February 4 2014 – In the Bleak Midwinter.

“In the Bleak Midwinter




I wrote a wonderful post late last night, edited it and saved it until I could figure out how to add a slideshow this morning. Then this morning as I was attempting to do that I lost the complete draft. So here is a second attempt.
It took me a couple of days to get the backgrounds ready so I actually began this series of CDA’s a few days late. I found that the daily CDA time hasn’t yet come into a routine. However when ever I have had time to work on these I have enjoyed the time very much. I am moving towards the habit of one a day.
I began with some trepidation about my ability to come up with an idea each day. So with my usual attempt to deal with anxiety I started a list of words that spoke to me of winter and the bleak aspect of it. That created a comfort level and allowed me to be more relaxed and open to the spontaneity that I wanted to cultivate in trusting that ideas would come. Immeadiately there were some images that spoke to me and I wanted to try and see how I could transfer them to fabric. That seemed to require using my rudimentary drawing skills. The desire was greater than the limitations, and while some are laughable they still covey what I wanted to express.
I kept my camera with me at all times around home and when an image was fleeting I took as many pictures as I could. For example one morning a flock of birds came to land on my Linden tree. The camera was with me in the car and one late afternoon at a stop light I was able to capture a wonderful sunset. Spontaneous also happened, more often than not. For example one morning I was driving up McDougall Hill and caught a flash of movement on my left and a coyote dashed across the road. So there was a visual image in my brain that I followed up. This was a first experience to attempt to draw an animal that wasn’t stylized. I sketched it and then searched for images and found some that helped me with some proportions.
This project as full of learning. I wanted to use materials that I had so that I could be spontaneous and work with an idea as it came to me. The day we had freezing rain I wanted to give the impression of ice and found that sanding sugar on glue worked. Another day I wanted to recreate the sense of the swirling snow in a snowstorm and I found that some shreds of a thermal batting gave that impression. Setacolor and sewing machine were utilized to create my images. I tried different threads and feet and needles on my sewing machine. I documented my learnings with each material by recording on the back of each piece what I had used and how and sources of inspiration. Now I can return to the library of CDA’s when I want to use a technique for a larger piece.
My perception of the natural environment outside my window has sharpened during this month. I used a different colour palette than usual. The subtle greys and shadings proved to have more variation in them then I expected and while there is colour in the pieces they reflect the soft winter landscape of Alberta.