As I look outside at the twinkly dusting of ice across every surface, it seems strange to think back to our summer project. But actually, having to work on a little self-reflection is a useful exercise and one which I'm hoping will aide me as I put the final touches to my Year 2 first term project.
During the summer, we were tasked with exploring a 'Sense of Place', somewhere that we associated with and felt strongly about; and why we felt those emotions. With a family history linked to the game of cricket, and knowing that I would be spending most of the following three months at a cricket ground, it was a natural choice.
Cricket is a very traditional English sport and lends itself well to iconic images. I spent a lot of my time sketching the local ground, and all those typical Tudor pavillions, scoreboards and boundary ropes:
And then of course there are the balls! Gold print on red leather, casting shadow upon sun dried grass, under a grey blue sky - a combination just crying out for acrylic paints.
Luckily my son had a collection of used corkies, and I loved the way the leather had ripped, torn and worn, giving a lovely patterned effect.
I tried out lots of different techniques while simply sitting at the local cricket ground and observing. First pencil sketches and fineliner; but also watercolour and pencil crayon. Cricket grounds are such beautifully preserved places, and often in the most stunning locations. This painting is of a ground in Asia, a completely different colour palette of dusty pink ground and misty grey Himalayan backdrop.
The problem with exploring this project is that it was so easy to go off at a tangent. There are so many roads that I could have taken this project down. For example, I considered dyes and stains, after attending a fascinating lecture by textile artist Alice Fox, who uses natural dyes in her work. Grass stains and red leather rubs on cream flannel would have been interesting.
However, I realised that the cricket ground gives me a sense of place, simply because it offers a peaceful sanctuary, perfectly manicured grass, swirling clouds in a (usually) blue sky. To attempt to capture this, I experimented with acrylic paint mixed with a fabric medium on cotton, and just let myself paint freestyle.
But I also explored geometric shapes. The cricket ground is always so neatly marked out into squares and stripes of alternating greens.
I attempted this patchwork of shapes until my sewing machine broke [note to self to use more reliable equipment].
And I also enjoyed the 'safety' of a simple stitched picture.
As always, finding that balance between going wild, and reining it in is tricky. In the future I would like to explore the more commercial idea of a set of prints using cricket imagery sketched in black on a background of colour. I'll add it to the list!
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