Page 36 - The Digital Cloth Issue 6
P. 36

in your design, it will read as     specific   techniques to be          painting.  The
      sky.  It could be green,            taught in class. I make these        unpredictability of wet
      orange, purple or all three         samples up in 6-8 colour             washes on the wet fabric, the
      colours, and it will still read     schemes (Colour samples              transparency of the medium
      as sky.  The area can be            1-4). I have found that after        and the possibility of coming
      pieced, mosaic tiled, fused         looking at how the very              up with exciting accidents,
      strips of fabric, or a hand         different colour schemes are         all contribute to the range of

      painted sky.  As long as the        all effective in their own way,      effects that can be achieved.
      colours of the rest of              students are often motivated  I have been known to paint
      landscape work in harmony           to let go of the realistic           fabric after midnight, if I am
      with the sky, it will be            colours, and push their              on a roll working in the
      credible.                           colours to a new level.              studio.   It is quick, more
      The colour of the sky dictates  As well as experimenting                 manageable than dyeing
      the colours and tones found         with different palettes of           fabric, and can be dried with
      in the entire landscape. For        colour for my skies, I have          a hairdryer. And by
      instance, if you want to            also played with texture and         overpainting commercial
      portray a cool stormy sky to        construction. I have                 fabrics, you can produce a
      give your painting unity, the       constructed skies using              wonderful range of textures

      cool greys and blues that are       pieced squares or diamonds,          in your chosen colour palette.
      used in the sky will need to        have tiled areas of sky on a         Of course, there are some
      be reflected back in some           base fabric, have fused              designs where the sky can be
      way into the foreground.            overlapping strips and I am          a small supporting element
      (Outer Hebrides 2)                  still continuing to play with        in a landscape or secondary
      I know that for me,                 this wonderful area of my            to a major architectural
      playing with colour, is the         design. When challenging             subject. (see Point Lonsdale
      most seductive aspect of my         myself to come up with               Jetty).  The key factor then is
      work.  But I also know that         something new for the next           to make sure that the colour

      for many, it can also be the        retreat at Uluru, I combined         of the sky works with the
      most confusing and                  two different elements               main features and does not
      challenging aspect.                 -sections of hand painted sky  cause a distraction.
      Understanding the properties  interspersed with areas of                 I believe that over the years I
      of colour and studying some         strips placed on an angle to         have found the sky to be my
      colour schemes does give you  add movement.                              ally and have enjoyed
      a base to build on. Learning        The sky is lighter in colour         manipulating its surface to
      about colour takes time. It is      towards the horizon. Looking  become a feature of my work.
      a journey – but far from            for fabric that has                  Try becoming a ‘student of
      arduous and boring, it is a         graduations of colour and            the sky’.  Give your skies
      journey full of exploring,          value, I have found it               character and even

      creating and having fun.            difficult to source suitable         celebrity status, making
                                          commercial sky fabrics.              them an expression of your
      Over the years, one of the          Initially in desperation and         own personal vision.
      teaching tools that I have          now by choice, I paint most of
      created for many of my              my sky fabric using a range
      classes, is a series of small       of different fabric paints. The           Gloria
      quilts highlighting different       behaviour of fabric paint,
      colour schemes. I choose a          when applied to wet base
      simple design based on the          fabric, lends itself to sky
   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41