Monday, May 21, 2012

Primavera: Creating Fiber Art with Paint and Thread

Primavera was inspired from a photo I took at Mayfield Park in North Austin, Texas. It measures 18 3/4" X 24 1/2." It is the second in my new found series and is a whole cloth painted piece. The background is a bamboo/cotton blend which I thought was an appropriate choice of fabric. I began by sketching the image from a photo and once I was happy with the final sketch, I transferred it onto fabric. Then, the fun began. I love painting and for this piece, I chose to incorporate metallic paints to make the bird more vivid and convey some of the iridescent qualities which peacocks possess. I used an array of acrylic fabric paints ranging from DecoArt So Soft,  
Jacquard Lumiere Paints, Stewart Gill True Color and Colourise, Golden Fluid Acrylics, Setacolor Opaque and Translucent paints, Sparkling Mica and Pigment Watercolor paints by US Art Lest and Twinkling Waters Shimmering Watercolor by LuminArt. I love them all but the waterbased cakes of mica paints and shimmering waters were quite fun and so easy to use! I really like the luminosity that they portray and I found that I could mix them to increase my color palette. How fun is that?!!! This piece was challenging to create as feathers while quite lovely can be very tedious to paint! 
Where you see what appears as black areas are really much darker versions of blue and green. I am finding that while black is very powerful on its own, when mixed with other colors, it seems to pull colors from one point to the next. I really like the concept of drawing colors from one place to another such that the eye has a chance to move around and the brain somehow processes it as a blending or unifying of the entire piece. This concept was also applied by incorporating colors from the sky into the landscape and even part of the bird's wing to impart reflective qualities. I have found that using thread in this same manner seems to work well but that is an art that I am still learning. Too much, and you drown things out. Still, I am having a fantastic time learning about the tug and pull of color as it applies to both paint and thread. It is a lesson that I feel will keep me occupied for quite some time. To infinity and beyond!     

2 comments:

Paige said...

Beautiful. Nice colors and quilting. I lived on a farm once when I was little and there were peacocks. Brings back memories

Barb Forrister said...

Thank you. Wow, I can just imagine living on a farm with these beautiful creatures. My grandmother had one in her backyard and I always enjoyed visiting her. Hadn't thought of that in years. Thanks for bringing that memory back to me.