water, water everywhere

painting cloth has been an interesting and absorbing process though it feels like the more I learn the less I know

water has been my focus for the past two weeks, both still and moving

the sample below is the one that intrigues me the most... it has an atmosphere of both lightness and heaviness to it, in both the air and the water

as if sound can only fall noiselessly back to earth as the air is too oppressive to carry it

a stillness that is absolute

 below, the water is blue and the sky a pale misty blue-grey, as if there was high humidity and the colour has been lost to it

interestingly, I think it also works in the inverse

in the orientation below, the blue is the sky and the water a limpid silver, as if in the evening when the sun is diffused by cloud and the reflections are long

I used a granulating water colour called "forest grey", folded the cloth in half along it's length and painted on the colour in a fairly dilute, watery wash

when it was almost dry, with just a hint of dampness remaining I opened it up and this was how the paint had settled, the gold-brown pigment creating a horizon line all along the fold

of all the cloth I have  painted over the past few months this piece, in it's simplicity, is my favourite

below is a shibori-style piece with the gathers running through the centre length of the cloth, to emulate a river

not a terrific success - it would be better if I had not done such regular rows of shibori but...

turned on it's side it's like tree bark - very like the poplar trees in the yukon with their long grooves or the cottonwoods here

an unexpected but interesting outcome

and last another pale water piece painted with the same forest grey as above bu this time scrunched up a bit so the gold pigment settled into what look like pale cracks 

I've also made two more squares of linen with stitched "ice cracks", ready for whatever might come next

so, the work goes on, the quantity of prepared cloth increases and I need to start thing about how it will all tie together

not sure how, but when in doubt, keep making samples and eventually the ideas will come... trouble is, sampling can only take me so far and I'm keen to take this further now...