Monday, December 12, 2011

Silk Wisteria, painting on silk

I had so much fun with this one, I think I will need to do another silk painting really soon.  This one has my favorite color combination - purple and lime green.  Wisterias have such beautiful and showy flowers.  I've always wanted one in our yard but we don't really have a spot for it.  They can get fairly large.  As they get old, their trunk structure is very interesting.  Fortunately, two of our neighbors have them in their front yards so I get to enjoy them each spring when they are blooming.

Silk Wisteria
Image Size 15" x 15.5"
Silk dyes on silk
Stretched on archival board but unframed

11 comments:

  1. Il me tarde de revoir fleurir les glycines!...
    Magnifique réalisation... Une éminente fraîcheur et une grande délicatesse ressortent de votre travail. Je vous félicite. Vous êtes talentueuse.
    Gros bisous à vous et un grand merci pour votre gentil message.

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  2. Also my favorite color palette (blue, green, purple)! This is so stunning, Nancy! One of these days I'm going to be able to buy one of your pieces, I swear it. So many to love, it will be hard to choose!

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  3. I really love the way the background is a bit blurred with the wisteria flowers popping in clarity up front. Do you block out the white color before painting the background? It's just beautiful.

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  4. Merci Martinealison

    Thank you Sherry. You are my biggest supporter and I really appreciate it.

    Thank you Robin. Yes, I put the resist (white lines) on the silk first, then paint the background and paint the foreground last unless the background is darker. I try to paint the lighter colors first in case my resist lines fail. I use a water soluble resist and if I have an area that is weak, it can dissolve if I get too much water close to it. By painting the lighter colors first, if the resist does fail, I can fix it after I've painted the lighter color and where the color has migrated into the area that it doesn't belong, it is covered by the darker color and voila, no mistake. If I paint the darker color first and it goes into an area that it doesn't belong, it won't be covered by the lighter color.
    This one was painted on silk satin, which is the most beautiful to me because of the shimmer, but the resist tends to have more weak spots because the fabric is thicker and sometimes the resist doesn't penetrate through it. It's a little more frustrating using this fabric but it is so beautiful, I can't stop myself.
    Of course, once they are framed, much of that shimmer isn't seen unless the light hits it just right. I could frame them stretched over a canvas and not frame them with glass but the thought of all of that dust would drive me crazy.

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  5. This is sooo wonderful Nancy! Loved the colors and the composition!

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  6. Thank you Prerana. It was a really fun project. Once I started it, I couldn't stop.

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  7. So beautiful...so delicate!!! I love the colors of these flowers..well done, Nancy!!

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