The Artist’s Progress…or lack thereof!

I find there’s always a time after a long exciting trip that one enters into the Doldrums: calm dead seas with not much happening.  Well not much being actually finished!  It’s always helpful for me to try a little painting after a rich visual experience…so I’ve been attempting a few watercolors based on some of the lines and spaces I saw in Western Scotland last month. 

 

 

Nothing much yet, but it helps to get my eye and hand following some of those landscape lines…it’s good to dig deeper into it, and look and look.   I also need to do some research and see how accomplished brilliant experienced painters like Turner solved the painting problems of such glorious places.  Thinking of research, I remember Ian McEwan’s answers to questions about the validity and clarity in his work: vast amounts of research – one or even two years spent researching the next theme.  It’s so important to take your time and really examine the idea and all that goes into it.  I do dislike quilts that look like the person just took scraps from the floor and threw them at the wall!!

 

As usual I’m working on several ideas at once….here I’m printing some fabric for another black and white piece, tentatively entitled Plant Life – occasionally I’ll get the title before anything else!!  Of course it’s double entendre – it’s going to be another industrial piece, but not sure whether to go with a horizontal or a vertical format on this one….

 

I was hoping to work on quilting my first Cement Works  piece but the machine started smoking!!!  I didn’t know I was that hot of a quilter!!!  

Here’s the space (on the little brown table – I like to quilt really low) where the machine should be.  As it happens we’ve no nearby Bernina dealers, daughter Jane is going to take  the machine to the Bernina Center in Atlanta, sadly they are known to be very slow about repairs.

I once tried the next nearest store – in Augusta, GA…and their service was worse!  I didn’t get the machine back for 6 months and when I did it was damaged – they denied all responsibility.  Oh for a nice friendly Bernina dealer locally!!  We had one for a few years and it was great.

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But not being able to quilt does give me opportunity to finally get solved the problems I’ve set up for myself with the second Cement Works piece – this one is in red!  I’ve got a lot of difficulties here – the values don’t balance out well yet, nor do the shapes…and I think it could use a tiny smidge of a cool colour, it’s just a little too hot!!  But there are some really neat bits…I love the way it almost looks like a castle in places!    Also I got a good photo of a similar kind of building up in Cleveland, GA last weekend……possibilities!!

 

So now, to work to work!!!

If you have been, thanks for reading!

Elizabeth