Summer haze in paint

10 May 2011 2 Comments

by starowl in Art Tags: abstract art, art, bamboo fabric, bamboo silk, fabric paint, green, inspiration, meddow, medow, painting, scarf, summer, summer days, yellow, yellow green

Hazy summer on handpainted on bamboo silk

My last fabric order included some bamboo silk.  I’m planning to use some of this as a lining but this leaves me with spare fabric.  It’s very soft, flowing  material so I thought it might make a scarf.   The fabric is plain white so I decided to add colour and texture by painting it.   I normally use opaque fabric paint to paint on cotton and wasn’t sure if this would work well as there are specialist paints for silk but not for bamboo silk.  I decided to water down the fabric paint to try and keep the material’s softness.  I wanted the result to look like it flowed like the material does.

I decided on an abstract green, yellow and white design inspired by the long hot hazy days of the summer where the grass becomes patched with yellow in places.   I love that time of year with meadows of tall grass waving in the wind and fields of cut grass interspersed by splashes of yellow and white from daisies, buttercups and dandelions.   It reminds me of hours relaxing outside, maybe reading or making daisy chains or just lying on the grass in the sun.

The fabric had a slightly different texture when it was finished but it was only a little stiffer than before.  The painting came out really well, with spots of yellow and white and longer brush strokes of green on a diluted yellowy green background.  It reminds me of dreamy lazy hot days.

Fring of hand painted bamboo silk fabric

P. S. The fabric is very transparent so I had difficulties getting the colours/details of the painting to show as well as they do in reality.