Four Seasons: Fall, October, 2018.
Last week, I was in the studio on Monday and Friday and it felt great. As always, I started with a little internet research for color palette ideas for my current Four Seasons series. There are a remarkable number of digital drawings of trees with different colors representing different seasons. I was surprised. Really, I just confirmed what I already had in mind.
So I started browsing through my fabric stash already washed, ironed, and prepped for past projects looking for colors for each season. My next step... I went through my scrap basket. I pulled out fabric in colors I found interesting and organized them into piles of similarly shaped pieces. I laid out my design on my cutting mat. I mentally calculated what section I was going to sew together first and then figured out the order in which to sew all the sections together. This is how I like to work in the studio. It’s fun and as I said in last week’s Studio Notes, I want to keep it light and breezy.
For my design, I usually decide on one element to hold the whole series together, be it a similar color palette or a similar design element. In this Four Seasons project, the constant is the sky in the upper third of the design. The sky is going to be different colors for different seasons. However, it will be the continuing theme that connects all of these pieces of the Four Seasons as a group. As for the design of the bottom 2/3 of the artwork, I’m imagining what our backyard prairie looks like in each season with the different colors of flowers, plants, and grasses.
Four Seasons: Winter, October, 2018.
This past week I created the Fall and Winter pieces. I focused on the golds and greens that I love so much in the Fall piece. I added a bright blue sky for contrast between the brilliant blue and the fall colors. For the Winter, I decided on a gray sky and highlighted all the browns and grays of the prairie plant stems still standing throughout the winter. I added more white for fields of snow and one hint of red which represents how I love cardinal sightings in a field of snow.
I wrapped both of these pieces around a 10 in.² canvas. I played around with some new photography techniques and brought my artwork outside and took an image with the sky and prairie in the background. It gives a good sense of scale of the artwork and the color is really vibrant in the natural light. In addition, I added some process photos using the slide feature of Instagram. I showed how I lay out the fabric to design and then start sewing the sections together.
And this week on Monday and Friday, I will be in the studio making Summer and Spring. This new productivity system I wrote about last week has helped keep me on track of focusing on my priorities and getting them done, as opposed to being overwhelmed by some of the minutia of my to-do list. You’re never too old to learn a new productivity tip. I am grateful because this system helps keep me in the studio with achievable goals.
I’m still taking requests for custom EcoMemory holiday gifts.
Contact me by November 1, 2018 if you are interested or have any questions.
What my clients have said about their custom EcoMemory...
I was so taken with our initial conversation and specific questions that transported me back to the location of the artwork. I felt the peace I felt as a child looking down on the colors of the sunfish and great depth of this beautiful lake.It was a magical experience and now every morning I am transported to one of my happiest moment in childhood. I love that the simplicity of color allows my thoughts to fill in the blanks.
-Pam from Seattle, Washington