Quiet weekend

I had a fairly quiet weekend here after having finished my latest piece. The final presentation of this piece will be decided sometime in the future, no rush to make a decision, it can wait. I plan to take it off my wall today and place it out of sight.

In the meantime I have been working on my annual major sort through and tidy up, of some of my stuff. It is spring time here and I seem to be hard-wired to do such things at this time of year. I will blog about some finds in the near future but in the meantime.....

Karen made a great comment on my last blog when I showed my completed piece Connections. She stated that she didn't always like what I was doing while I was working on it, but that when it was completed, she thought it was great!

I confess similar sentiments while working many of the stages a piece goes through. I do start with some sort of plan but this somehow moves over and I soon find myself going with the flow following each application. This allows me to concentrate on the unexpected, and to develop everything to a (hopefully) successful outcome.

I appreciate that this is not at all how we are meant to do things, but it is how I work and it keeps the piece alive, and challenging. I often describe it as painting oneself into the corner of a room, and then having to get out of it! The frustrations and love/hate relationships with a piece are part of the journey. I am stubborn, get bored very easily, so this way of working works for me.

Final tweakings....

During the last few days I have been quietly tweaking my latest piece and now feel I can stand back and declare it finished! Somehow there is a moment when this happens, just as there are moments when I know something else has to happen to a piece before it is 'finished'. Being able to recognise these moments is important. They depend on old-fashion gutt feeling which is worth nurturing.

A detail showing some of the final tweakings.

While working with this final stage I adjusted the whole piece on my display board so that I could work on a specific area. In doing so I quickly pinned the piece up without bothering to hang it straight, or flat. At some point I turned to look at it and viewed it as if for the first time. The piece looked relaxed, the irregularies in its hanging seem to lift it into another dimension. I liked it! So at this point in time I will leave off any mounting and hemming etc and revisit it again at a later date to see how I feel about this presentation. In the meantime, here it is. Obviously I can't crop the piece so some background is unavoidable.

© Connections, Diana Parkes, 2010; 165cm x 115cm / 65" x 45"; silk/linen cloth, painting, printing, discharge; dyes and textile paint.

Little bit more...

My piece is still not finished but it is getting closer with the addition of three larger building shapes. I kept them subtle and I think this works.

The freezer paper template I used for painting the lines.

One of the building shapes.

... and here is the three. It took some effort to get them all lined up correctly!

This and that

No progress on my piece this week but lots of thinking and working through on what to do next.

I thought I would show you how I often go about this planning when I am near the end of a piece. I take a photo of the piece, and print it out to fit a quarter of a sheet of paper, so not large. Then I place over tracing paper and pencil in some ideas. Being able to see through gives a good indication to what could happen.

Here is my piece with the tracing paper lifted off the image.

The tracing paper placed back on the image.

Over the last few weeks I have been working on a makeover for my website www.dianaparkes.co.nz. I am able to design my own website and each time I do this I get more advanced with my skills and presentation. It still takes time and a lot of trial and error but I usually get there in the end. Have a peek.....

Detailing....

I am now getting to the final stages of this piece. I have added a touch more colour and enhanced some details already existing. The piece now needs to hang and be contemplated as to where-to-now, it needs to be lived with while I get on with other things. It is often surprising what this absence reveals as often 'things' pop into vision when I least expect it. This is always a very nervous time and can make or break a piece!

Reading matters

On my regular visits to the local library I always plan to collect three books to get me through the following weeks. One book at least must be about art or an art related topic. Last visit I borrowed a book on Marc Chagall 1887-1985, the Russian/French artist (with whom I share a birth date!). This week I have a book on Philip Clairmont 1949-1984, and another on Colin McCahon 1930-1977. Both are recognised New Zealand artists. Sometimes I just drift through the images in these books but often I read them as well. I am sure there is a rub-off with new approaches and ideas in my work.

Further progress on the latest piece. At this moment in time this piece is titled Connections and perhaps you will be able to see why with what I have done this week.

Rather difficult to see but I have masked off certain areas with freezer paper to accomplish the following....

The 'ladders' are drawn in freehand which meant I could sweep over the freezer paper without interrupting the flow.

Getting to the nitty gritty

Now moving into the detailing on this latest piece. But to get there I have done some discharge work.

I wanted a grid of large dots so first marked out their registration with snippets of sticky paper.

Then I discharged around them. Have also added some dots with dye out beyond the immediate discharged area.

The piece on my driveway after being hosed, prior to washing. This driveway hosing removes any surplus dye so as it won't stain where it is not meant to be. (Small woodpile on right awaiting transportation to son's house! In due course....)