An analysis of my new piece of work. Looking south. Based on the landscape view from my kitchen window. I have started a sketchbook that I can leave on my table with the intention of becoming more free with sketching. I’m not at all pleased with my first sketches but it has meant that I have observed the changing light and colours of the trees, currently it is a little stand of larches turning golden that are catching my eye,as we fall towards winter.
The composition of the hill sloping downwards and the sun( or blood moon) low and heading west, half and half sky and land – a balance of the seasons.
Back lit – letting the light in
Materials Church Stretton is virtually litter free, which is a great joy to me. I have previously worked quite a lot with found objects . Inspired by Richard Rauschenberg’s walks around a city block to gather materials for his collage/assemblage/painting pieces. As I walked around my new neighbourhood I found an orange rimmed clear plastic lid that appears to be from a disposable cup, on the way back I fished a bit of builders plastic waste from a skip.
Slim pickings – rare treasure. I used very thin plywood for the joining exercises in MMT and have a little left. I selected it for this piece for the stiffness, the wood grain – like contours in the landscape, and its direct representation of the wooded slope.
Cotton perle thread is strong and has enough volume to be visually obvious without being too bulky to obscure the holes in themplywood.
The slope of the hill has become a mass of autumn browns, dead bracken, tree bark and dried heathers . Apart from a stand of larch, mostly green, turning to gold.
Nicholas Hlobo uses this slip stitch as a joining technique . By cutting out a stand of individual larch trees and using slip stitch to rejoin them, I have created a block that is slightly larger than the original hole, I think that the resulting corrugation gives movement and focus. The cast shadows gives visual interest. The shadows move with the moving light – like the turning of the day.
Similarly the cup cover – late sun or blood moon? Can cast shadows across the sky and depending on viewpoint can appear in different stages of fullness.
Viewing the constantly changing landscape of the distant hill from the bottom of my kitchen window I have observed how the sky folds behind the skyline, a line of silver that seems neither land or sky, the stitches are angled towards the west, encouraging the passage of the moon rather than hindering it.
I have really enjoyed the impulsiveness of this piece of work. I didn’t overthink it or seem to plan it too much. Material selection was a little serendipitous and a little of what was close to hand.
This shows me the value of focussed research and the critical reflection process