Playing with Design

I'm fascinated with pattern. The other day, I saw a program about the Aborigines in Western Australia showing some of their work being exhibited in an arts festival. It was very distinctive with more line and pattern than drawings and paintings I had seen before. I found them to be quite beautiful. It was the inspiration for this series of drawings:

Preliminary idea sketches--very quick and spontaneous. Just enough to get an idea down.


Further expansion of the first ideas with more developed thoughts with the inclusion of points in space; exploring the impact of just one more line element. (I really like the top one.)






Almost going over the edge.













Seeing how the design expands and changes with color.












Another variation: Working vertically and expanding an earlier design with limited color, changing the appearance with a deeper color change.And the dimension of the element of points




































And a bit more tightly worked horizontal design with the tiles and first lines placed, then a double line and the added element of multi-colored areas. Note that the tiles have now been taken to areas of color of space with the removal of the bottom and top borders of the white line areas.








These ideas could work as well in a large wall painting or in clay. Any one of the individual tiles in any of the drawings could be taken out of the arrangement and used as a great tile design. Or, used together would be wonderful on a large tray or wallpiece.


Sidenote: After I worked on these drawings, I went out onto the patio to read. I looked up from my book and saw this: Who says our environment doesn't have an impact on us?