Carnival Time!

We had a carnival in Paphos today, some images of which you can see above. The parade lasted for an hour and a half and was a riot of colour, streamers and silly string. It will take a year to clean it all up!

I can feel a carnival painting coming on...(you never know where your next inspiration will come from!)

A bit more stitching....

The college is surrounded by a sculpture wall and there are many hand prints in it in various different forms. A hand print is a very personal thing, the actual mark of the artist there in stone/cement/metal/clay. Here is my hand in, of course, embroidery:

Bit of applique in there, as well as cut work, surface stitching and beads.

I have also been using the thread to draw with. This life study is done in a simple running stitch on a see through plastic so that the stitches from the front and the back make up the 'drawing'. I have left the ends of the threads (shock, horror!) which I think adds another dimension:

Simple but very effective....

Keep drawing...

I have been working hard on paintings and embroidery but don't want to show part worked pieces so you will have to wait for those! I have however, been trying to draw everyday and I am finding that my drawing skills are improving immensely. The lines seem to go down onto the paper in the right place the first time! I am finding that certain things are happening in my work throughout all of the mediums, I guess my style is developing and seems to involve colour and pattern.

I thought I would post some of my sketches to inspire you. They are quick drawings, done on site, and are intended as reference and for use later on. They don't have to look like Rembrandt sketches!

These are sketches from the Cyprus museum in Nicosia. The stone carved heads are neolithic and many were found in the area that we live in here in Cyprus. The bull is from a vase, and I loved the simplicity of the lines. The following were sketches I did at the archaelogical college next door. Their place is rustic but better looked after than ours!

From sketch to stitch...

At last some embroidery to show you!

The first thing that hits you when you land in Cyprus and drive away from the airport is all the orange trees. I have wanted to fit them into my work since I got here and I had the perfect opportunity last week. It had rained for over a week and at last the sun came out. It was too nice to stay in the studio so I went outside to enjoy the sun. We have an orange tree right in the yard of the college and as I looked up, the oranges against the turquoise sky were stunning.

I went and fetched my oil pastels and did a study of them. I then decided to try to work the image in embroidery. You can see both interpretations below:

I wanted to be quite free with my embroidery, (I know that I could silk shade them if I wanted to!). I put down the basic colours in pieces of silk then embroidered the shapes over the top. The oranges are worked in running stitch which, although a very basic stitch, with the right shading can still give something form.

I am still working on the latter and will post and image when it is finished.