BLOG 119

I have been wrestling with design ideas this week, to come up with a possible solution to a group challenge. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Chester Ps & Qs are having an exhibition in Chester Cathedral next year. Here is the advert; jot it down so you don’t forget!

Chester Heritage Quilt Exhibition
celebrating
30 years of Chester Patchworkers and Quilters
in
The Chapter House of Chester Cathedral
Tuesday 26th February 2013
11.30am – 3.30pm
Wednesday 27th February to Saturday 2nd March 2013
10am – 3.30pm
£3 entry and accompanied children free
All proceeds to Cathedral

I have already been for a 2-hour visit to the cathedral and I have taken photographs and made sketches. I went with a clear and open mind, to look at what was available for inspiration and to record in some way what I saw. I started by drawing, badly I have to say, but whilst I was drawing, I was actually looking and absorbing detail. My sketches are very basic but, because I have done them, I know for certain that my eye followed the shape I was trying to record. Nowadays we are blest with cameras which record and store, but I believe they prevent a person from looking properly. You only have to see a group of tourists get off a bus at any beauty spot, cameras come out, hands go up in front of the face and they see what they are looking at through a 2” x 3” screen. Then it’s snap, snap, snap and back on the bus again. In my opinion, that’s recording not looking.

Here are my basic sketches:

 

                   Basic sketches

 I came back home with my head buzzing with all manner of inspiration but no nearer knowing what I was going to do. So, I started by reviewing the sketches and pictures, and made a flow chart with Cathedral in the centre and words radiating from it.

 

                                Flow chart

Because of the rigidity and loftiness of the structure of the cathedral, I started to think in terms of being enclosed and uplifted. I played around with the idea of a box first; perhaps an open box built somehow from the materials I had seen there but with colour/energy flowing from it.
 

 

                             Boxes?

Then I had the bright idea of a tree, rooted in centuries of faith and flourishing and growing upwards. The tree would reach towards the light which is a traditional religious concept. And so the doodling with a pencil started, on my lap, in front of the TV, almost subconsciously.

 

                            Trees?

I got distracted at one stage when I remembered that I had a huge, already quilted watercolour picture, made years ago, and I wondered if I could adapt this to meet the challenge; it would save a lot of time after all! There was a pathway, leading towards a sunset on the horizon so more religious analogies there. All it needed was an open gate and Bob’s your uncle!! I looked at it and acknowledged its potential but decided not to use it for this particular project.

 

                             A diversion?

So back to the trees to see what developed. The trees gradually became more stylised and I started to see potential in the final design. There is still a lot to do mentally before I make a start and draft the scaled up, working pattern.
 

 

                                     More trees

 

                         Final design idea