Category Archives: Figurative Art
Yellow
This piece was started by needle felting wool roving on cotton. I then sewed various free motion shapes on water soluble stabilizer and once the stabilizer was dissolved out I sewed them on over the felt.
The subject was inspired by a tree I saw while driving to my cottage.
Great Blue Heron
Last weekend I took a course given by Megan Cleland on needle felting animals. The course was given at Fibrefest in Almonte. It was a small class and Megan gave excellent instruction and demos. I chose to do a Great Blue Heron from one of the photographs taken on a morning walk. I thought I was finished when I left the class but since then I’ve done the back ground 3 times. I then removed a lot of it because it was too busy.
I’ve painted the heron in watercolours several times and that helped me in doing this picture. The felting is easier but takes longer to do even if you don’t remove what you’ve needle felted in place several times.
It is now pinned up on a wall so I can look at it and decide if there is anything else I need to add or change before I mount it.
Earth Goddess
My latest fabric sculpture is an Earth Goddess. She is inspired by the colours and shapes of the ochre quarries of Rousillon, France which I visited several years ago. There is no mining of the ochre now but you can visit an old quarry.
Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
I took this doll to the NIADA Conference in Asilomar, Pacific Grove, California, where I had a great time and met some wonderful doll artists.
In order to facilitate packing and transportation I used magnets to join the legs to the torso.
Back view of Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
I painted her with watercolours before adding the face features with pastel pencils. I painted absorbant ground on the base before painting it with the same watercolours.
Face Detail of Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
I spun the yarn for the hair on a drop spindle before sewing it to the head.
I randomly beaded the light parts of her torso, arms and legs.
Beading Detail on Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
She is named Poly because she has 6 fingers on each of her hands.
#30x30DirectWatercolor2018
I signed up to do the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge issued by Marc Taro Holmes. I was inspired by all those who posted their practice/preparatory pieces to do one of my own in May.
This is a direct watercolour done from a photo of myself and three friends. I wasn’t going for a likeness; my aim was to have them look like people.
Once June started I was in the midst of another art project with a deadline coming soon so I haven’t been doing much of anything else. However, I did another direct watercolour of one of my friends from the same photograph trying to get a likeness this time. I hope to get time to do the other and maybe myself as well.
This one looks more like Marla but the shape of the face is wrong.
This is a great exercise and I hope I get time to do some more before the month is up. In any case I am really enjoying the challenge of not drawing with a pencil first and I plan to do more of this.
A Bridge Not Too Far
The 5 span stone bridge at Pakenham is on one of the routes that I can take to get to my cottage. This needle felted landscape was done from a photograph I took last summer and was intended to be in a show entitled Canadian Landmarks. The show was in November and I have now just finished the piece.
Five
Some red roving had been staring at me for days, just asking to be needle felted into a piece.
I learned the technique of making the metal pieces from pop cans in a Hilary Rice workshop.
Circles
I finished this doll a little while ago. She is a version of the Tea Bags doll you can see here. I didn’t post it as I was busy working on things for the Almonte Fibrefest which was last weekend and Calabogie Artsfest which is coming up on October 15 & 16.
Circles
Cloth doll
I named her Circles because her jacket is a circle and because of the pattern in her dress. I didn’t have any lace for the bottom of the dress so instead of making an 80 Km round trip to the nearest store I made some using free-motion embroidery and built-in stitches on my sewing machine on water soluble stabilizer. It took longer than the trip to the store but I’m pleased with the result.
Detail of Face
The face is needle sculpted and painted with chalk pastels.
Tea Bags
This is a cloth doll made from recycled components.
Her clothing contains two different brands of tea bags (three different kinds of tea), parts of old jeans (they once were my favourite pair), a kilt and dental floss. The dental floss was dyed using Bombay Pigmented India Ink and is used for the hair.
The skin was painted with watercolours and the face was done with pastel pencils.
The doll was made in response to a challenge presented by All Dolled Up doll club.
Red Fox 2
A few weeks ago I posted a watercolour of a red fox and said that I might do it in felt.
Well I did and here’s the result.
Red Fox
Using the watercolour as a guide certainly helped the process.
