Here is a little video of me sewing on my current piece based on Birks Mere lake here in the UK. It was suggested to me to take little videos of me working on pieces like this as a way of sharing my practice. I find that my sewing pieces don’t mind me doing this a bit! Oil painting is a bit different- it seems I have to guard the gold there until it is ready to be seen. The embroidery is very much about process though that brings us into the moment and video is in the moment so it kind of fits!

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I have started oil painting on areas of my canvas piece that I have rabbit skin glue sized with two layers of the same. Am avoiding the embroidered areas that came to a natural pause. I may go back to some embroidery in it, will see where it takes me. The layering of dye then glue then oil paint seems to work, and I really like moving between the media as they all offer something different. It has been suggested to me to make little videos of me embroidering or painting which I am gradually approaching doing, and will put on here if it works. The embroidery doesn’t seem to mind being shared as it is very much about process, so we’ll see. Onward and upward as they say. Click to enlarge and see detail as usual folks!

Just to share what I have been making so far recently. I used a drawing I made on the spot of the lake in the Lake-district here in the UK as a starting point. Am sharing the drawing here too. I had the idea to dye the canvas first, and then do some embroidery whilst it was on the stretcher prior to sizing some areas with rabbitskin size that dries transparent so you would still see the dye. Then I can oil paint on chosen areas as well. I won’t use primer and have researched that you can paint direct with oil on sized canvas without priming if you want to. Rules are made to be broken, but I don’t want the unsightly chip fat look of oil seeping outside the brush-marks. So lets hope this works! I have mixed embroidery with painting before, but on ready-made canvases. So am curious where this new venture takes me with a canvas I have stretched myself from scratch. The meditative quality of sewing, and repetitive action of pushing the needle through the canvas is satisfying. It felt a bit like one of those celtic drums, as I held the stretcher to sew and turned it to fasten threads. You can engage with the physicality of the canvas much more than having it on an easel. I kept standing back from the embroidery too to decide what marks to make next. I find all this glacially slow, but interesting for me. I will post further updates when I have done more! Embroideries don’t seem to mind being shared as I go along unlike paintings!