A step into the surreal and reviving the forgotten.

I was pottering around the other day on a rare occasion of having a bit of time to hand, oh how I love that feeling and having the time to think and let the mind wonder. I had caught up on all my jobs and had spent a couple of days creating a photo book of Barcelona, which I had thoroughly enjoyed doing and I wasn't back to my other job until later in the week. With this time I began to think about some of the work I had started or maybe re-developing some other ideas when I remembered about a piece of forgotten embroidery I'd started way back in Feb/March last year.

I had torn an image out of a magazine that documented the demise of an old building in America. It had caught my eye because of the colours within the image and also the way it had deteriorated. I did a drawing and used mixed media to get across the textures within the image and had thought there was more to be done with it. So I had started this embroidery. However as with some things it got put aside, partly because I'd got stuck on an element and partly because other work called. It then languished in my sewing cupboard for months, until this free day I had.

The images below show what I managed to do in the process of a day and a bit. I had discovered a technique through a friend and I had been wanting to use it on a project and why I had not thought of this particular piece at the time I do not know. Anyway thanks to that I've now filled in the main image and now need to embellish it's surroundings so it's not floating on the cloth alone.

 Copyright Ballistic Owl 2013

Copyright Ballistic Owl 2013

Perhaps as well I'd been inspired and reminded of it by our recent visit to Dali's Museum in Figueres. These images are from the museum and show Dali's most popular surrealist style of morphed images and distorted objects. Perhaps in my subconscious my clock was sitting and just waiting for the right sort of inspiration to revive it.

 Dali: self portrait with grilled bacon.

 Dali: Two bedside tables and a bed ferociously attacking a cello.

 Dali: scene with his famous distorted clocks.

I loved our time at the museum and discovered that Dali did so much more than just the famous clocks and alien creatures. He also painted in a more classical style and enjoyed optical illusion imagery which makes the viewer stop a while to discover more. 

Well I'm not promising optical illusions, but I will work into my clock piece more and enjoy a taste of the surreal world.

Creative spectacular

Happy New Year to all my fellow bloggers and followers! I hope you all had a great festive period and are now raring to go and be creative in the year ahead.

Christmas time for us, as with many people is a busy time and we piled on the miles as well as a few pounds as we travelled the country seeing our family and friends. Now I'm home and the clothes have been unpacked and washed it is time to turn  my creative head on and get some drawings and ideas flowing.

It was a significant birthday for me just before Christmas and as a real treat we flew out to Barcelona for a week and had a fantastic time. I've loved Gaudi's work ever since our art history lecturer did a presentation on him and have always wanted to go and see it all for real.

My poor camera and probably poor husband were taken all round the buildings that I most wanted to see. For me it was a feast for the eyes, everywhere you looked there was an interesting piece of architecture or a fascinating detail. A VERY small selection of my photographs are below.

 The Passion facade at Sagrada Familia

 Casa Batllo

 Ceiling in the living room at Casa Batllo

 Gorgeous windows at Sagrada Familia

 Chimney on Palau Guell

Surreal art at the Dali museum

So now with renewed creative vigour I have tidied my table in the studio, so I can actually work on it and will put together a mood board and start drawing. I have been so busy on the run up to Christmas with my other job that Ballistic Owl and my drawing have been a little neglected, but I will redress the balance. After seeing all the spectacular work of Gaudi and his sources of inspiration I may even visit some old favourite topics with renewed enthusiasm and I'm itching to get started.

I also have a bundle of fabric that was printed last year for the embroidery show and I'm now gathering thoughts as how to use it and then hopefully sell the finished article. So any suggestions as to what I could do with it would be great.

So if you are ever stuck for a holiday destination and you've never been to Barcelona, I would highly recommend it and make sure have a big enough memory card in your camera!!