Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A better week ahead....


This week has started off much better than last week did, and I hope it stays that way. I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my parents for my birthday yesterday. I've taken what would have been a whole roll of pictures of them, back in the day of film rolls. I'm so glad to have gone digital, because it often takes me a roll or two worth of shots to get the one I want! The one above is one I like well enough, but it is not the one I am saving to paint from. That will have to be a surprise, I guess. (And the surprise may be if I get around to the painting!)


I have been weaving more, and my reaction to the original  image is starting to come about from the tapestry, FINALLY! This morning when I started weaving, I actually felt myself back at the place where this image is from, remembering why I wanted to weave it. I actually felt, just for a moment, back in that time and place. Yes! That is what I want from this particular tapestry! So I'm glad I didn't give up on it. (Sorry I have so many butterflies covering up the right side. The weaving itself is really not that dark and messy!)



If I turn my weaving chair around as I weave, sitting on the easel behind me is the start of a painting that I began over the weekend. The painting session at the Art Center is postponed tomorrow for the local public school art week, so I plan to spend the morning painting here. This will be a larger-than-life painting of the daffodils I bought myself earlier this spring. I normally don't paint a lot of flowers, but this spring has been so on-again/off-again, I think I feel compelled to provide my own spring! The funny thing about this painting is that I had prepped an 8x10" canvas to do it on, then at the very last minute, I put that canvas aside, and grabbed a 16x20" canvas and just jumped right in. I have done the beginnings of the vase and the background, but will start on the daffodils tomorrow. They will fill all the white area at the top. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

2 comments:

Susan said...

Hi Kathy- beautiful tapestry-in-progress. What is your cartoon? Looks like a color copy of a photo? or color copy of one of your paintings? It's a great idea, anyway. I was taught to draw on the warp itself (outlines), but you lose so much subtlety that way. Nice to see a different approach - as well as a work in progress!

K Spoering said...

The cartoon is a print out of the design, which is a combination of photo and computer manipulation, which I also altered a bit at the easel, then rephotographed and remanipulated. I generally just use a line cartoon, but I was not getting enough information from that, so for the upper half, I printed out and taped together the maquette, enlarged to cartoon size. I could do that, as this is not a very big tapestry. There are so many tiny shapes, they all just overwhelmed me, as line shapes. I needed more color information. I don't usually do it this way, but it has been very helpful this time!

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