A New Textile: "Red/Blue Ground"

Red/Blue Ground, hand dyed wool on linen, 11 x 10 inches.

This piece, of triangles coming to an off-centered point, is the third in my series of figure/ground images, after Purple/Green Ground and Pink/Yellow Ground. My goal is to have the color-shapes have equal weight so that none take priority as positive or recede as negative space. I feel very happy about Red/Blue because when I look at it, the triangles push forward and back, first the blue taking precedence, then the red, in an active visual dance. I had a bit of trouble balancing the color because at first the top red shape was too cool in color and the intense blue took over. I pulled out some of the strips of red wool and replaced them with strips of a lighter and warmer red from the end of the piece of dyed wool. You can see how they add some life to the red, which helps it counteract the intensity of the blue.

I also like the way the two red points meet, and the blue almost, but not quite. It creates an interesting tension that almost flips into narrative.