Craving color

by Kit on January 23, 2010

in Inspiration,Katazome,Natural dye,Process

I was thinking today how monotone winter can be. This weekend it’s been raining, sleeting, the snow is dirty and the skies are dark gray. Then I found this photo I snapped a couple of weeks ago …

pink and purple

sunset

I’m dyeing this work with fuchsia and turquoisey-teal, and where they overlap makes a kind of violet. Keeping a softer focus with my eyes and a looser grip on the brush feels great after the concentration needed to paste a repeat. Less fussy. And this approach to the painting should give some softness to the details and edges defined by the stencil.

tulips layer 2

tulips; dye layer 2

The little tulips that inspired this pattern are the first bulbs to bloom in my garden. We won’t see them again until mid-April or so.

species tulips

tulips

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon

{ 6 comments }

Jane LaFazio January 24, 2010 at 8:57 AM

beautiful! I especially like seeing the tulips that inspired your lovely stencil.

Kit January 24, 2010 at 9:41 AM

thank you!

Jane LaFazio January 24, 2010 at 9:00 AM

Hi again. I don’t know why my comment above has the bit about “Jane LaFazio’s last blog Scuba TV” It appears to be some kind of weird spam and I didn’t write it.

oh, I see below the commetn box there’s a check box for scuba tv…whaddup with that?

Kit January 24, 2010 at 9:39 AM

hi Jane, I don’t know what that was about – that hadn’t happened before. I deactivated that plugin and deleted the line you mention. I appreciate the heads-up.

Judy January 25, 2010 at 2:08 PM

Lovely colors! Where is the sunset photo? It is beautiful. I imagine a delicious soup and homemade bread awaits the photographer.
Will you be doing more layers on the tulips?
Waiting for selectol soft developer to cool so I can make a print that will have a soft focus look to it….or so “they” say. Then I will handcolor.
later,
Judy

Kit January 25, 2010 at 5:12 PM

Hi Judy – the sunset is over the Lake Como Pavilion. I do three layers of dye, plus some highlights as needed; perhaps another layer to deepen the darks. Your photo process sounds intriguing…

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: