What if….?

all6fplowres

What if you could create for just 7 days, a mere week of your life, and at the end of the week have a small series of works that hold together, have taught you a lot, and bring a smile to your face? And what if you didn’t have to go anywhere or pay lots of money in order to have a week like this? And furthermore, what if you didn’t have to clear out your entire life to create some small works of art?

fiberpaintingprep

The last seven days have been an answer to these questions and more as I said Yes to Tara Leaver’s offer to join her in a 7-Day Mini Painting Challenge. Surely I can commit to something like this for one week? Before thinking too much about it, I was pulling out leftover bits of yarn, a couple of crochet hooks and sketching out some thumbnail ideas for the next 7 days.

I’m not going to say that this was easy. In fact, I probably should have thought twice about what it would mean to try to make a small fiber painting each day. Working with stitches and yarn requires far more time than it does in paint and paper! And then to make these paintings in and around a full-schedule and a holiday weekend. But I didn’t think about this. I just dove in. Sometimes it is best  NOT to think. Just begin!

fiberpalette

Even though I had made a couple of  fiber paintings in the past, I still had lots of questions I wanted to explore. Tara’s 7-Day Challenge was actually supposed to require 30 minutes or less, which I could have certainly done with paint, pens or pastels. But I regularly work this way…small increments of time happily drawing and painting, filling sketchbooks with images from my everyday life. For this challenge, I wanted to explore the questions I’ve had banging around in  my  head concerning making these images with a crochet hook and yarn, even if it meant spending more than a half hour each day, which I did, and staying up a couple of days past my usual bedtime to finish them. 🙂

Here are some of the questions I wanted to explore:

day1fp

Day 1: What if I used fibers to create the shapes of trees as well as suggesting light falling on the scene?

flowervasefp

Day 2 & 3 (largest fiber painting of the bunch): What if I tried to use varying tones of the same color to indicate volume and how light plays on a still-life subject? Can this be done with flowers?

mamababypearfp

Day 5: Can this be done with fruit? And can I make “cast shadows” read as such in fibers?

silverdapplefiberscape

Day 4: What if I used the textures of fiber to suggest nature? i.e.. leafy trees, a “smooth” path, etc.

seascapefp

Day 6: What if I used stitches and color to show the movement of water and sky? Could I also indicate the texture in a waterscape? i.e.. the foamy waves, the fluffy clouds? (Note: the photographs do not show off all the textures of the yarns. I do wish you could see them “in person”.:)

sunrisescapefp

Day 7: What if I tried to indicate depth in a landscape with things in the foreground and things in the background? Can I successfully portray this to the viewer? (This was explored in each of the landscape fiber paintings!)

Whether or not I successfully achieved all the “what if’s”, (or took two days to complete one painting!) these six paintings make me smile! They still have a bit of work to be done–backing them so they can be wall-hangings and some final embroidered touches here and there.

I know I will create more of these in the future, but for now I’ll just look at the ones I’ve made and smile. When they are fully finished, I may hang them in my home. Or I might exhibit them at my Annual Art Show in November, or offer them on ETSY. I don’t know yet. I’m just enjoying having made them and having many of my questions answered.

shapesofstitches

I appreciate all of your positive responses to this little 7-day journey on FB and Instagram! And I’m thankful for Tara Leaver and her wonderful way of inspiring artists to be freed to create, to move through blocks and to offer our work in the world! If you aren’t familiar with Tara’s art and workshops, do check her out! She has a workshop coming up very soon you might want to participate in. She has lots there on her website to encourage you to be the artist you want to be.

OR, in my case, to spend 7-days being just “ONE-OF-THE-57-ARTISTS-THAT-LIVE-INSIDE-OF-YOU”! Thank you Tara!

Artfully Yours,

Jennifer

6 thoughts on “What if….?

  1. Suzanne Ourth says:

    Thanks for showing your collection of little gems! They are all gorgeous! And how fantastic that you did it all in a week: I realize more and more that to do it you have to be passionate about what you do and enjoy the process! Really very well done. The other day I watched your video about the sketching trip with your parents, and I had no time to comment to tell you how much I liked it. Really fabulous that you can go sketching with them! Wishing you many more happy sketching days with them! My best wishes to all of you!

    • Jennifer Edwards says:

      Thank you Suzanne! Your kind words are so appreciated! I am looking for a day soon to go sketch with my parents again! The mountains are calling me! Thank you for visiting here and taking the time to comment!

  2. Jeanine Arnold says:

    I love your free form crochet. The little pictures are so beautiful. It’s hard to see on the computer but if I really slow down and study the pictures I can see all the different yarns that were used.

    I wish i lived closer to you. I would be a your crochet class begging you to teach me free form crochet.

    Thank you for sharing these little treasures with us.

    • Jennifer Edwards says:

      You are so welcome Jeanine! And thank you for your kind words! I teach the Freeform Crochet Class out of a local Yarn Shop here…maybe contact a shop near you and see if they know of anyone who might teach this? All the best to you!

  3. Tara says:

    You really did an incredible job Jennifer! I loved following along with your ‘what if’s. 🙂 And thank you so much for the kind words! Much appreciated. 🙂

Leave a Reply to Jennifer Edwards Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *