I had already downloaded the two Van Gogh paintings 'Starry night' and 'Starry night over the Rhone' and read the text that Van Gogh had written about the paintings to his friend Boch. He was an ill man and both of these were made whilst in two mental institutions.
I made some small sketchy images of stars and swirls in my notebook, one pen on paper and one metallic pencils on black cartridge paper
Page 36.
Metallic powdersUsing an embossing stamp pad and three different colours of powder, I printed onto a piece of cotton and then stitched them with a result that I was not really impressed with.
Page 37. Stamp pad and embossing powder
Fusible webbing
I then did another piece with embossing powder glued to a piece of felt and stitched that covering it with a sheer and stitching down with an automatic pattern and some free swirls
Page 37. Embossing powder with fusible webbing under sheer
Experiment
Using swirls from Starry Night and to create light and dark, I used layered metallic sheers with embossing powders beneath and stitched swirls then burnt back with the heat gun
Page 37. Light and dark with layers and swirls
Melt pot
I have a melt pot but confess to never having used it. So I had a bit of a play with that.
Page 37. Brown crinkled paper with two colours of embossing powders melted with a heat gun
Page 38. Embossing powder melted and formed over a stamp pad then gilded with Treasure Gold
Page38. Dyed felt stitched with automatic pattern, cords and melted embossing powder dipped stars
I'm not to sure about the fragility of the melted powder, found it really difficult to dip the felt stars and then found that it had a tendency to crack, so had to be very careful when stitching over.
Bronze powders
I used bronze powders onto brown paper and used them in a starry piece. with a stabiliser, midnight blue satin, torn up gilded papers, die cut stars, strips of yellow satin, swirls of trilobal nylon and covered with layers to represent hills all stitched down under a piece of dark blue net embellished with some free embroidered stars.
Page 39. Very starry night!
Gilding waxes
These do create lovely effects. I glued two pieces of Indian paper together and when dry, crumpled them up then flicked paint onto the top surface (and the floor and the table even though covered in newspaper) and when dry, gilded with Treasure Gold and other gilding waxes
Page 39. Indian papers, glued, crumpled and gilded
Then I used some photocopy paper that had previously been wet and crumpled and dried and using some pastel shades of gilding wax, created a soft effect on paper
Page 40. Pastel gilding waxes on photocopy paper
Brown paper was brushed with red and green inks then gilded with gold gilding wax
Page 40. Brown painted paper with gold gilding wax
Space dyed felt was then stitched with free 'starry' lines and swirls the cable stitched with gold cord and then rubbed over with a gold gilding wax
Page 41.
And finally in my little set of gilding wax samples, hot glue gun was swirled over a previously transfer painted source paper and rubbed with pastel shades of wax.
P 41. Hot glue gun swirls with gilding wax.
Resolved Sample - shadow work
I wonder if people would 'enjoy' the paintings so much if they realised what mental turmoil and impoverishment that Van Gogh suffered?
The image holds lots of interest for the viewer. The dark left hand bottom area where he has placed the cypress tree leads the eye in three directions - along to the village with the lights and the church spire; then to the hills and possibly snowy hills above them and finally up to the swirling sky, the stars and the moon which is bright and surrounded by bright yellow, a strong contrast to the darks in the tree. So the lines are directional, lower left to upper right but with lots to look at as the eye is drawn upwards.
I made some drawings and wanted to incorporate both 'Starry Night' and 'Starry Night over the Rhone' into my resolved sample.
P 42. My series of sketches and pastel development
I had thoughts on making a collaged piece using the two images mixed together in sections and printed off both the images, cut them into squares and re-assembled them taking a photograph, printed the image and then photocopied it onto printable metal as I wanted to see whether the metal would stitch and whether I could make it provide a reflective surface if placed behind the stitched piece which would be burnt through to reveal the metal.
P 43. Collage of both printed images
P 43. Stitched onto a metal backing as a test
I decided that this was too messy and the machine wasn't too happy stitching heavyish metal, so I decided to use the metal after I had made the fabric and stitched piece using a simple edging stitch to hold the two together.
I used two layers of water soluble and between them sandwiched little snippets of sheers representing the colours from my final drawing, so lights and darks, the moon a piece of metallic fabric, the reflected light on water strips of yellow satin, the stars of the Plough gilded brown paper and the smaller stars gilded flakes.
As the brown paper gilded stars were covered in a metallic substance, I knew that the water dissolving the water soluble layers wouldn't affect them. Then a grid was stitched to trap all the pieces and the water soluble was washed out.
When dry, the piece was stitched heavily in the lower left with metallic threads to represent the dark shadow of the cypress tree from Starry night and layers of sheers were added, brighter blue where the clouds are swirled and darker to represent the shaded areas of the water where there was no light reflection in 'Starry night over the Rhone'. Swirls in a blue variegated thread were heavily free embroidered under the final layer of sheer.
The sheers were stitched down to hold the layers using the variegated blue thread in swirly free stitching and then the piece was burnt through to partially reveal the cypress tree representation, the lights from the town and the swirls in the sky. Embossing powder was melted and added to the stars of the Plough and the moon.
Finally, The printed metal collage of the two paintings was placed behind the stitched piece and attached to the main piece around the edge. The bright reflection of the metal can be seen through the burnt areas of the sheers.
P 44. The finished resolved sample.
Evaluation
On reflection, I am pleased with this piece, as at last I seem to be a bit better at taking an idea and thinking/creating it more abstractly. The thinking, drawing and re-thinking of the sample helped me to arrive at a decision as to which tonal values, contrasts and techniques I should choose to get the result I have planned.
An enjoyable chapter, trying new techniques and products.
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