Course work

I've been taking a masterclass with Elizabeth Barton which started in January and runs the whole year.  Each month we get a different assignment and are expected to submit sketches for review and comment, then we do a blocked out piece that she can critique before it's finished, and then, hopefully we finish the piece! 

So here are a few that I have done so far.

The first month we were to produce something in grey scale.  Not necessarily grey, but shades of one colour so we could study value.  This is the church at the top of Lykavittos hill in Athens.  In the photo I took it was gleaming white so I've tried to give it a moonlight feel.

February's task was to use movement in our piece.  I had been skiing at Marmot Basin so had ski tracks on the brain.  However I've discovered that not everyone sees the same thing and I have had it suggested that it looks like waves rolling in on a beach, amongst other things.  Let me know if you see something else! I have to give Elizabeth credit for suggesting the yellow.  I pulled this one out of my stash and it just glowed - the turquoise sky I had used just wasn't helping. 

In March the assignment was to use line.   I'm trying very hard to make my work more abstract.  These were stairs at the Tate Museum - all in white and black. 

And then I took a 2 day course with Jennifer Day at MQX in Manchester, NH last week on machine embroidery.  She supplied us with stock photos printed on cotton and a range of 700 thread colours to play with.  It was a bit "paint by number" but I definitely got the feel of moving the fabric around and playing with colour so it was a good exercise.  One day too long though.