Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Background Material

With my new KMBW series of simple still lifes, I've found myself thinking that I want to have options beyond a white background. So I decided to take a field trip to the fabric store.

Let me start by saying that I do not sew and never have. So this was pretty much virgin territory for me. Have you been to a fabric store lately? I was amazed!! So many different fabrics! Shiny ones and soft ones and fuzzy ones. Prints and solids. And the colors - holy cow! They even had the cotton fabrics arranged by color so as I walked down the aisle I saw reds then oranges then yellows... Loved that!


These are the fabrics I purchased. The red one I have in mind for a specific project outside of the KMBW series. The solids satisfied my need for simple colored backgrounds for the series. The blue-ish, purple one with the vines I thought would be fun to paint draped and folded. And the dark purple one...ah, well, I just couldn't pass it up. It was shiny and pretty and called out to me. Can you say impulse buy?

One great thing about the cotton fabrics is that there was a whole array of 18 inch by 24 inch precut squares for a reasonable price. It was so nice to pick up little squares instead of lugging big bolts of fabric around the store. And I think they are the perfect size for my still life set ups.

So if you paint still lifes and haven't been to a fabric store recently, I highly recommend the trip. I can't wait to create set-ups using my new fabrics. And since I've told myself I can't go back until I use most of what I just bought, I had better get busy painting!

4 comments:

Jennifer Rose said...

I love fabric stores almost as much as art stores :D The one that is in Port Dover where I lived is huge! Could spend all day in there and not see everything.

Stacy said...

Jennifer, I agree, I felt the same kind of excitement in the fabric store that I get in the art store. Amazing for someone who doesn't sew!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh, Little Sister, such a pity that you haven't been tempted by fabric stores before this. Think of all the fun you've been missing...

BTW, those cute little squares are for quiltmaking. They are sometimes called fat quarters because they are a little larger than a quarter yard. I happen to have a huge stash, if you'd like to borrow some.

Stacy said...

Denise, I actually guessed that my fabric squares were meant for quilters. Little did the fabric people know that artists would love them too! I'll have to check out your stash of "fat" quarters over thanksgiving. Might as well make it a fat weekend all around. :D LOL