Martha Hall Textile Art

Figure Drawing

Details: Category: In The Studio; Published on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 15:18; Written by Martha Hall

I keep meaning to get back to you on the quilt-in-progress I wrote about a couple of posts back - Painted Circles (although I've since given it a new name, something more interesting than Painted Circles!) I will get back to that in a future post, but in the meantime I've also been doing some other things and I wanted to share.

TraillWorks in Newton NJ has recently started Tuesday night Figure Drawing sessions. This is not a class with instruction, but rather a weekly opportunity to draw from a live model. Every few weeks the models switch so participants get a variety of experiences. The first session I attended had a male model. Last night we had a new, female model and she was excellent.

Here is a sampling of my drawings from last night.

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We start with some gesture drawings to get warmed up. These are 2 minute gestures.

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Then we moved on to some 5 minute poses. Each progression allows us to get better acquainted with the model's figure and to 'warm up' a bit.

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Our model gave us some very challenging poses! See how her legs are receding into the distance. This is difficult to capture, but drawing is about visual relationships and so I worked on seeing the relationships. Her head is not quite right either. I guess I spent my time on the legs, and also on the drape of the right hand.

This was one of my more successful drawings of the session. It's also a receding perspective, but I managed to capture it a little better. This was a 20 minute pose (oh, and no hands or feet to bog me down!)

This was yet another challenging perspective/pose. I really wanted to address the hands. How could I not? They are front and center. I was concerned that I totally blew it, but looking at again I think I didn't do too badly!

This was the final pose to finish the evening - a quick 10 minutes. We implored our model to give us something straight forward and easy! She obliged us with this simple yet elegant pose. In 10 minutes I had no time to fully address the feet and hand (or at least that's my story!), but I do think I captured the face in profile pretty well.

It has been ages since I've done figure drawing and I am really loving these weekly sessions to draw again. I don't consider myself a good draw-er. I do sketch out a lot of ideas for quilts in my sketchbooks, but I consider them rather rudimentary. Drawing wonderful imagery out of my head is not a strong point. I do better drawing from direct observation.

So far we have a couple of regulars attending on Tuesday evenings. I know there is room for more, so if you are local and want to practice and improve on your drawing skills, come join us! You can sign up here or call or visit TraillWorks Gallery and lesson space for more info or to sign up.

I'm quite sure the drawing practice is going to help me with all my artistic endeavors. Back to basics!

Until next time -

MCH

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Thirteen Moons Revisited

Details: Category: In The Studio; Published on Monday, 30 January 2012 18:39; Written by Martha Hall

Earlier this year I was contacted by artist Serena Kovalosky. Among her many talents, she creates beautiful sculptural pieces out of gourds. You really must see them! She's also a traveller, a foodie, a writer...... well, she's a woman with many sides and talents!

This year she started a blog project entitled, "365 Days of Everything I Love About Being an Artist". Each day she writes a short missive about something on her artist mind - topics that I think any creative can relate to. She also includes images of a different artist's work each day, which gives a wonderful introduction to so many artists we may not know of.

A couple of days ago (Day 28 to be exact!) I had the distinct honor of having two of my quilts featured on Serena's "365 Days....." blog. She selected two pieces from among my work. One of her choices, "Thirteen Moons", surprised me, actually. I might not have chosen that one, mainly because it's a little older, I guess. But once I saw it there it seemed a most appropriate selection.

Thirteen Moons 47" x 26"

Since the begining of this year I've been having a hard time finding my creative zone and not too happy about it either! As it happens, "Thirteen Moons" was made at a time several years ago when I was in the exact same state. I hadn't made much art and was feeling restless. Then I had an idea for this quilt. It involved using some letter fabric as a starting point for adding text. I brainstormed a bunch of words and phrases that related to art-making and also feeling blocked in art-making. Using the letters cut from fabric as my starting point, I 'wrote' out the words and phrases with rubber stamps. Thirteen_Moons_detail Then I opened up my scrap bins and started piecing together small bits and strips of fabric saved from other projects. Combining the pieced sections with my phrases, I built the quilt up to what it is now. The machine quilting was a form of practice and learning too, as I was still kind of new to it at the time.

Creating "Thirteen Moons" ended up being a really fun process and broke the spell of creative block for me. Right after that I started making my "Split Circle" quilts, which is a series I've been coming back to time and again ever since.

This quilt hangs on my studio wall as inspiration and as a reminder during fallow times to keep on doing the work. Seeing it anew on Serena's blog was a chance to revisit the piece in my own mind and know that "this too shall pass".

So, Serena, thank you for sharing your ideas, and for scouting out so many creatives to share with us, and especially for including me among the wonderful artists on your blog, and for giving me a creative nudge!

Until next time -

MCH

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Painted Circles

Details: Category: In The Studio; Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:34; Written by Martha Hall

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a play date for getting my creative juices flowing.

MCH

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Blue Monday

Details: Category: In The Studio; Published on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 00:56; Written by Martha Hall

Some say that today is 'Blue Monday', the most depressing day of the year - kind of a convergence of Christmas bills coming due, seasonal lethargy and depression, regrets over broken New Year's resolutions, etc., etc.

Well, that explains today, anyway, but not exactly the past two months. I haven't made any art for two months, hence I have not posted on the blog for two months.

There was a slew of deadlines to meet last Fall and I was working like crazy. Then, BAM!, it just stopped. When the holiday season commenced I never got my momentum back.

I was hoping for a major shift when the New Year started, but that hasn't happened. In the past few days I have yielded to what is and come to accept the lull. I know that most artists experience an ebb and flow of production, but I can't say it ever feels good.

There are so many opportunities ahead for me this year. Maybe that's the problem . . . . deciding where to start and overcoming the overwhelm.

So . . . I've been spending the time getting my ducks in a row, but to paraphrase Seth Godin, it's time to do something with my ducks!

I will keep you posted . . . .

Until next time-

MCH

P.S. I do have one quilt out showing. My QR quilt "Double Talk" is currently at "Form, Not Function" - Quilt Art at the Carnegie. Small consolation that I'm not a total deadbeat.

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A Change of Pace

Details: Category: In The Studio; Published on Thursday, 10 November 2011 15:26; Written by Martha Hall

I've been making a lot of small art lately. More saleable work to put at the various venues where I've been showing recently. The small birds and nests have been selling very well - three at the Morris Museum and three more at the recent Hilltop Art Show. Now, if only the large work would sell! Oh well, I do enjoy making the small works too. I noticed that birds were a common subject matter at the Hilltop Show.

TraillWorks Gallery is having a new showing for the upcoming holiday giving season - "Good Things, Small Packages".

For a change of pace I thought I'd get away from fabric for a little while and do something different. Not that I haven't done it before, but I decided to do some paper collage. Little bits of paper instead of little bits of fabric! Still plenty of color though.

Music is my theme this time around. Here is what I delivered to the gallery this week. I will continue to make more of these small pieces, maybe even some birds.

"Jim Has A New Drum", detail

These pictures are all made on 6" x 6" cradled wood panels. I used liquid gloss medium to secure all the papers and to give a finish coat. My papers are hand colored assorted types, old books and sheet music, scrap and found papers.

The images only show the face of each picture, although the images wrap around the edges on all of them. The detail shot of "Jim Has A New Drum" shows an example of how the picture wraps around.

Messy and lots of fun, so I'll probably make more!

These are all available for sale at TraillWorks Gallery through January 8, 2012. The opening reception is this Saturday, November 12th, 5-8 pm. For the special pre-opening sale on November 11, click here to register.

Until next time -

MCH

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