New Work

Detail 1

I've begun a new piece of work. It is very abstract and will be layered and filled with texture. This is a detail picture of a tiny piece of the work and since it was taken I've added more stitching to the piece.

The stitching is my favourite part. I enjoy painting and the tonal and colour choices that go into making the design but it is the stitching that is most exciting. I make no plan for my abstract pieces although I do set some parameters as a basic guideline. There are no plans for the stitching and often I will spend days just looking at the colours and thinking about the possibilities for making the textural marks. And then, of course, I have my best ideas while I am in the shower and they seem to come into my mind like droplets of fast and heavy rain. Unfortunately I seem to forget them as quickly as I think of them.

Back to the stitching. I really love the texture of stitch marks on paint and also on other pieces of fabrics. I love the feeling of the quilt when the stitching begins to add weight and shapes to the design. I like the furrows and raised areas that the stitching leaves and the ways I can alter the background colours by the texture of the stitches over the fabric.