I made this small oil bar and stitch piece over the past week based on a sketch made at the garden I visit as shared on my previous post. It is on a small canvas gifted by my son. I have two more of these to go at so may make a little series of studies. I’m really enjoying the oil bars at the moment as they are a halfway house between drawing and painting. I have been looking a Joan Mitchell garden paintings too and include a little sketch I made in front of one of her pieces here too.

Here is the little drawing I made of the magnolia tree from the visit to the garden. It was made in the afternoon when the sun had moved onto the little terraced garden.  Click to enlarge as usual.

I went back to the garden I help tidy and do a little light pruning for the first time this year. It surprises me how much I have missed it and I had to keep pinching myself that I really was there. It’s in the Lake District here in the UK. The rhodies are not really out yet, but the heathers are and I did a sketch with my oil-bars in my new sketchbook with the wonderful hand made paper that is really bumpy and textured. It was the light on the lawn that was the key this time. Later it was the magnolia tree on the terraced little lawn. The garden is just waking up. We made a fire on the beach and my gloves ended up smelling of wood smoke and still do! A very special day where the lake was like a mirror early on. I saw a swan flying low over it perfectly reflected so it looked like one was flying upside down as well.

I made these two studies in a new sketchbook I was gifted by my son at Christmas. It has lush handmade paper and I am just finding out what I can and can’t do with the it!. The surface is quite bumpy and I tried using oilbars as I have been enjoying their texture and rich colour in recent work. The paper is a good support for the oilbar but fine detail is nigh impossible. I then thought I could introduce some stitch as the paper is really sturdy. This is working quite well and I may continue to experiment in this way. These studies are providing interesting halfway houses before I embark on a new theme. I always feel quite bereft when I leave a piece that has taken awhile and I have been immersed within it. The muse always returns in some form and I am staying open and trusting that it will! Click to enlarge as usual folks!

Well I am approaching a point where I will leave this one alone. I have done some more work in the sky using oilbars and stitch. I enjoyed putting oilbar marks over the stitch in areas too as it hides the thread and reveals the parts I leave alone in terms of colour. I must be careful not to overdo this one and may stop soon! Watch this space. Then I may think of getting a frame made for it.

Have been working into this piece with oil bars recently and continuing to sew into selected areas of the canvas. The oil bars are great because they are so chunky you can’t be too precious about the mark making which I really like. So you get the richness of oil paint together with the drawing aspect which I also like. I sometimes don’t like to share work as it goes along because sometimes it makes me stop and I have to guard the gold. But this time I seem to be ok and am just in the midst and am keeping going!

Here is a little oil oldie from 1986 of a stony stream near Helton Cumbria where my parents used to live. The original is with my friend Marion Williams. I remember sitting next to the stream painting this plein air. I always love the crystal clear water of streams in the Lake-District and that has not gone away! Nature is the master healer. This little square piece is in oil on canvas.

Here is my current embroidery based on some Norfolk grasses seen on a holiday in that fair county here in the UK last September. I am sewing on dyed stretched canvas then I will rabbit skin size chosen areas and oil paint on that. I am really enjoying developing this technique and find the sewing meditative, slow and satisfying. I will keep sharing sections as they progress. This is a tall narrow piece and I think will take me a very long time but that doesn’t worry me at-all. I intended this to be a project that would take up the winter months. Keep watching for progress.

Well, I am leaving this piece now. You never really know when things are ‘done’ they just stop at an interesting point. I have another idea for a piece to do over the winter months and hope to push the boundaries of experimenting with embroidery and oil still further with the next one. Need to address stretching the canvas again and getting ready to sew. I like to do this in daylight for choosing the oil colour as well as the threads. If I work in the evening with artificial light, it can affect so much in subtle ways. 

I have been making more marks on this piece and am sharing a different part of it from last time. Am at a very delicate stage and need to leave it alone soon, I think! I always have this dilemma as to when to stop. The answer will come to me I just have to wait!