NTAQ Meeting for August

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

     Last Monday, my friends/artists of NTAQ met at my condo for our August meeting.  This time I had put forth the challenge of "Art Nouveau".  Many, including myself, found this to be a bit of a tough challenge to depict!  I had given a list of Art Nouveau artists to choose from (or they could go out on their own).  I chose for my artist Mary Fraser Tytler Watts, a woman who, with her artist husband, worked in various styles...Art Nouveau, Celtic art, architecture, but what interested me about Mary was her activity as an early suffragette in England. I kind of strayed from the Art Nouveau theme and picked up on her Celtic designs instead.  She was the architect and artist for her husband's family mortuary.  I chose one of the columns which I found appealing.

The Columns I chose and some of the fabric I used to create my challenge.

The portion of the column I emphasized

I actually graphed out my design instead of just stitching improvisationally.

It ended up larger than I usually do 30" x 42"

To create the look of the vines, I am doing a lot of chain stitch by hand.
(Not finished yet)

At our meeting we all shared our challenges.

Wendy took her design from a stained glass window.

Kay liked the trees on a book cover and was also influenced by the color of a particular type of Aspen.

Heather was inspired by a rose in a stained glass window.

Bethany said hers was a bit generic, not influenced by anything in particular.

Andrea's was taken from the curlycue pattern seen in many Art Nouveau works.

A fun meeting as usual...after sharing all our stuff, we went to a new restarurant in the Shops of Clearfork which is very near me...so many new places to eat!!!  We chose "Fix", a very nice lunch had by all.  (And I want to apologize for my dreadful form on this blog.  I am having trouble with making paragraphing and captions with pictures to work so bear with me! I also do not know why some of my lines are highlighted!! I need a good tutorial!!!)