building a visual vocabulary - bibliography

I have had to work in very odd ways since a family bereavement . The croft shop and gardens have demanded so much energy and time. However I am back on line having worked enough over the summer to save up and buy a new computer . It now feels as if the OCA road has been rejoined.

Assignment one has gone off in the red bag and I shall try now to construct a coherent learning journal for section 2 - building a visual vocabulary - from the scattered notes I have made over the last weeks.

Here is part 1 of the the bibliography:



Colour meditations SGJ Ouseley - see assignment 1 bibliography for details and comments



The elements of colour -Itten - Van Nostrand Reinhold Company 1970

isbn 0442240384



Lots of notes from this book which arrived towards the end of my practical work for this section . I had to get it 2nd hand from the USA. Now re reading it for the third time because there is so much information that I am overwhelmed by it all.

a. In a chapter "subjective timbre" from Itten's larger work - the art of colour 1961, Itten calls for personal feeling - expression from within - "To help a student discover his subjective forms and colors is to help him discover himself." pg 5



b.Again the Bauhaus connection - how do I explore this subject more ?



c. colors - a capacity for spiritual and mystical expression . Also the last chapter on the importance of colour and form e.g red and square - a solid earthed image I find this important.

We visited an exhibition by Lysie Stevens held locally " A tangle of sea and shore" She is trained in Scotland and the exhibition was a series of paintings inspired by Wester Ross where she has used shape, texture and colour to produce more abstract landscape works. We even bought a picture - dominated by earth browns and red with diagonal orange gash across the work.



d.color aesthetics may be approached from three directions

impression (visually)

expression (emotionally)

construction (symbolically)

pg 13



e. for the Chinese white is a color connected to mourning - an escorting of the departed into the kingdom of purity.

"once a theme has been conceived, the design must follow that primary and ruling conception. If color is the chief vehicle of expression, composition must begin with color areas, and these will determine the lines. He who draws lines first and then adds color will never succeed in producing a clear, intense color effect. Colors have dimensions and directionality of their own, and delineate areas in their own way."

pg 18



I want to use this phrase to reflect upon the embroidery I produced at the time of bereavement. I had originally thought to use earth warm colours which reflected the original source material but found myself unable to follow that and used instead paler colours and a great deal of white and silver. Itten's idea about what happens if colour is constrained by the primary construction of lines resonates, as I felt tension when embroidering, wanting the colours to go in different directions to the original drawing.



f. gray on coloured squares - seeing tinges of complementary colours as the brain / eye tries to restore harmony by seeking complementary colours. This idea has been disturbing to my understanding of colour and how I use it and I have not been able to take the idea further yet but need to highlight it and return to Itten again and again for help in this.





Complete guide to creative embroidery - Beaney and Littlejohn See section 1 bibliography for details and comments.



Complex cloth Jane Dunnewold - see section 1 bibliography for comments and details.