Gone to the Dogs at SeaStrands Studio

It’s been a busy few days…. 

Working through the idea of women as trees (or trees as women, depending on your sympathies) a bit further yielded a plethora of results, some of which are worth sharing.

The first is “Windswept” (18×10, wholecloth pen and ink on cotton with fabric paints). I haven’t embellished this at all in any way, as I’m still mulling it over.

A few sketches resulted in the following, which I’m temporarily calling ”Supplication” (18×10, wholecloth pen and ink on cotton with fabric paints. Embellished with copper foil.), although the feeling of it to me is more along the lines of a being firmly rooted and being yanked unwillingly in a particular direction.  

This next one is slightly smaller than the others at 12×7 inches and is the most “feminine” of the lot. It was intended to represent flexibility while remaining rooted and firm. “Persistence” is its title thus far (of course, all these are subject to change with the final results).

This is one of my favourite pieces of this series. I started with a sketch of a recumbant woman’s basic figure and the translation onto fabric took on a life of its own, writhing and twisting its branches all over the place. So it’s called “Writhing”, for obvious reasons. (18×10 wholecloth pen and ink on cotton with fabric paints. Embellished with silver foil.)

These last two are actually only 6×4 inches each and are just little studies I did to work out a couple of angles. They turned out so nicely, that I finished them, too. The first is foiled, the second isn’t, according to their individual needs. They’re not intentionally representative of women.

Not a bad bit of work for a couple of days, eh?

Now to let the glue thoroughly harden and dry and then to mount them on cotton and stretch, matte and frame them…