Hamner Hills

Tidying up I found an old canvas that I had used when practising colour mixes with oil paints, it has to be at least 10 years old. The colours remind me of the hills in Hamner, South Island.

Using some left skeletons picked up on Mt Ngongataha, and using textile ink, painted them yellow, red, and orange.

Once dried the ink has given the leaves a little more strength, but using black tulle, collaged them as autumn trees to the canvas background.

Found some turquoise ribbon, and laid 3 strips inform of the leaf “trees. Felt the landscape need green, so chopped up a green fabric scrap into to bits, and arranged as shrubs on the right.

Twirled some ‘jazz” novelty yarn as grass/ flax at the front, but I am not sure if it is lost in the colours.

Sewed everything down with orange / yellow variegated thread, and managed to break 2 needles in the process. Perhaps the machine doesn’t like sewing through canvas?
Outlined the leaf shapes, do they look like trees? Used the skeletons as a guide and sewed over them for trunks and branches.

Looks a bit messy, but I like the trees.