inspiration – Daily Fiber

Exercise Four: Painting without a Plan

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Laura Kate

No matter how uninspired we might feel, ideas are right under our fingertips. We simply have to find them. This is the moment when Guiding Principle Three kicks in: Look to a source of beauty.

Memories: I have this memory of looking at the full moon and noticing what I’m calling a Moon bow – This is a ring of light a hand’s distance from the moon itself. The glow was magical. I was puzzled that my husband couldn’t see the ring, nor did it show up in a photograph of the moon. I tried to paint what I remembered.

Art work: I am a fiber artist who works with many quilt designs. There is a quilt block known as a log cabin. It is an old design, going back, really, a few hundred years. Traditionally, there is a red square placed in the center. It is said to represent the hearth. “Logs” in the form of fabric rectangles are stacked on all sides of the center. Here is my painted version of the log cabin block.

Poetry and nature: I follow a photographer named Catherine Arcolio who posts under the name Leaf and Twig. The very moment I was working on this exercise, her post arrived in my in-box: a river surrounded by low hills and a three line poem. I had to paint it.

Catherine Arcolio’s post is here:

Gentle Mountains ‹ leaf and twig ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

You can read about Kateri Ewing here:

My Books | Kateri Ewing

painting

#Worldwatercolormonth Day 10

Posted on July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 by Laura Kate

071020Fast

My attempt to work quickly. This image is based of a photograph by Janet Weightreed. It is taken at Crickhowell, Wales.

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/13290563/posts/2800871695

colorwork, drawing, hand embroidery, sewing

Inspired by O’Keefe

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Laura Kate

My fiber efforts have been rather uninspired over the last two days, so no new posts. Then I picked up this book written by Georgia O’Keefe. It is an autobiography told in her own words and in beautifully reproduced images of her paintings. It got my creative thoughts moving again.

While she spent most of her life living in and painting the American Southwest, in the early stages of her career O’Keefe was best known for her large-scale paintings of flowers. Here is what she has to say about these works:

Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself – I’ll paint what I see – what the flower is to me but I’ll paint is big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it.
Exhibition catalog, An American Place, 1939

So I decided to create a fiber flower, because I want to look closely at a flower. I chose to make a Moonflower, partly because of its star-like shape, and partly because I don’t see them growing around here. When I lived in Texas, I grew some moonflowers. It was way too hot to enjoy the garden during the day. Instead I sat outside at dusk, when I could watch the moonflowers swirl open.

Here is a pencil sketch I made of my moonflower:

I plan to use white poplin for the flower, with fabric paint on the shaded areas and embroidery on the bright areas. Here are some green fabrics I have chosen for the background and the flower shape I will cut from the white poplin.