Untitled (Lapis and Rose)

Margaret Ballantyne is a fibre artist who believes cloth is integral to everything we do. Her love and fascination for weaving shows in Lapis and Rose. This piece is from a larger series based on colour, patterns and linear repetition. The technique used in Lapis and Rose is what she calls 16 harness double cloth- which is basically 2 layers of cloth, wove and diagonally connected. Before the actual weaving process, she paints 2 layers separately. Ballantyne than draws images onto the wall as a guide for each layer. Once the layers are painted, she weaves them, consequently, the image created are zigzag lines. The paint used by Ballantyne is watered down acrylic. The metallic used in Lapis and Rose promotes colour mixing because of its reflectivity. When the 2 layers are woven together, it appears as though the lines are also woven.

Colour and atmospheric effect are what interests the artist. Her interest in atmospheric quality has lead her to work with a series of landscapes, where two abstract landscape images are superimposed creating double image landscapes. Bianca D'Angelo-Cerny, 1994.