Experimental Stitch-Drawing

I have finished my big landscape piece.

I had to leave it unfinished when I went to Lanzarote, then I had other work when I got back that stopped me looking at it for about another month. When I eventually got back to it, I decided it was almost done anyway. I spent about 2 days tinkering, then declared it done. It was probably a good thing that circumstances gave me distance, or I may have overworked it. It's always a challenge to know when to stop. I'm still not 100% sure it's finished, but it is definitely the time to stop:

I was going to start another big landscape, but changed my mind at the last minute. The big pieces take such a long time and I wanted to create space for myself to experiment more freely first. So, instead of another major, representational piece, I have been working on smaller, totally abstract squares.

I used scraps of fabric in conjunction with my organzas. On the red one, I also made use of some threads that I had to pull off the frayed edge of a piece of fabric that was tangling things in my stash. I threw the threads in the bin, then pulled them out again - they were such a gorgeous rich colour and I love the completely different texture they bring to the piece.

I have always found abstract painting and drawing very difficult. I am interested in the way that the very slow speed of this work makes it a little easier for me. I think it may be because I have longer to digest as I go along.