Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Chartreuse Line Study

Chartreuse is one of my favorite colors, so when Gerrie picked it,  I had lots of ideas in my head as to where to go with this.  My first experiment is the last picture on this blog post, but I'll start with the winner.  Right around the time I started thinking about this piece, I read a blog post by Terry Jarrard- Dimond here  http://studio24-7.blogspot.com/2011/02/bet-you-cant-print-just-one.html.


I was reminded I had the tools to monoprint, and hadn't done it in a while and I actually love the results you can get.  I first tried it out on my canvas dropcloth which you can see below, but it wasn't crisp enough for me.  So I printed it out again on cotton sateen above.  I added the handstitching in red and the little black sheer squares.  This is another line series, it doesn't have any meaning, I just like the way it came together.


Below is the first thing I came up with for chartreuse, and it doesn't really do anything for me.  It started out as a densely stitched piece of cotton that I painted over several times.  As you can tell, I like the combination of chartreuse, black and red.


In this instance, I think simple worked better for me.

10 comments:

stART said...

What is not to love about chartreuse? From bold to shy, classic to grunge, it always works! *G*

Gerrie said...

I love the piece up at the top. I think you made the right selection. But, I love all of the images as they popped up on my screen. I think that curvy line is just delicious.

Diane Perin said...

Ah. That first one, Karen, is just sublime. (SubLIME. Get it? HarHar.) But really, I love it. I think it's that the elements seem to fit so well ... the x's balance out the dark stripe on the right, and the white circle seems to bring something unifying and peaceful. There's something Zen about it.
To be honest, the other two don't do anything for me -- they seem like practice pieces, with the elements fighting against each other or at least not complimenting each other.

Kristin L said...

Practice makes perfect! I'm glad you kept going until you got the one that that was aha!, instead of just OK.

Vivien Zepf said...

I like your final piece very much. Simplicity is hard to achieve while still having tension and texture and I think piece does that perfectly.

Terri Stegmiller said...

While your end result is great, I do like that painted texture in the bottom photo. Monoprinting is fun and I don't do it enough.

kirsten said...

The black line has the potential to be overwhelming - your addition of the squares was a wonderful choice. As is the addition of the red stitching. You knew when to stop and did so just at the right place :)

Deborah Boschert said...

I agree... it's beauty is in its simplicity, and yet it still has so many interesting elements. I love the white/red line crossing over from the chartreuse to the black. I also love the little white blobby bit in the lower left... that's the cool kind of thing that happens with mono-prints.

Terry Grant said...

All three of these are so interesting! I agree that the top one is finished and fully composed, but the energy and intensity of that last one really draws me in!

Françoise said...

I too prefer the one you picked. It is much more refined than the two others. I like the simple texture of the background.