chose to leave a lot of raw edges as I think this emphasises the wildness of the subject.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

I then moved on to making the owl. Again working in layers I built up pieces of rust dyed organza, using my drawings as a template to cut out specific areas such as the wing feathers. I then worked several layers of machine embroidery in various shades of thread to build up the pattern and texture of the feathers.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

I'm really pleased with how this piece has worked out, I think that it is starting to marry together different parts of my practice;  the work I've been doing on my feather banners, my bird portraits and drawings and my increasing interest in and experiments with natural dyeing. For me this piece feels like the start of something, as well as the resolution of an idea that I've had in my mind for a long time.

Thursday 1 March 2018

Life Drawing 20.2.18


Continuous line

Usually it seems like no time at all between sessions but I did feel like we'd had quite a big break this time as it was 6 weeks rather than the usual 4 as I'd had to shift the dates around. As usual I was tired from a busy day at work but I was also looking forward to drawing.

Hand

Hand

Feet

It always interests me how the atmosphere changes depending on who turns up. For this session I was the only female which was unusual as normally there is a mix. I found that the atmosphere was more intense than normal, but that could have been the personalities present as much as anything else. This change in dynamic is one of the reasons I like the Life Drawing sessions, it alters each time and so changes my drawings too.

Blind drawing

Blind drawing

Blind drawing: faces

Although I have mostly been keeping up with my daily drawing practice I felt really rusty for this session and wasn't particularly happy with any of my drawings. However, I enjoyed the discipline of being there and drawing and working through the disappointment with my sketches. I really enjoyed 'blind' drawing too, I've found this really helps me when I'm struggling with a pose as it makes me really focus on the pose rather than the drawing and I notice things I might otherwise miss.

Blind drawing

Drawing with my non dominant hand

Continuous line

Interestingly, looking back on the drawings after a week or so when I came to photograph them I was a lot happier with them and there are some that I think are actually quite good. One of the poses meant that I had some extreme foreshortening to contend with but I'm pleased with how some of the sketches from this pose have worked out.

Extreme foreshortening 

Extreme foreshortening 

Extreme foreshortening 

I was very impressed with some of the charcoal studies some of the other artists had done and I think that next session I might have a go with charcoal, it's been a while but it might be good to break out of my pen habit and try something different.

Hands

Continuous line

Continuous line