The Leverets - in Formation
The Leverets - in Formation
Sunday, 31 July 2016
Here they are! Now you see them......now you don’t......
The Leverets are indeed finished, after a short rest they came off the pillow and my worries were over! There were no odd loops or snagged threads. The colours of the Leveret’s form, where they nested, were performing exactly as planned, with the shaded leaves of the form dappled by the sunlight filtering through. They, and I, have just returned from a wonderful week in Indianapolis, where I was an invited tutor at the IOLI Convention held there this year.
As can be seen, these three Leverets share their ears, following in the tradition of the Splitting Hares* but why, I’ve been asked, haven’t I worked the Leverets in lace?**
Well, many years ago some of my favourite illustrations in the Rupert Annuals I’d been given over several Christmases, were the ‘find the missing objects’ puzzles, where the objects to be found would be drawn as the negative shapes formed by other parts of the picture. An example might be to ‘Find the Fishes’ in an illustration of a stream flowing by a tree, the ‘fishes’ might be discovered in the tree, their negative shapes formed by the outlines of the branches. This is an image that has remained attached to my poor brain cell ever since.
The use of positive and negative shapes was further reinforced when I was studying at Art College - one of the best tricks when drawing life studies was to concentrate on drawing the negative shapes and angles between the limbs, rather than getting bogged down with details. It adds another perspective or point of reference, another point of view (or even three points!) - which is what I was aiming for with this piece of lace.
Many of the ‘Three Hares’ examples*** found in churches in England and Europe are seen in the form of ceiling bosses, an architectural detail covering and joining the roof supporting arches. These stone ceiling bosses were often richly carved and painted, with with foliage and fantastic beasts......and so I chose to depict the form of the Leverets form (or nest) as a nest, or ceiling boss shape hiding the Leverets within.
*See blog: February 2105
** I have - Lace, by its very nature is full of holes, these just happen to be Leveret shaped holes!
***Three Hares Project - for more information, search www.threehares.net