31 December 2013

2013 JQs - finished!

They turned out differently than imagined - but isn't that always the way?

At the start of the year I got a bagful of suitable fabrics together, and used those for Olive Interchange (Jan), Olives of all Nations (Feb), Urban Olives (Mar), and Olives in Their Happy Homes (Apr) - but when it came to Olives in the Sky with Diamonds (May), I was looking elsewhere for the "starry sky" background fabric.

For June, a fortuitous find of some monoprinted fabric with rain and puddles became "Olives in the Rain"; for July - the brownish background, in case you've lost track - another fortuitous find, of a bit of upholstery velvet, was used for Olives on Sticks, taking a little liberty with the colours. Ghost Olives (Aug) was the first of several I painted, after an intensive painting course. But first Olives Behind Bars (Sept) was fused and then stitched with variegated black/white thread - it looks more like a sheet of rain, and in fact the olives look more like easter eggs...

The final row, all painted with acrylic paints, then emphasised with machine stitching, consists of X-Ray Olives (Oct), Olives in Winter (Nov), and Olives on the Shelf (Dec). There was too much of bending the idea to the fabrics, rather than using the fabrics to express an idea -- mainly because olives wasn't a great idea for this. But it did stretch my imagination!

My favourites are the first one (using that hand-dyed fabric) and the "easter eggs".

Glad am I to be done with o.l.i.v.e.s....

4 comments:

Living to work - working to live said...

Well done for finishing. I did not make the cut with my last 4 - the clutter of the rest of life got in the way. But the first 8 were good and I did try some new techniques.

magsramsay said...

Nice to see a cohesive collection
I recognize that January fabric.... I've still got some if you need any more!

Kathleen Loomis said...

I think olives were a good choice for a project like this -- a good combination of abstraction and realism. And the constant olives made it funny. My favorite is olives on a shelf.

Cate Rose said...

These are terrific ~ and I love them displayed together. Way to go! Have a wonderful new year!