3 Canvas Series - The Process

Let Go - Be Brave - Follow Your Intuition!

The Finished Paintings.

The Process... 

The Following is a step by step progress of how the paintings came into being. Its all about letting go and going with my intuition. 

To begin I decided to limit my palette to muted golds and browns with turquoise and to paint the 3 canvases in unison.

Base Coats 

I started with a base of white Gesso, then brushed on acrylic paint in Ochre, Sienna, Umber and Brown

Mark Making

Letting the base colours dry before adding - Swirls, dots, stripes, stamping and stencils

Ink Dripping

The fun part! - Acrylic Ink in Turquoise and Orange, dripped then misted and sprayed with water.

Area Sectioning

With loose lines of brush strokes lightly ‘skipped’ across the canvas in black acrylic I sectioned off areas and then outlined shapes that appeared from the background.

This is the point at which the doubts began to creep in. Invading my good mood and making me apprehensive and unsure. I almost gave in to the doubts and gave up poised with the gesso to whitewash it all and start again - Keep going I told myself, just keep on - keeping on....

Creating Negative Space

Adding blocks of white.

Colour Blocking

Adding blocks of colour to areas along with Metallic gold and Metallic gold details.

The Finishing Touches

Small details, White dot ‘Blossoms’ on the ends of the branches, defining of shapes and lines.

Close ups of the finished Individual Canvases

The three canvases are now framed with simple black frames and ready to hang (Click Here to enquire!) I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. And I was even flexible with the colour scheme letting some bright orange creep in that I think really lifted the colour. 

The thoughts that were going through my head while working on these pieces were things such as... Life goes on, Life Cycles, Its all happening perfectly, One mans ending is another's beginning (Crowded House),  circle of life, potential, expecting, expectation......

Now if I could just think of some titles! Any Ideas???

See more of my work HERE

Shoal of Fish - Coral Reef Series.

This is a step by step account of how the piece was created. 

The Base Foundation Fabric

The Base Cloth.

Starting with a small piece of an old cotton sheet, I wet the fabric and wrung out most of the water. With watered down blue screen printing ink that was still a bit lumpy I randomly brushed the colour over the fabric rubbing it in to spread out the lumps and to create a swirly watery pattern. 

Next I dripped drops of water here and there to lighten areas and sprinkled salt in in spots to create the watery texture. A really random process of trial and error!

After drying in the sun, I brushed off the salt and placed the fabric between two sheets of newspaper - with the iron on the hottest setting I heat set the ink. After which I rinsed out the fabric with cold water making sure to get rid of all the salt residue and repeated the drying/iron process. I think if you leave any salt on the fabric over time it may break it down and eat it away? So better safe than sorry!

... Making the fish

Back to school or shoal? 

Well I never... Schooling and shoaling is a kind of collective animal behaviour by fish. Any group of fish that stay together for social reasons is said to be shoaling, and if the shoal is swimming in the same direction together, it is schooling. (I googled that!) 

To get the right shape of the fish I experimented with shapes on my sewing machine -  trying out the different programmed embroidery stitches. I think I am one of the very few people who actually try to use all those stitches that come with fancy machines! But then again I do tend to stick to my favorites.

I have an Elna Diva - given to me by my parents for my 21st birthday (all those years ago) and it has been my prized possession ever since. It is the one thing I own that I would run screaming into a burning building to save!

It has hundreds of pre-programmed embroidery stitches along with cartridges/cassettes with even more stitches. Not only that but there are also rotating buttons so that you can turn the stitches sideways, mirror image and horizontally so the possibilities are endless. 

I tried out lots of different combinations of stitches and manipulated the shapes trying to form the bodies of the fish - but I found that there was not enough 'movement' and the fish looked a bit flat - facing either right or left - no way to convey random movement - to slightly turn or twist the body to represent the swimming fish darting this way and that.

Playing around with stitches.

So I ended up painting in the general shape of the body with acrylic paint. 

Starting with a blue base in (Ultra Marine) I added a stripe of white to the belly and a blob for the eye. On top of the white stripe I used a touch of fluorescent Pink (Pébéo 371) then a blob of black for the iris. 

Next I began to embroider the yellow tails using stitch No.75 manipulating the stitch length and width to create a subtle differences in the fish tails. 

Programmed Machine Stitches - Elna Diva.

For the tails of the three bottom fish swimming downwards - I Freehand machine stitched to get the right "sway" of the tails, along with the little baby fish for which the programmed tail stitch was too big. 

Sometimes I miss judged the the distance to fish body and so left a little gap between the tail and the body - this I corrected with an orange Prismacolor pencil. 

On the whole I was happy with how the fish turned out but they still looked a bit flat - so I added a yellow halo with a pale lemon coloured pencil along the spines.

Getting to the good stuff!

At this point I attached strips of scrap fabric to the sides to extend the base fabric to fit my embroidery hoop - I prefer to use a large hoop that lets me work on a lot of different areas at a time so I don't have to keep stopping to preposition the hoop, I also find that when using a small hoop the more you move it around the more chance there is to warp the base and it also causes any appliqued bits to fray. 

Completed Fish.

I hand painted in the sides of the underwater "valley" and added some sea grass. I always water down acrylic paint when painting on textile pieces to stop it from stiffening and leaving a plasticy finish.

Beginning to build the coral reef.

And from this point I got a bit carried away and forgot to take progress pics!

The Quilted background

I took a piece of 1inch thick quilting batting and peeled away a thin layer – that was a bit uneven and lumpy (which is a good thing) and placed this behind the base fabric. Without a backing fabric as I wanted to keep it lightweight and also the finished piece is to be mounted onto a canvas covered frame so nothing would be left exposed behind after framing anyway.


I basted the batting to the base fabric with big tacking stitches to keep in place while I quilted the background.

Following the wavy watery lines and swirly patterns made by the ink and salt - I freehand machine quilted the background, hinting at the ripples and trails in the water made by the swimming fish.

Building The Coral Reef

On the bottom left hand side I used long hand sewn stitches in moss green DMC tapestry thread for dimensional sea grass and used programmed stitch No.71 adding ‘fern” like stitches to the sides of the valleys.

Bottom Left Side.

Coral Steps

The Coral ‘steps’ on the left were created from oval shapes with side openings through which I poked in a little stuffing and made in to puffs, I then hand stitched a little pleat on the opening side to give a flat sided edge to be stitched to the base and it also helped to make them stick out like steps and hold their shape.

Coral Steps  - Bottom Left Side.

Fan Coral

The cream coral with the orange edge (along with the small green edged one on the left side) are circular pieces of fabric with a satin stitched edge (zig zag stitch with a width 2.5 and length .5) I then stretched the fabric on its bias and around the edges to pull it out of shape and flute the edges a bit. The circle is then folded just off the centre to layer the edges and then in quarters etc pulling and manipulating the folds into a pleasing shape – I then secured the shape with hand stitches.

Bottom Right Side.

Round Peach coloured Disc Coral

The peach coloured coral on the right hand side is made from a cotton pad the kind used to remove makeup! I covered it with a fine layer of organza fabric in much the same way as for the green puff only a much bigger piece that allowed the cotton pad to remain flat and round. Then with orange thread I machine stitched the centre cross adding shorter spokes emanating from the centre. A few glass beads in orange here and there hand sewn through all the thickness anchored the piece in place to the base.

Bobbly Green Coral 

The little green puff is a one layer piece of towelling fabric cut in a circle with a running stitch around the edge – in the centre I placed a small piece of stuffing and then drew up the threads to form a puff or a ball shape and tie off the threads.

Glass Beads and french knots.

Lastly I added glass beads in different sizes and shades of green and gold in clusters along with french knots in tapestry threads, to fill in gaps around the coral.

I make each piece of coral separately and then hand stitch them to the base – I never use glue as over time the glue breaks down and I don’t want pieces to fall off or discolour with age. I then take a selection of corals and place them around in different compositions until I am happy before securing them to the base. I can then fill in the gaps with other corals, beads or hand embellishments.

Random Corals and space fillers and Cabbage Corals

The easiest ways to make coral pieces is to randomly machine stitch (with a tiny stitch) circular, ovals rounded triangles and squares from two layers of fabric with right sides together, then trim the shapes close to the stitching – make a small slit in centre of the underside and bag out/ turn rightside out, then iron the shape flat. I also use this method when making leaves. 

You can then either embellish the edges or just leave them plain.

These random shapes can then be curled into ‘rosebuds’ or into ‘rose flowers’ to form cabbage corals simply by adding petals to the rosebud shape.

Finished -Unframed

Almost done!- the Mounting and Framing

The final stage was to mount the completed scene on to a 20cm x 20cm purchased canvas and wooden frame.

I removed the extending scrap pieces and tried to iron out the wrinkles a bit manoeuvring around the 2D parts as best I could.

I then centred the piece on to the frame and starting at the centre of each of the four sides I slightly stretched the fabric securing each side using a staple gun, radiating outwards with the staples either side of the first one lightly stretching and smoothing out the wrinkles as I go. I continued evenly around the edge placing a staple then placing the next one on the opposite side parallel to the last.

Finished!

The last step was to trim the excess fabric from the back and sign, name and date canvas behind!

Schools Out! Pictorial progress of the painting...

Schools Out  - the Finished Painting by Michelle Griffiths

It all started with some finger painting...

Figure 1.

I started with a white Gesso background and was too impatient to wait for it to dry - I added a splodge of Acrylic in cobalt blue on the right bottom and top left corners with Cerulean Blue in the top right. And then got busy smearing it around with my fingers gradually ending up using my whole palm. It was sooooooooo much fun!

I added more paint to a palette then dipped in my finger tips - at this point I had absolutely no idea "who" or "what" was going to appear. So I proceeded to lightly sweep my finger tips across the canvas.... and hundreds of tiny fish appeared!

Figure 2.

In Figure 1. bottom right corner you can just make out palm prints that in my minds eye formed the shape of coral so I went a head with a brush and White, 'Flesh colour', Brown and Fluorescent Pink -paints and added more detail. I reverted back to finger painting for the blue coral next door. 

Figure 3.

A few brush strokes 'skipped' across the canvas with black paint broke the canvas up into sections, with the face of a bird appearing in the centre. So I added in an eye  - it is interesting as birds are showing up a lot lately in the paintings which I have been working on. 

Figure 4.

The painting was feeling a little too literal for me - Blue water - Coral reef - Fish... BORING! So I added in some negative space and more drips, splashes of acrylic ink, spots and misting with water spray.

Figure 5.

I really wasnt feeling the corals - I liked them but they were too 'coral -ly' if you know what I mean I wanted to go in a more abstract direction. I loved the fish and how I had captured the rapid movement, flow and chaos of their path. In between while I was waiting for other areas to dry I added in fishy details, eyes and gills with flashes of white here and there. 

Figure 6.

More wiggly black lines, more negative space, more fish details.....

Figure 7.

The white of the negative space was too stark so I began to take the colour down and soften those areas. The bottom of the canvas wasnt working for me so I went a bit dramatic adding a bright sheer layer of Ultra Marine over the whole area. It started to look a bit like Abalone Shell or Paua as it is called in New Zealand. So I went with it and added in some yellow to smooth out the stark blue a bit. It was VERY blue so I went back and dripped some white paint from bottom to top and then from top to bottom. Next came more acrylic ink in magenta and violet, bubbly details in the top right hand corner more wiggly black lines that I highlighted with white and then four circular areas of white dotty shapes. 

The finishing touches to the fish - flashes of metallic silver and shadowy outlines to hint at more and more fish giving depth to the school and adding to the feeling of a tight knit boiling group of tiny crazy fish - completed the painting. All in all I was pretty happy with the finished product!  

The end product - the finished painting!

The finished painting is canvas stretched on a wooden frame and measures 65 x 75cm. 

See more of my work HERE

Hi Five .... Hibiscus!

Ever since I can remember, everywhere that I have lived my garden has always had a few hibiscus trees (except UK!) And my present garden is no exception we have hibiscus of all different colours and species. We have the single flower type along with double petal ones and the kind that looks like a Chinese lantern.

Over the years I have often included hibiscus in sketches for different pieces but for some reason or other they never make it to the finished work.

I have been wanting to put a hibiscus in my work for so long that this week I just went for it! 

I started by painting in a green background. Initially I was going for an abstract leafy look, but it ended up in a swirly pattern!

As I have mentioned before in previous posts I am not so good at realistic perspective so I really took my time studying the flowers in different lights, trying to get an idea of colour and depth.

I did do a pencil sketch and played with colour using coloured pencils - I used this sketch as the outline for the hibiscus on the canvas. 

I painted in the darkest areas of the flower around the base of the stamen and in the creases of the petals using Cobalt Violet paint. This colour is quite transparent and dries very dark - almost black.  So then I continued with a dark pink in Rose, trying to add form and contours with the brush strokes. My plan was that this initial laying down of the colours in light and dark would show through the next 'all over' layer....

As you can see above I started adding in some hints of blue and lighter shades of greens to the background here and there. 

Using the brush strokes as a starting point I started to define the swirls and wavy lines with a very fine brush and black paint. The lines looked too stark however so I found that smudging them with a finger gave a nice shadowy glow. The more smudging I did the darker the background became so I added some white and more lime green and yellow to the background colours.

I filled in the petals with a vibrant bright pink and added a stripe of orange down the center of each petal with touches of yellow midway for highlights to help add contour to the petals. I went back with my dark violet and added more depth to the center and a few veins to the petals. My petals were still looking a little flat so I tried to deepen the shadows by lightening areas of the petals with a lighter pink - at this point I threw caution to the wind and dabbed a little blue here and there and was happy with the  effect. I was scared to ruin what I had done so restraint myself from added too much detail (veins) in the petals.

I outlined one petal with a fine black line but wasn't happy with the way it made the flower 'pop' from the background so I outlined the whole flower with a charcoal pencil that I smudged with my finger especially around the bottom to create shadow and in the points at where the petals overlapped. And then painted each petal with a thicker black outline in paint. 

Lastly I finished the pollen bits at the end of the stamen in ochre, yellow and black and added a few hints of Rose -pink to the background. 

And here it is - the finished painting! 

20x20cm Acrylic on canvas. Prints are available on canvas and Giclee Paper in a variety sizes - simply drop me an email for more info. 

Visit my Facebook page to see more of my work  www.facebook.com/lionfish.seychelles

And.... The finished piece!

More to come soon.... I will give an explanation of my methods and techniques in a following post. 

But for now here it is! 

'Dans le jardin aujourd'hui No.3#'

This is the 3rd in a series of magical garden pieces. 

Mixed media textile art mounted on a wooden frame. 

20 x20cm approx 3cm relief (2D)

Created by layering assorted fabrics into pictures  (collage) and embellished with different textile techniques such as quilting, embroidery, beading and fabric dying

See the whole series on my page.

www.facebook.com/Lionfish.Seychelles

textile art piece created by Michelle Griffiths

Just a quickie to let you know what been up to lately....

Two of my small 2D textile/fiber art pieces sold on the opening night of the exhibition so I am getting busy on some new pieces to fill the empty wall space... Here is a in progress pic. 

Creamy dreamy Almond Milk.

I'm not a big fan of the taste of cows milk so am always on the look out for alternatives. On my little island most of the time it is difficult to even find soya milk and when you can it tends to be expensive. 

I use Coffeemate in my coffee but it tastes really bad in tea, so I when I don't have soya I use cows milk for tea but can't stand it in my coffee? Go figure... 

Other than in tea the only other time I use cows milk is in cooking (I find soya is not good for cooking) so a carton of cows milk lasts a looooooooong time in my house and more often than not ends up going lumpy and off. 

Recently I purchased an extremely expensive carton of Almond Milk. It was nice - but I found it watery and very almondy flavored it also had a sweet after taste that I didn't fancy too much - oh and did I mention OMG expensive! 

So yesterday when I went to check out a new Indian grocery store that a friend had recommended, I was delighted to find 500g bags of Almonds at a reasonable price. A while ago a pin on Pinterest had caught my eye about DIY almond milk so I decided to give it a go.

I soaked one cup of almonds in boiled (and cooled) water - with enough water to cover double the quantity of nuts overnight.

In the morning they had swelled to almost twice the volume and the water had turned a murky brown. I rinsed the almonds with fresh water. 

And then dug out my trusty blender from the back of the cupboard. 

In went the almonds with two cups of filtered water and whizzzzzz! I blended it for around a minute shells and all. It turned a thick creamy off white colour. 

I needed something to strain it in and remembered the pinterest had said use cheese cloth to squeeze the excess water out. The closest thing I have to cheese cloth was an old pareo/sarong that I used to wear at the beach so I cut a square from it, dipped it in boiling water for hygene's sake 😋 and lined a sieve with it. 

Next I poured in the whizzed almonds and let it drain drip by drip for a while - but it was taking too long and I have no patience, so I gathered up the corners careful to keep the mixture contained inside and twisted the top firmly but not too hard as I was cautious not to split the fabric with too much force. 

With gentle kneading twists the milky white liquid easily squeezed out of the mush. And I ended up with just under two cups of creamy dreaminess. It was delicious! So creamy - not sweet like the commercial store bought one and thick like full cream milk. The almond taste was so subtle and I was surprised there was no gritty floury feeling in the back of my throat as I find with soya milk. 

I am sold! 

But wait there's more......

I emptied the "cheesecloth" mushy nut mixture onto some baking paper, chopping up the lumps with a knife and put it in the oven on a low heat for 30mins to dry it out. After 15 mins I took it out to check it, chopped up the lumps a bit more and put it back for another 15mins. 

After 30mins total I took it out and let it cool completely then stored it in an air tight jar to use later. I can use it in a cake or a fruit crumble topping, I might even attempt some sort of pastry with it.  

 

I made a cup of tea using the almond milk and you know what? It wasn't bad. Im liking being able to make small quantities as and when I need it and the best thing is the nuts will last for ages. I keep the excess nuts in the freezer (because of the humidity and tropical climate) so will have an on-hand supply whenever I need them. I have yet to use the almond milk in cooking so when I try out a sauce or something I will let you know how it goes. But for now I'm gonna have to go soak some more nuts tonight because the almond milk was nice, I've drunk the lot already!!!