At the moment I am totally captivated by the new work that Vivian has on her blog. Her current art is speaking directly to my soul. It is also inspiring me to return to working with sea themes again.It is strange - that now I am living about 5 minutes away from the beach how little sea imagery is in my work.
However - when I was living away from the sea - my work was about the sea. I missed it so ......
In 1988 - when I was doing my City and Guilds in Creative Embroidery. My part two theme was "the sea". One of my major pieces was a coat, which had seaweed and sea horses as decoration.
My father - who lived by the sea, sent me regular parcels of sea weed - so that I could draw it. How brave was the post man who delivered it!
Then in 1998 I was doing a lot of shows and
exhibitions - the sea and all things watery, featured strongly in my work - again I was living a long way away from it and missed it a lot.However here I am now - returned to my soul home, and prompted by Vivian I am pulled once more towards the sea.
The joy of having a theme that returns time and again over the years (decades) is that you have the opportunity to revisit the theme with new eyes and new perspective.
During Part 2, City and Guilds - my sea themes were large.
In 1998 my sea images had a melancholy - which perhaps reflected where I was in my life at that time.
And now - 20 years down the line - although the water and the boats appear from time to time - I am edging towards doing another body of significant work around the sea and my life beside it.
7 comments:
Hi Karen,
How great to see you so motivate! What a wonderful sea horse piece that is, It's so delicate and the colours are wonderful, did you dye them yourself? and the second piece is very unusual, I love the imagery in the middle, it works so well with the fine work in the framing!
I agree with you about Vivien, she's very inspirational and has got me thinking about the sea too. You almost never appreciate what's on you doorstep.
BTW I'm sorry but I couldn't resist giving you the 'you make my day award', my reasons are on the blog post :-)
Hi
Love the sea horse too - is it from the coat?
I have a friend who collects all things sea horse - her house is full of them so every time I see one I think of her.
I live close to the sea too but I love hills and mountains.
Look forward to watching your new project take shape and grow.
Cheers
Hi Karen,O love the sea themes and deep thoughts-I really hear your voice, and I remember the pieces! Ilook forward to the new work Linda
Thank you so much for the mention Karen :)
and thank you Sharon
< blushing! >
That coat looks absolutely delicious! I envy you that skill with creating with fabrics.
Somewhere on my blog is an early monoprint of seashorses - they are such an appealing subject, especially combined with flowing weed like this.
I love the sea horse. My art work comes in my love of others 'work'.P
Your work is very beautiful and soulful! Living where you ahve, i can understand your use of sea related themes!
Lovely to see your work there. The sea is important to me too, though I never realised it until I lived away from it. Now the question is do you feel the same about the East coast as you do the West coast?
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