Wk 23.

After a wee trip to B&M and coming home with a generous selection of free wallpaper samples I wanted to see how drawing from life onto various textures and patterns impacted the works directly. I hope to take what I learned from these when creating my own patterns to incorporate into my art in the future

I started in my sketchbooks - sticking samples in and drawing as I would normally within my sketchbook - See below mirror studies and life studies of my boyfriend

I then decided to upscale a bit and venture into Alla Prima Oil Painting this is a study of my Dolores Bust and a dying bouquet of flowers on some stone coloured paper and wallpaper samples. I felt the blank paper allowed me an opportunity to add an extra layer of depth which I did by adding a quote from the book (Nabokov, 1955) although in hindsight part of me wishes I’d retained the negative space. Something to practice I suppose!

During this semester I’ve been keeping an eye out for patterns in unusual spots like baroque style patterns in M&S, tiles on the pavement or the way paper gets chewed up by my printer. I hope to create a full sample book of all of these at some point soon, very similar to the artist book I found in the DJCAD Library Collection - (Adams, 2011)

Whilst I build up this catalogue however, as inspired by the artworks in the New Contemporaries Exhibition in Edinburgh - the works of DJCAD MFA Art, Science and Visual Thinking Graduate Eva Margaret Brown (2023) demonstrates a natural dying process that has been enhanced by embroidery. Something about the way the fabric has been displayed in the hoop seems so traditional and organic to me, something I imagine she was aiming for but also the natural space as is found in nature is something I should perhaps look into in more detail when composing my own pieces.

Below are two of my own sketchbook studies into potential portraits that incorporate the embroidery hoop:

This First one is a really quick sketch of Pearl from the Ti West film (2023). When watching that, right from the opening shot you are gripped by the most overwhelming and abject patterns . Almost as she becomes stuck in the house, it’s like she becomes stuck in the wallpaper

This next one is less finalised although I have made a start on embroidering the figure onto cotton already. I wanted to create a scene involving that organic negative space by doing a piece where I become one with the land around me, the water and Haar lapping around my form.

Reference List

Adams, R. (2011) Drawnthread. London: Domobaal.