Preparations

Over the last week I have begun preparations for a body of work to be exhibited as part of Art in the Woods 2011. The event will show work by 20+ artists in a wide variety of media set in woodland near Holmfirth, West Yorkshire ('Last of the Summer Wine' country to those not familiar with the area). The woodland is mainly made up of coniferous plantation next to Holme Styles resevoir in Hade Edge

Art in the Woods will take place 11th to 26th June 2011, to coincide with Holmfirth Arts Festival but in the meantime I have lots of work to do in order to get my pieces ready in time. So I thought I would share my preparations towards creating a series of long fabric pieces (banners if you like, but I'm not keen on that word), which are inspired by my observations of the woods.

When I set out for the woods last week I had planned to do a series of timed observations of the site, using a piece of fabric for each hour, but due to some personal issues I had to change the way I approached this. Perhaps the rigid constraints of the clock are not appropriate for recording and observing a site in this way.

Bundles and scrolls of cyanotype coated cotton ready to take to the woods

Towards the woods

Exposing the cyanotype photogram

Sticks and stones and fir cones

As time went on I found the fabrics were heading off into the undergrowth more and more...

Until it felt like they were trying to escape into the woods.

These cyanotype prints will form the background for further print and stitch, which will form a montage of different observation and notes. Some of the prints were not very successful and I think might be due to some kind of alkaline residue on the fabric (old cotton sheets). But I'm taking this as all part of the process, it will still form an interesting backdrop for other images and words.

Back to work for me!