Part 3 Stage 5 (a)

I've found myself overlapping Stage 4 and Stage 5 so I've had to reorganise my blog a bit.  Now I'm going to see what I can get out of combining elements of my work.  As always I'm very drawn to the idea of grids and shapes that reveal something beyond and my shortlist shows this.

HPH 3
Helen Platt Hawkins

Through the square window

It seems that all my work in Exploring Ideas has quite coincidentally had a "looking through" theme.  This photo was taken at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2012 and I've used it a lot. There's a real feeling of solidity in the window frame and a sense of not knowing what is beyond it. The solid bars are both a barrier and an invitation to the outside and unknown possibilities.

Just one of the large panes makes it clearer what might lie beyond but it's still not explicit:

I like the way the light shines off the bars depending on the angle to the camera.  In the middle of the image the bars could be thin wire but as we move to the side their thickness becomes more and more apparent.

In terms of developing this image I am reminded of my laminated fruit bags with organza 

behind. They give a similar pane like feeling and this image too is fragmented rather than solid beyond the grid:

The above image depends on a light source to bring it to life; and as the light changes so does the image. 

I wondered what the effect would be if I placed my grid over my laminated sheet so I cut out the background:

and placed the sheet underneath:

It has the same sort of  atmosphere as the original image even though it is colourful - there's a "what's all this?" feeling about it.

Out of curiosity I used another fruit net, put purple organza behind it and my grid on the top. The shapes it makes are lovely and if it was developed I can imagine stitching into it somehow.  The result reminded me once again of Helen Platt Hawkins work:

Each square offers something a little different.

The above experiments are with the work held up to a window.

I used the first of these small images and put in colour with Paint.net then used the result as a tile.

I could simply interpret this in applique using translucent materials but I'm much more drawn towards layering and exposing the different elements of the work.

This is very much a deconstructed piece that has been reassembled and it looks like a stained glass window especially when I back light it.  Interestingly, when I printed this for my sketchbook I used ordinary printer paper and got a disappointingly subdued result.  When I used glossy photo paper it retained the colour I had on the screen.  Two lessons are learnt from this; always check the accuracy of printing and that this particular image is very dependent on its vibrant colours.

I think I might be able to use fruit nets and Bondaweb on organza overlaid by a grid; either stitched or knitted.  That's the sort of thing I think about if I go out for a walk.

I laid my grid over other work but nothing made me quite as keen as what I have just described.

Grid over my knitted organza

Grid over knitted net lit from behind

Grid over knitted net placed on red leather

Reveal and Conceal is all over the place on the two images above.  There are lots of places to hide in in the knitted net:

This looks so much like the bone tissue of a bird:

http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/203268/view#

Grid placed over wax crayon laminated sheet
looking like obscured glass or oily water

I like this overlay.  I'm inclined to consider screen printing on silk, digitally overprinting and somehow opening up the panes of silk.

This doesn't work so well for me

Whilst these don't set the world on fire each of the separate spaces shows something different rather like a viewing frame.

A snip of my frosty cobweb

In this image I like the way the icy filaments appear to defy gravity; there's a clear system operating but no two shapes are the same.  I manipulated it with Paint.net effects and the results are interesting:

Emboss

These two look more plant like and probably not
suitable for my purposes right now.

Ink sketch

Oil painting

This offers the idea of something beyond surprisingly like my window grid.  I like the broken lines of this interpretation suggesting the fragility of the spiders web.

Outline

I'm not sure about this although the net like structure comes through loud and clear.