September 28, 2010

catching up with myself

Catching up with my own expectations and promises... Remember my journals for this year? Or rather journal diptychs? Haven't posted about them for a while, because I haven't done them since June. Life got in the way... But I have caught up, almost, with July and August anyway. Here is the journal sketch from July 2009 that I chose to interpret for the July 2010 diptych. It was a negative space drawing of my aunt's vases in St. Petersburg. The ornate vase is a lovely example of Russian art deco that used to belong to my grandmother. For the back ground on the 8x10 canvas boards I chose newsprint that was a test print for another project that I was working on, it seemed appropriate as the subject matter was poetry about St. Petersburg.Here it is wrapped around the canvas boards, adhered with matte gel medium and the outline of my shapes sketched with pencil. I went over my pencil lines with a brush tipped Pigma pen and pulled out various sheers that I thought would work for my purposes. I cut the sheers into strips of different lengths and widths and layered them on to the surface.Here's a close up of several layers. This a progress shot of several layers. I adhered the sheers with dabs of matte gel medium. Then comes a point in my work where I get so involved in the process that I forget to document it. I added several more layers of sheer strips and added a few lines of delicate cotton thread. This is the final July 2010 diptych. For August I chose this sketch. And decided on a light blue back ground. I mixed my blue and white acrylic paint right on the canvases. It was fun to be messy! Here are the canvases in pale blue. Then I found some light green organza in my stash, layered it with green felt strips and started machine stitching away. Added some more stitching in my doodly style. And as above got carried away and forgot to take more progress shots... I added more stitching, cut away the organza and adhered the pieces to the canvas. And then I added some white paint...So here is the August 2010 diptych.
...off to work on September....

5 comments:

Paula Kovarik said...

I love the negative space drawing Natalya, the opposite of a silhouette, very clever. I think this direction has loads of potential. Good that you are catching up.

Robbie said...

Once again, you are so giving at documenting and providing us your technique! I'm in the process of working on canvas board with my zentangles and ink transfers..now you've given me some other ideas to try. Thank you SO much!!!

Vivien Zepf said...

I really really like the July diptych. It's a great extension of your journal. Can't wait to see it up close.

Lynn Cohen said...

Fun watching you play. I especially like the Russian words under the forms of the vases.

Kristin L said...

The vase drawing was one of my favorites from last year. I love it with the text, and the layers of organza mimic teh pen lines so well! :-)