Friday, 13 August 2021

Resolved pieces relating to the buttercup study

 

Pulling of buttercup stems after they'd flowered, showed a different side to this plant; the amazing tangle of their root system. These shadows show this off beautifully and suggested how the root could be considered a positive feature. So, thinking of how the world often appeared quite 'upsidedown' during the pandemic lockdown, I allowed the roots to be the positive feature and not the flowers. 


So I had fun playing around with different permutations and using the text 'upsidedown world'.




...and using naturalistic formations and more formal composition as below.



Long grasses were also entrancing as they swayed in the wind. Here the grasses are couched down with stitches the different angles denoting the rhythms of the movement.


Returning to work done during the 2020 'lockdown' period.

 This posting continues the story of the investigation I did when only walking around my garden and along a few close country lanes during the Covid lockdown. A previous posting shows how I used the inks created from buttercup and dandelion flowers to make marks on paper, describing the circular repetition of my daily walks enjoying the numerous plants and flowers starting to blossom. The bright yellow of the buttercups and dandelion flowers were especially vibrant and joyful. See October 2020 posting.

By boiling and sieving the fibres from these plants, I made a warm, soft, yellowish stain or ink. The residue pulp also looked useable so I tried pressing it against garden stone shapes to see if they would dry and hold a shape. This pulp made rather a fragile 'paper' when dried as it had no 'body' so I added pieces of scrim to strengthen and make a firmed moulded shape.

The pulp is used here to partially cover the garden stones, displayed on a drawing.


I also tried making paper shapes - and added spots of bright yellow ink when dried. 

Sunday, 24 January 2021

Whispering messages

A series of concertina book structures in folded vellum.


'Covers' of acrylic squares, painted with marks to echo the swaying rhythms of the grasses.


 Velum pages covered with lines of small punctures and threaded with fine yarns and narrow fabric strips.