14 June 2016

Drawing Tuesday - ikat textiles at Brunei Gallery

Some of the textiles were amazingly complicated - and so skilful in their execution. It was the simple ones that attracted me and brought out the coloured pencils ("Laurentian", bought in Canada ... last century!) -
Drawing required a different kind of "system" than the weaving that had created the fabric in the first place. And a different kind of thinking about what was happening.
Some of the black dots had a white line through them - perhaps because that was where the thread holding the hank together during dyeing was tied - but why would other dots be elongated? Technical matters... Note how the back of the velvet (from Uzbekistan) is less contrasted, and how the pile reappears briefly in the twist in the loop.

Two hours happily spent "colouring". Then I had another look around and found, upstairs, pieces from Japan - including this waistcoat, my favourite piece in the entire exhibition -
a touch of red
Colour ... coloured pencils ... was so necessary!

Najlaa's patterning -
 Jo's little people in the windows -
 Carol's colour mixing -
 Sue's coat of many colours -
 Later, as we waited in the cafe for the after-lunch rain to stop, Sue didn't waste time but drew a few of the other customers -
The exhibition finishes on 25 June at 5pm and is well worth a visit.

2 comments:

Stitchinscience said...

Isn't that a superb exhibition? The skills of the weavers, particularly the double ikats must take years to perfect.

Lovely coloured drawings as well.

Charlton Stitcher said...

As always, such fun. I especially like the glimpse of Sue's drawings of the other customers. I find the drawing of people so difficult, and I'm not sure why. I envy her ease!