Portraits on fabric

With the Summer holidays coming to an end, I thought that I should try to get back to working in the studio on a regular basis. This has been easier said than done as Selena has taken over where Melissa left off and she now spends quite a bit of her time there. So far this summer she has created many exciting things including a Duvet cover set. I bought her a plain white one and  she enlarged an image from A4 size paper to fit it. She pinned it to a wall in my studio and with great accuracy and ease drew it onto the Duvet cover and pillow.

 Selena's Duvet

 She is very creative and I can't wait to see how her work develops as she begins to prepare for her GCSE's.
Earlier this month I created a design from a photograph of Mel taken about a year ago, I played around with the image on photo shop and ended up with a posturized image (figure1) which I then translated onto fabric and  have shown below (figure 2 ).

(figure 1)

For this quilt I have used tie dyed fabric for the background (Mel dyed this) in combination with commercial fabrics to complete the rest of the design. This has been a technique which I have wanted to try for ages and as with any new process I have encountered a few challenges but I learn as I make mistakes. I intend to add quite a bit of free machine stitching next to add texture and some tonal interest and finally I will quilt the piece. In my next  post I will include more images showing the development of this.
I will also continue my development of the ideas mentioned in the last post and show how I get along with these as well.

 (figure 2)

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Summertime to shine

This Summer seems to be swiftly speeding by, I had a short break in London where I was able to go to a few galleries and enjoy the faster pace of life. It was brief but refreshing and I have come back to my studio a bit more excited than I have been for a while. I have also been able to visit and attend a workshop and exhibition with my daughter Selena at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The workshop was given by Kandace Chimbiri a British / Barbadian author and historian. She is truly inspirational and with a soft spoken voice delivered the information to the children taking part in an interesting and exciting way. Selena and her friend Miriam really enjoyed themselves. I highly recommend her book as an excellent source of information as I am sure most people would not realise that there is so much to learn about the afro comb.
I was unable to get to the Festival of Quilts regrettably but I will try for the knitting and stitching show in a few months.  Yesterday I began looking through some of my older sketch pads for inspiration and discovered a collage with my oldest daughter Krystal dancing.

 I found these movements really interesting and thought that maybe I could create more work inspired by them, it was as if I was seeing the piece with different eyes. As well as this collage I found a sketch dated 2006 which I thought I could use. I gave this collage a name " dancing to our song with my ancestors" as the larger female figures looming in the coloured background seem strong and overpowering. In addition to this I also enjoyed seeing the sketches and love the way that I managed to capture the movement. I will use  these as starting points for new work.

Krystal dancing 2006