Sunday, October 24, 2010

Last Year's Blight

Last year, I was incredibly frustrated with all the slugs in my garden; they chomped my lovely flowers to bits.  In a word, they were a terrible blight.  In response, I made a piece called Neverending Appetite for my Zinnias, complete with holes in the leaves.  (The holes are edged with acrylic paint to prevent fraying and to represent the leaves dying.)  Thought I'd show you the hole-y part of it just for fun.  Who would have guessed I'd have already created a piece that fits this challenge?  The challenge for me now will be coming up with a new way to represent "blight".

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Joy

I stayed up late last night to finish my piece for our "Joy" challenge.  I'm really happy I found a piece of SkyDyes fabric to use as the background; it seemed to me to have just the right feel.   I chose not to quilt contour lines as many portraiture artists do because I just couldn't get it right.  The contours I made looked a bit wonky.   To be fair, though, I've never been someone who adds lots of quilting, so perhaps this is more in keeping with my "style".  What do you think?  Was that a mistake or does it work alright?

I look forward your feedback and comments.   I think this is something I'd like to do a bit more of, so your thoughts will be very helpful. Thanks.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

More joy

It seems that several of us feel the joy of family. I snapped an in- hospital shot of my second son, daughter in law, and newborn first granddaughter a few years ago and have been wanting to add it to my textile portrait album since then. This was the perfect opportunity, and thus we have "Lovebirds Three." Check out my blog (scroll back) to see others in the series. Printed fabrics and multicolors of thread bring them to life.Although I also paint portraits with oil on canvas, but I like doing my fabric portraits with collage rather than painting on the cloth. anyway, Enjoy!
Phyllis

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

joyful colour play


Joyful colour play
At first I had a bad time with Joy, I was absolutely blocked! Then started to think about colours and their significance to me and it became clear that the only way to express joy was
Playing with red!
Painted, dyed and printed cotton, lutradur and organza, cutted and sewed together again, overlaid.
It was a joy to play with it!

Monday, October 4, 2010

On the Path to "Joy"

I'm working hard on my "Joy" piece.  It's based on a photo of my youngest daughter with her head thrown back in laughter.  This is a bit of a new direction for me.   I've never tried to create a face like this before and I hardly ever use these colors.   As a result, things are taking me longer than expected.   At any rate, I thought you might appreciate a peek at the piece to date.

Friday, October 1, 2010

October/November 2010 Challenge Word

blight

noun \ˈblīt\
1 : something that frustrates plans or hopes
2 : something that impairs or destroys
3 : a deteriorated condition blight
4a : a disease or injury of plants marked by the formation of lesions, withering, and death of parts (as leaves and tubers)
b : an organism (as an insect or a fungus) that causes blight

Orientation: Vertical

Joy - full play with colour


as I anounced befor I^ll not be able to show my Joy today but I'm working on: