Making ‘Loch in the sky’
Trying out a new subject can be a really good way to get out of an artistic rut or experiment with different art styles. I personally love looking at floral details for embroideries and paintings, but thought it was time to challenge myself to use the mixed medium for a landscape subject.
My partner and I love to go into the Galloway hills enjoying the peace & sense of openness, some of the pictures from these recent walks seemed like a good place to start for a landscape subject.
This particular location is known for lochs higher up in the hills where water has gathered to create serene pools and stony granite beaches. It was so magical and looking back at images taken, I was amazed at how much colour there was. Even though it was the middle of January, there are rich reds and oranges in the dry grass, burgundy tones in the Heather & velvety blues of the distant hills. Playing with saturation and vibrancy of images is a great way to view subjects from a new perspective, maybe even try making your image black and white if you just want to focus on shapes and textures.
Beginning this embroidery painting, I planned out the scene in my sketchbook looking at the colour placement before painting directly onto the fabric with watercolours. Not all the colours are true to life of course, but they don’t have to be. I also find having a colour wheel close to hand can help with colour selection when looking to add focus and contrast to an area.
For the sky and reflections of the water, I painted in just a few small details of the clouds & picked out the ripples on the water with stitches. Leaving areas untouched seemed to help to create space and a feeling of calm. For the hills and foreground, I tried enhancing certain areas with stronger colours in embroidery initially using two strands of cotton floss, but quickly I went down to one. At this the scale (a 6inch hoop) I found it easier to layer up texture and add small details with finer stitches
Overall, it was a really nice challenge to step away from my usual close ups of flowers and I can’t wait to explore the subject further tackling new views & playing around with colour and areas of detail. My Etsy shop is where you’ll find my latest pieces available to buy and on Instagram you can see more embroideries in progress.
Thanks for reading through my blog on how I created this piece. I hope it’s inspired you to take a step out of your usual subject area or you’ve simply enjoyed reading about the process. Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or want to share your thoughts.
Zoe x