Sunday, April 3, 2016

Pattern Playgrounds

I had fun with the stripes in Simplicity Pattern 4116 so I decided to run with a little series of stripes-and-patterns paintings. Today I just set up the playgrounds. Tomorrow I'll start playing, developing the series.

These pieces are small—3.5x3.5"—because I want to use them to make cards. Wouldn't you think I could whip up the whole batch in about 10 minutes?

Not.

Not that I'm complaining. Painting is painting, and painting is fun.

Just surprised at how long it took me to work out values and paint a few stripes!

That said, when I go to my studio tomorrow I can dive right in with motifs and patterns. I'm reminded of when I used to sew clothes and had to wash and press the fabric first, and then pin and cut the pattern pieces, all before I could get to the actual sewing.

I'm loving the imprecision of these starts, and the evidence of underpainting.










4 comments:

Laurie Mueller said...

I'm loving these, too, Dotty. Your value relationships are great! Oh, and surprise surprise......I used to sew clothes, too. In fact, just recently I was looking at a photo of my daughter in her baptismal dress that I made. The detail! I don't think I have that kind of patience anymore! Were you chewing on Twizzlers while you sewed?

dotty seiter: now playing said...

1. Thanks for the feedback on the value relationships in my pattern playgrounds.
2. Send me a photo of your daughter in that baptismal dress.
3. Talk about patience: my mom used to sew look alike dresses for her (at the time) four daughters—only difference would be size and maybe color of gingham, and these were shirtwaist type dresses with collars and buttons and sashes and edges that had to be turned and stay-stitched.
4. LAUGHED OUT LOUD at your query re Twizzlers. No, that addiction came much later when I was taking a graduate course and someone brought in a Costco-sized BIN of Twizzlers. I hadn't had one in years, but, one is all it took! For awhile, I bought a bag of Twizzlers each week as a routine part of my grocery shopping!

Sheila said...

These striped starts are spectacular :)

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Thanks, Sheila. I really had fun setting them up. They made for an engaging exercise, playing with from-my-gut choices about width, length, and arrangement of stripes; color values and juxtaposition; use of underpainting; and degree of precision vs. spontaneity.

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