New Hooked Wool Drawings

2015 #1, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 18 x 13 1/2 in.

When I first began this series of hooked wool drawings in 2010, my images were all centered on the linen surface, like sketches in a notebook. I later began using the entire surface, creating a different kind of energy. With this group of four I thought I'd stay with the centered image. Above are two ovals, one in paint and one hooked.

2015 #2, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 18 x 13 3/4 in.

Here are more ovals––or should I call them ellipses?––arranged horizontally. Three of them are painted in different yellow hues, the fourth, the smallest one is hooked in wool.

2015 #2 wool choices

After I'd painted the ovals, I wasn't sure I wanted to use the color of wool I'd originally decided on. I can't even remember which one it was of the three, but I did end up using the color in the middle because of its assertive contrast. It often happens that a color of wool I'd picked out for a drawing looks wrong once the shapes are painted.

2015 #3, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 15 x 18 1/2 in. 

In 2015 #3 there is a hooked line, a hooked shape, and a painted shape; the shapes are different reds, the line a greenish yellow.

2015 #4, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 17 x 13 in.

As in 2015 #3, #4 has the elements of hooked shape, painted shape, and line, but in this case the line encloses the painted shape.

2015 #4 detail

This closer look gives a better idea of the way the different surfaces play off each other. The textures make a kind of mini-relief sculpture whose physical presence contains a lot of the meaning (such as it is) of the work.