Monday, April 30, 2012

Lady Arbor



I have been fascinated with the principles of Gestalt, and in this piece tried to use as many as I could. The sky is woven using many different fabrics for texture and contrast, the repeating shapes represent Proximity. The birds swooping from top, across the quilt and out the side show Continuation. The repeating shapes of the birds- Similarity; the bird flying in the opposite direction-Anomaly; The tree/lady- Closure.

The tree is appliqué cut in one piece using a suede cloth, and the leaves are 'beaded’ netting. The birds are appliqués made from a copper tissue lame fused to a copper suede cloth.

Your comments gratefully received...

Cherie

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Cavorting Trees

This picture of trees fascinated me and encouraged me to try the same thing.  It is thread painted, painted with watercolor pencil and sheva sticks, appliqued and quilted.  It measures 10x14".

Pat Havey

La Luna

After reading the challenge, I started googling for ideas and found one that just leaped off the page at me.  This image (8th one down on that page) made me think of some B&W striped fabric I had in my stash, but alas, I didn't have enough of it (and no more at the quilt shop, I checked!).  But I started in, and knocked this one out in 4 hours.

The striped fabric was strip cut and reassembled to alternate the strips.  The inset circle was doing with Cathy Miller's circle technique (found in her songbook, page 41, and I was the hand model!).  Quilted with black and white variegated thread (King Tut!), and simply bound.  Done.

Fun to just play.  A lot of the gestalt work struck me as also Op-Art.... and I love it when things come together so fast!... Comments of course are welcome and appreciated.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Find Your Own Path


I played with several of the gestalt principles using fabric paint and some of my homemade stencils.  None of the samples thrilled me but found I was drawn to the similarity/anamoly principle.  I came up with the idea of individuality and went to posemaniacs.com to create the figures.  Since they are small (entire quilt is only 17 x 21) I used faux suede for the figures to keep the intricate details from unraveling.  I dug the border out of my stash and found a piece of my hand dyed fabric that went well with the rust color in the border.  I finished the edges of the quilt using the pillowcase method.  The only thing I have left to do is quilt it.  I plan to use echo quilting.  I just need to go to the store to find a muted rust thread.

I haven't posted in a while.  Between work and my husband's health, anything creative has been on the back burner.  However, finals are coming up next week and I hope to have some time to play this summer.  This was a really great challenge and I may make another one using one of the other principles.

LindaBN from Louisiana

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Challenge 68 - Gestalt Art

Challenge 68:  Gestalt in Art
Gestalt Theory holds that “the whole is other than the sum of its parts”. Kurt Koffka (the whole exists independently from its parts).   Parts identified individually have different characteristics to the whole;
e.g. describing a tree,-its parts are trunk, branches, leaves, perhaps blossoms or fruit.  But when you look at an entire tree, you are not conscious of the parts, you are aware of the overall object-the tree.  Parts are of secondary importance even though they can be clearly seen.
When your first impression of a design is positive, when you instinctively see it as good, it’s likely because one or more “Gestalt Principles of Perception” are at play.
The challenge:  Create your piece using one or more of the Gestalt Principles as described below:

I hope you will find these ideas fascinating, as I do.  Have fun and I’m really looking forward to your ideas!
Cherie


The Gestalt Principles
 Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied. These principles are:
Similarity
Similarity occurs when objects look similar to one another. People often perceive them as a group or pattern.

The example above (containing 11 distinct objects) appears as as single unit because all of the shapes have similarity.
Unity occurs because the triangular shapes at the bottom of the eagle symbol look similar to the shapes that form the sunburst.
 When similarity occurs, an object can be emphasized if it is dissimilar to the others. This is called anomaly.

The figure on the far right becomes a focal point because it is dissimilar to the other shapes.
Continuation 

Continuation occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object.




Continuation occurs in the example above, because the viewer's eye will naturally follow a line or curve. The smooth flowing crossbar of the "H" leads the eye directly to the maple leaf.

Closure
Closure occurs when an object is incomplete or a space is not completely enclosed. If enough of the shape is indicated, people percieve the whole by filling in the missing infomation.

 Although the panda above is not complete, enough is present for the eye to complete the shape. When the viewer's perception completes a shapeclosure occurs.

 Proximity
Proximity occurs when elements are placed close together. They tend to be perceived as a group.

 





The nine squares above are placed without proximity. They are perceived as separate shapes.


 When the squares are given close proximity, unity occurs. While they continue to be separate shapes, they are now perceived as one group.


The fifteen figures above form a unified whole (the shape of a tree) because of their proximity.

Figure and Ground
The eye differentiates an object form its surrounding area. a form, silhouette, or shape is naturrally perceived as figure(object), while the surrounding area is perceived as ground(background).
Balancing figure and ground can make the perceived image more clear. Using unusual figure/ground relationships can add interest and sublety to an image.
  
Figure
The word above is clearly perceived as figure with the surrounding white space ground.
 
 In this image, the figure and ground relationships change as the eye perceives the the form of a shade or the silhouette of a face.
 This image uses complex figure/ground relationships which change upon perceiving leaves, water and tree trunk.



.Here is a wonderful little video with Bobby McFerrin demonstrating the theory with music…I love it!
Here are some terrific resources for learning about the Gestalt Theory:
Seven principles of design:

Monday, April 23, 2012

Dawn on Sea - Silvia Dell'Aere

Hi :)
I've used this challenge as guideline to make my last piece. I've made it for my solo show I've had last week, and it's a piece that talks about my love for sea.

Measures: 86x39 inches
Technique: hand dyed cotton and machine quilting
Title: (the title is a short poetry I've written, I'll try to translate it for you in english)
A sea ​​stirs in me / foaming, flashing, / then comes the dawn

Full:

Details: waves on bottom left corner, sun rays in top right corner and 3 seagulls from top left to bottom right corners

Every comment's welcome :)

Friday, April 06, 2012

Untitled and unfinished

I have really struggled with this challenge. In the end, I decided that I would paint, and then quilt a seascape. The painting didn't go so well. My last attempt looked perfect while it was wet but faded into nothing as it dried. The sailboat was added in an effort to bring it to life. And then I realized that there is too much wind in the sails for such a quiet sea. Perhaps it's a ghost ship, and sails along without benefit of wind.

Certainly not one of my best efforts, but I plan to persevere with it and see what happens.

Pat F in Winnipeg
aka fndlmous

Monday, April 02, 2012

Sunrise at the Dock

20" x 19"

When looking at Turner's work, the first thing I thought of was using Angelina fiber, and it shows in the rising sun, the reflection in the water and the clouds in the sky. The dock is a wood-grain fabric in pink, and I put a couple crates on it, with some rocky fabric behind the boxes and across the channel. These were all a bit too dark for my liking, and I used decolorant to bleach them to a lighter shade, which gave the boxes a weathered look. I decided not to use the decolorant on the border pieces of the rocky fabric to pull that forward a bit.

The piece is mounted on foam core, and it was at the stage of sewing it down that I noticed the big box extends a bit beyond the dock!

Your comments are welcome!

Poppies in the Moonlight



Another challenge finished! I finished the quilting on this and it will be framed for my daughter. Only one more to go.
This piece began as fabric which I had ice dyed. In looking at it my eyes piced out the poppie shapes immediately and I decided to make them the focal point. I first stitched/quilted around them and the light green areas in the fabric. After that was done, I used fabric paint to highlight the shapes and to darken the blue areas so that the poppies and green areas would come forward. I am in the process of doing denser quilting in the blue areas and will add some beadwork when the quilting is complete. Then I will mount it on a canvas.

Louise Page

Sunday, April 01, 2012

nature at peace

When doing a general dying of some fabric one piece came out looking to me like a swamp so I decided to take advantage of it and make it into a wall quilt. With stitching, roving, rawedge applique, and decolorant for the birds I brought it to life. The sun shining through the trees is stitched in hologram thread and is very shiny but doesn't show in the photo.
This piece measures 36x42.

Pat Havey