Breakthrough Process- Part 4 (Painting)

So here you see them: the Quilt; the Toile; the Sample;stretched on drawing boards with masking tape reading for painting, my 'Storyboard' of reference material:journal quilts , sketches and Photoshop experiments prepared. Now to take and deep breath and plunge in!
I took less photos than usual along the way in my haste to finish. A pity, as they often prove useful to identify the point at which things go Horribly Wrong.

I started with the 'Toile' (about 12 inches square). Besides the Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic I normally use , I was also experimenting with Golden fluid acrylics, especially their interference colours, mixing them with acrylic medium to achieve a more watercolour-like effect. I also used micaceous iron oxide in the foreground for the glint of the gravel.

The Toile The Sample

The Quilt - in progress

More than anything I've done so far , apart from the inserts of fabric as the 'breakwaters' this was about painting, with the gessoed stitched old durham quilts as my canvas.
The 'toile' worked really well ( Ian 'baggsed' it for his study) , probably because of the speed with which it was done, but I struggled with the full size quilt (even though it's only 60 x60 cm).
I tried hard not to overwork it but the problem was in balancing the different areas, having to go back over and adjust. It ended up more photographic and representational than I'd wished but as Ian said, " People will like it for the reasons you don't".

I enjoyed the challenge though and I love the texture that stitched textiles bring to the painting process - this area of foam was particularly successful. Paper and canvas seem very tame by comparison now!