exploring the mystery of nature with painting & embroidery & mosaic
My latest project is a Purple Glossy Starling inspired by seeing one at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. I love the way the tail is so long and seems to flow behind the bird like a ribbon as it flies. They certainly are very exotic looking and their feathers change colour as they catch the …
I started this artwork a while ago and came across it the other day. I felt it was lacking something so I added the little yellow finch – I guess you could call it a yellowhammer. I cut out a bird shape from hand-painted silk and bonded it on and stitched a bit of texture …
I feel like I’ve come to the end of this particular poppy piece; “Large Poppies” and it is now ready for stretching onto a box canvas. The piece was painted on silk then machine embroidered using free machine technique basically “drawing” with the thread. There is a LOT of stitching! I especially enjoyed doing the …
My love of poppies was rekindled yet again (!) by the late appearance of clumps of sumptuous oriental ones in my mother’s garden. They were surrounded by Michaelmas daisies and the glowing red and purple hues made for a heady colour combination in an otherwise drab October garden. How delicious! This started out as a …
This embroidery is called “Purple Nevsky Bird” after some drawings I did in the Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria many years ago. I’ve tried to capture the elaborate wooden gilded carvings that decorated the cathedral interior. We were on a tour of many artistic and cultural sights, and there was so much to see. …