What an interesting week of pattern and color discoveries!

I began a medium sized whole cloth textile painting by prepping the whole background with a wash of raw sienna. It is warm and inviting.

A little digression into sienna - brown paint facts: (From our friends at Wikipedia)  Sienna is an earth pigment containing iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural state, it is yellowish brown, and it is called raw sienna. When heated, it becomes a reddish brown, and it is called burnt sienna. It takes its name from the city-state of Siena, where it was produced during the Renaissance. 

My personal discoveries of both raw sienna and burnt sienna are: 1. They are powerful and wonderful mixing ingredients to get subtle colors and neutrals when mixed with primaries. Either one does lovely things to red, or blue, or yellow. 2. There is really quite a variation in hue from one manufacturer to the next. One company’s raw sienna may be quite different from another company’s raw sienna. Just a warning about mixing up your paint brands.

Meanwhile, back to the studio.

My project is a whole cloth work, about 30” x 36”. I will be printing and painting different shapes and colors over the raw sienna base to see how the parts interact with each other.

In this composition, the constants will be: 1. A raw sienna base for each section.  2. Overprinting with contrasting colors, each mixed with a tad of raw or burnt sienna in the color, 3. Mostly organic, earthy images.

The variables will be: 1. What colors I pick, 2. The method of printing

My working method will be masking off each section, printing or painting it, then going on to the next section. After it’s all printed this will be stitched with all-over quilting.

MONOTYPE and RESIST:

The section that looks like roots was printed as a monotype on my gelatin plate with random organic shapes put on the plate to create roots. After I printed this, I put a subtle wash of cerulean blue over the roots. I wanted to neutralize the sienna so it would not be so orange. That’s just my personal preference: when an orangey tone goes next to black, to me, it always connotes Halloween. I did not want that. The circles were printed as wheat past resists, overpainted with a teal blue.

Interesting color things that happen: The raw sienna in each section look quite different from each other because of my blue wash on the roots and because the circles “pop” against the complimentary color of the over print. Also, the overprint looks green, not teal, because the raw sienna underneath it is changing its appearance.

SCREEN PRINTING

The red tree section was screen printed. I allowed two hues of red to mix on my screen so the trees have a little more interest. Then, after that was dry, I used a foam roller to put a very, very, very faint kiss of red over the raw sienna background.

STENCILS AND DIRECT PAINTING

I created these pods with hand-cut stencils. I put a wash of alizarin red over the raw sienna background to define the shape of the pods then stenciled on the details with a dark black-brown. I also did some hand drawing of pod details with a black marker. There was not as much contrast as I had hoped, but I am happy with the way each pod is defined by the stitching. I may go back after it’s all stitched and highlight the pod interiors a bit.

To the side of the pods is a second screen-printed area. I used the same screens but a different color form the first tree section.

STENCILED ABSTRACT SHAPES

I drew these big circle shapes by hand and cut them out of freezer paper. The background is painted with the same teal used on the small wheat paste circle sections. This geometric, non-representational section offers an important contrast to the other sections: big shapes. Simple content. (Photo show sunfinished stitchiong.)

Here’s the work as it stands at the end of this week:

This project began as a loose drawing in my sketchbook. I thought I knew where it would go. It’s been  providing me with a lot of interesting opportunities to see how an idea takes shape when I actually create the parts. Some things are what I planned, and others are just how it evolved as I worked.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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