An (Almost) Matching Pair...

...of landscapes, made from a monoprint and a ghost print.  I talked about the ghost here.  This is the main print...

I'm popping the ghost print down here, for easy comparison. 

There's lots more texture in the main monoprint, much easier to see what's happening in the main body of the 'land',  It's clear that there are a lot of curving lines, so the stitch reflects that.  I like using blanket stitch, it encloses and defines areas of space in a much better way than a running or back stitch is able to.  I did use the same thread in these areas on both quilts, but the sky in this main piece reads as much darker than the ghost print, unsurprisingly, so I used a darker thread in the sky.  The treatment, though, is the same, seed stitches scattered around the blue areas.  I did consider adding linear stitch, but decided that it would distract from what was going on below it, and I didn't want to do that.

So, there you are...two nearly identical landscapes.  It's interesting how different the stitch makes them appear, though it's clear that they are related.  I've got a couple more monoprints in this palette to work on, and it will be interesting to see how they turn out in comparison with these.

More Simplicity...

is sometimes the only option.  Take a look at this...

The eye reads it as a landscape...and the stitch supports it, small and narrow at the back, wider and larger at the front, to give a dimensional effect, and some random stitching in the 'sky'.  I had intended to add some applique, to suggest a standing stone, but actually...it's fine as it is.  I did try the applique, and that was fine, too, but different...and I prefer this version, so here it is.

And you may remember, I cut a piece of cloth in half, here, and created a landscape with it.  I struggled with the second half of the cloth...and in the end, added an orange circle, to give it a focal point....and struggled some more.  In the end, I took some blue thread, and stitched it randomly...

It's a landscape too, I think: a very different type of landscape, much more abstract, no apparent horizon line...but nonetheless...  The dark marks are closer to a dark turquoise than you see them here, but this was the best I could manage, so... I'm still not sure about it, but the stitch has improved it, somewhat.  In this, the actions I've taken are simple, the piece itself, less so.  But I rather like it, nevertheless.  Who says simple has to be the same every time?

Somewhere...

...over the rainbow... well, okay, it's pink.  But somehow this naive-ish piece makes me think of rainbows.  You may not agree, of course, and that's fine.  I rather like it though. 

It started life as an exercise in mark making on a piece of pale green sheeting.

When I picked it up to add stitch, I decided to cut it in half, because, whilst each half is cohesive enough, there's not a great deal of cohesion across the whole thing.  I think it was a decent decision.  And, the human mind being what it is, it tried to make sense of it.  The first half doesn't actually make much in the way of sense: there's not a motif or shape to rest your eye on (which was really what I was going for in the first place).  The one above, though, does read as an abstract landscape, and I'm happy enough with that.

Now to tackle the other half.

Finishing Off...

the small piece on muslin I showed you yesterday.  And I do mean small : it's just over postcard size.  I trimmed it back a little more once I'd finished the stitching.  While there are still areas of white on the edges, I'll be adding a mount, which will cover them.  The colours are reminiscent of Highland hillsides, and I'm fairly pleased with it.

  

So now what?  Well... this was the 'ghost' of another monoprint.  This one is much more definite, has a good deal more colour, and is slightly bigger, roughly 8" square, though that includes a fair amount of white space around the edges...probably closer to 7" square, if that were trimmed away. 

You can see the similarities in structure; there's a clear flow down from that top left hand area, through the blue to the bottom right.  The movement inherent in the paint is much clearer, though, just by dint of there being more paint, and the colour is stronger, all round.  Were I not about to do a fair amount of machine quilting on a different project, I might be tempted to machine stitch it...and I still might.  I do think I'd like to get rid of some of that white, as I did in the first one.  This time, though, I think I'll add some more paint, rather than putting cloth between the top and the batting.  I'll do that, I think, and then make a decision as to how to stitch. 

One Thing...

...inevitably leads to another...or in this case...six others.  It seemed like a good idea at the time....it always does.  I was working on this monoprint from the small collection I was talking about yesterday.  As you can see, lots of stitch..  The piece is on a scrap of muslin I got from a friend.  I don't usually work on muslin, but it was to hand, and there was paint and... you get my drift. 

The sections that are reading as very pale blue at the top of the piece, were originally white: because there was such a lot of white in there, and because I don't much like white, I popped a small piece of lutradur behind it, which was blues and purples...it worked very nicely, and didn't add any bulk to the piece at all.  Sadly, it didn't do much for the bottom left hand corner, so I decided to add some more paint.  So I mixed some up, and, rather than paint it on, printed it on, instead.  And then I trimmed it a bit, because I felt it was just too dominant...and got this.

Which is altogether better.  And put it aside to dry.  And then I thought, better wash up the piece of glass I was using to monoprint from (no gelli plates here, I'm too mean, and am quite happy with the traditional method).  And realised that there was still a blob of paint on the glass...and I really don't like washing perfectly good paint down the sink.  You so know what's coming next, right?  Yes, more monoprints.

The one I've just shown you was very landscape-y, so I thought I'd continue in that vein.

Each print has a 'ghost' print, made from the remains of the paint on the glass: I often prefer the ghost prints for stitch, because the paint suggests, rather than dominates, leaving ample room for stitch.  But of course, the excess paint had been blue, and I'd scooshed out some Naples Yellow and there was too much...it's becoming a theme, this, isn't it?  So...

The blob at the bottom of the ghost is a bit unfortunate, but I'll trim that off before I start...otherwise, these are okay.  I suspect that there's a larger painting waiting to get out of this... it's part of the joy of monoprinting, that things for development are often suggested by this spontaneous way of working. By this time, I was on a roll, but was starting to feel tired, so I finished off with these, adding the paint straight onto the glass, so that there wasn't any left over.   I've been reading about Sean Scully's work, after watching a documentary on him on the Beeb...' this pair is a definite nod in his direction.And then, reader, I washed the glass.  And that gives me enough to play with until next Monday, when I may well paint again....mwahaha...