I finally decided to start taking drawing classes and they have really made a difference. I have learned a ton about perspective and rules of drawing. I drew a self portrait, which everyone agrees looks like someone or everyone in my family. I think it’s a great start! Naomi Ocean, my art teacher and Riki Metz my fellow art student are both incredibly supportive and share so much knowledge. Thanks you guys!

I decided to prepare a piece for the Color Palette challenge for the Israel Quilter’s Association. The piece made the cut and is now hanging in the Jerusalem Theater through 15 June 2014. There is an exhibit opening on Thur, 15 May 2014 if you want to join us there. All are welcome. Below is the invitation and a photo of my quilt.

My vision of color is the rainbow formed by fruit at the Jerusalem market, Mahaneh Yehuda, which is a very unique place that challenges our senses. The colors, sounds, smells and flavor of the atmosphere tempt us and pull us into this addictive setting. I tried to evoke this feeling in my quilt.

Six of my quilts will be shown during July and August 2014 at the Chase Family Gallery at the JCC in Greater Hartford, CT. The theme is Connecting Threads with a Jewish Tone. If you can visit the exhibit, it looks like a lovely gallery. Let me know how it is. I wish I could make it, but at least my quilts will be well traveled!

I prepared loads of quilted accessories for the fair at our synagogue. I worked around the clock and have loads of stock now. So, keep that in mind if you need any handmade gifts this summer.
Quilted Accessories
Textile Bags and Purses

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Drawing classes, what a wonderful surprise. I found out I can draw!!! What an amazing discovery. You need a pencil or two, an eraser and a lot of patience. I have a long way to go, but it is a beginning. Now I will tell you a little about what I learned.

I had an epiphany towards the end of the year and I didn’t want to wait till 2014 to start. I thought that if I could improve my drawing skills, my artwork would benefit all around. I sought out a local teacher and thankfully found a talented, creative, energetic art teacher, named Naomi Ocean.

My first real project was of Poor Yorick (Hamlet). I worked on him for 3-4 weeks together with Naomi’s guidance and help. Who knew what one could do with a pencil and an eraser and a lot of precision? The pencil strokes and shading form the face and the background. You can’t just have an image floating on the page though. It has to have a background, right? Shading the background is how you make the focus of your drawing pop. You shade with a pencil but you draw with a pencil and an eraser. Lighter areas are brought out by erasing lightly. It’s all so basic, but not at all simple. I am sure that with these new skills I will find painting with thread even more fun than before. Here are a few shots of Yorick. Let me know what you think of him…

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To evoke passion and excitement, I used many values from the warm range of the color wheel. I think the varying values helped add contrast and made the background pop.

The focus of the piece is a pair of tango dancers in silhouette. I thread painted their musculature using warm colored thread. I layered another layer of batting behind the figures so they would also pop.

If the quilt is accepted, it will travel around the US for the next year as part of a SAQA exhibit, so wish me luck!

Dimensions: 38.25″ x 29″
Materials: Cotton fabric, cotton / polyester batting, interfacing, cotton thread

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Now I know I still need a lot of practice and I know it isn’t perfect, but the face I drew looks like a person. What’s more it looks like the original image I was trying to imitate. We worked from a series of books published by Walter Foster. It opened a whole new world for me. Very exciting! We looked at the intricacies of the features of the face; the shape of each features; the direction and placement of eyes, lips, nose. Once we studied each feature it wasn’t so bewildering. I drew the face you see here with an HB pencil on a sketch pad.

I intend to use this new knowledge in my quilting. As a matter of fact, there is a new challenge coming up in May for the Israel Quilters Association entitled “The Many Faces of Jerusalem.” Seems like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at faces in fabric. If you are interested in finding out more details about this challenge, feel free to contact me.

Now, about my friend Malka. She is an artist from France who teaches art classes in Beit Shemesh and paints wonderfully. In addition she runs a successful bride salon from her home. You can find out more about her salon at this link: Salon Victorine or write to her at: malka75@bezeqint.net

One last comment. I bought a copy of a Walter Foster book at an art shop on Bezalel Street on Friday. I had the best time visiting the art supply shops there. Afterwards I spoke at length to an artist selling her jewelry at a table along Bezalel Street. We had a really interesting chat about running a small business and selling high-end art. That seems to be the place to do it on Fridays in the Jerusalem area. There is traffic: buyers, tourists… It was so good to connect and share ideas with other artists. It was a real inspiration.

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According to Wikipedia, “atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it is viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colors of the object also become less saturated and shift towards the background color, which is usually blue, but under some conditions may be some other color (for example, at sunrise or sunset distant colors may shift towards red).”

What does that mean for us artists? It means that an accurate rendition of a landscape will have bluish mountains in the distance, or a path will be blue at the top. I’m not suggesting that all landscapes be accurate. I am only mentioning this if you are working on a scene that is meant to approximate a real place and you are using realistic shading.

Shadows are another story. Technically speaking, according to Wikipedia, “a shadow is an area where direct light from a light source cannot reach due to obstruction by an object.” The length of the shadow changes during the course of the day.

For your landscape, the sun is the light source. The sun’s light is blocked by trees along a path causing their shadows to appear on the path. The length of the shadow is commensurate with the height of the sun. If it is early in the morning, or late in the day, the shadow will be long. If the sun is overhead the shadow will be shorter because it is cast directly underneath the trees. The shadow takes the shape of the tree that is blocking the light.

I wrote this up as much for you as for me. I find it a challenge to get these elements “right” in my work. I figured it would help to write it all down. In my latest piece I played with both atmospheric perspective and shadowing. Here’s a closeup of the path. It’s vague, but it’s there.
What do you think? Can you tell what I tried to do? Should I do more?
Any suggestions are welcome.

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The process takes you through all the basics. It enables you to get your hands full of charcoal and then turn the black mess into an image. Today I drew my right hand. I sat with one eye closed and spotted out the contours of my hand. Then I filled in the details. Here it is.

So far I have managed to draw a sitting man upside-down. This way his features just look like lines and curves and not actual facial details. It turns out when you copy or draw something that you don’t recognize you can achieve a likeness that is much closer to the original than when you know what you are looking at.

I expect that once I finish going through this book, which is geared for an individual to learn the theories alone or in a group, I will greatly improve the realistic qualities of my quilts.

One last remark; my dad is also working his way through this book. He does marquetry and renders his “quilts” in wood. It’s nice to talk to my dad about the theories and methods developed in this book.

Anyone else have success with the insights revealed by Dr. Betty Edwards? I’d be glad to hear about your experiences.

Cindy

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A very talented artist I know, Phyllis Cullen, writes, “When I painted the scene on fabric (yup, stretched canvas is fabric) with oil paints, it is clearly, Fine Art. When it’s painted on fabric, and a piece of batting and backing attached to the back of it with thread (enhancing the painting with texture?)- now it’s NOT Fine Art. Now I’m not an artist, I’m “crafty”?”

It raises an interesting point. If I am an artist I command respect that I cannot sustain if I only create crafts? What if you create quilted wall art that resembles a painting? Is that the goal? Do you fall short if your craft only resembles the “real thing”? I contend that what quilters do is art and not craft. Even a quilt that finds its way to a bed is art. In years to come, this heirloom will attain respect and will be known in terms that denote high quality. I don’t see why that is any different than fine art.

Complexity of work also has little to do with the status the piece takes on. I’ve seen modern art in  MOMA that was much less definition than some art quilts. What does that say?

By the way, there is a Facebook page called Art vs Craft. I am not that familiar with it, but it seems a lot of people are delving into this topic.

This leads me to a tangential point. If what we produce is art, how do we convince the public and how do we help them realize the intrinsic value of our work? Is it about connections? Do you win a contest or get accepted to an exhibit because you are known or because you are judged according to the merit and quality of your work? I contend that without a little help (we call that vitamin P here) “unknowns” remain unknown and “knowns” continue to flourish. Is that the essence of competition? I don’t think so, but it is reality.

And what about style? Supposing you take on a style that is based on someone else’s style? Is that plagiarism? Is it copying and therefore unethical? Didn’t art through the ages change and evolve because it took elements from previous generations? Not everyone has that inner spark that leads down a totally new and original path. So if you see a painting or a photo and then render it in another medium, changing it as you go, have you stolen the idea? If you go to the water-lily pond that inspired Monet and make a quilt of the same pond, is it unethical? Monet did it first? Or can we say the Monet inspired us to come up with our own art?

Technique is clearer. You can conceive of and teach a technique to someone. The artist can create an inspiration based on that technique. You can’t own a technique or there would have been only one Impressionist and one Renaissance artist. So, where does influence end and plagiarism begin.

All good food for thought. I’d be glad to hear your opinions, so comment away!

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