Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Bison on the Plains

Charles Russell has many paintings depicting bison/buffalo on the western plains.In most cases they are running or stampeding with lots of action.

I tried to think abstractly, and failed yet again (my mind just doesn't work that way).  I copied several abstract pictures from the net and took only those to my studio for ideas.  I went through my scraps of hand-dyed fabrics, finding the three here.  The grass one is colored with crayons by rubbing, which I thought would work for abstract.  But then I found the scrap with the three bison and thread-painted them to give them some color.  And of course it became too realistic to be abstract.  In Russell fashion, I added clouds of dust by using wool roving and hand needle-felting it in place.  A tiny scrap of gold became the lightening that caused the stampede.
Thank you for this fun Fast Friday project.

4 comments:

Jan said...

No, it's not abstract but quite lovely and a piece I'm sure you'll enjoy. Your quilting, thread painting, needle felting, etc. really add to the overall piece making it quite outstanding.

FoulkeArt said...

I like the textures in this piece, and it certainly captures the movement and drama of the Russell paintings!

Tobi said...

Your thread-painting is wonderful and enhances those buffaloes greatly. And while it gives them a greater degree of realism, the background still retains an abstract character. It makes for a very good piece overall.

Cay Denise said...

Very nice thread-painting work including shading and color choices on the buffaloes. I get the sense of some abstraction in the background, though a darker 'sky' fabric would have worked better considering the drama of the scene includes a magnetic storm. You did alot of work on this piece and it shows...very nice Linda!