More fun on a Saturday!

On Saturday we gathered at Barbara’s again, and did more fun stuff, but Mindful fun. Looking with as much care as possible at what we are doing, during the session, but also taking that careful looking out into life; seeing in terms of the balance of shape, colour, form; aware that we live in a designed world.

We spent the morning learning about shape, balance, pattern, looking at work by artists like Klee, Matisse, Klimt, amongst others. Barbara talked with us about form, colour, symmetry, positive and negative space, and how they all play a part in shaping our response to visual things. Also about how we can use these ways of representing as part of the design process.

Then we spent some time cutting, tearing, looking, balancing, arranging and sticking bits of this and that. We took shapes, three things, square, triangle and circle, and arranged them in the boxes we’d drawn - the colours here are rather more vivid than they are in reality

We also drew lines  horizontal, vertical, repeating pattern, crossing in different directions. The words express what was in my mind when I was drawing them

We tore paper into bits and arranged them on a painted background, using the papers we'd sploshed paint on since the previous session. I missed this, being in the Lakes, so sploshed my bits of paper unsupervised. Here are what remains after the tearing of bits to arrange! 

Now I have to translate a bit of this final arrangement into stitch, to be worked with compund stitches that have exotic names like raised chain band, guilloche, whipped stem. Hmmmm … this needs thought!

the final collage

Then somehow, all of this activity, must be described, transcribed, presented as a body of work in which we present what we’ve learned and the skills and materials we’ve explored. There are some talented women in this group, and we are being taught well. I have lots to learn. Most brought much more to the session, beautiful stitching, beautifully presented, and fledgeling portfolios of analysis an demonstration; I was inspired!  I have an almost empty book and a few ideas bubbling very gently, I have to be careful not to scare them away, I’m not used to his concept of “Me” time.