Ian’s fish

A while back I was chatting to Ian Riach, a local sculptor and woodcarver, and I admired his T-shirt, which I took to be printed with a line of fishes. He pointed out that they weren’t fish but surfboards.

Ian and his T-shirt

But I thought fish were a lot more interesting than surfboards, so I drew and digitised 14 or 15 fish to be stitched in a long line, like Ian’s surfboards. It turned out to be a long job. I didn’t like the first versions so I re-did them all, and then I realised that the plain fish were actually a bit boring. So I digitised a lot of wave-like curlicues to be stitched between the fish, and the result was better. I stitched it all out on a densely painted strip of fabric and although it’s a very “busy” composition, it works pretty well.

 

Ian's fish panel

It's a large panel - 24 x 9 inches, and had to be stitched in 9 separate hoopings. However because it was just a question of stitching the fish in a straight line, it was easy enough to do. The colours tone gradually from light at the top to dark at the bottom, to give some structure to the panel, and it works well enough as a decorative object

Comments

[Virginia Guaraldi]

I see my inner fish! (Apparently we evolved from fish over billions of years)
I love it.

[spanky]

Love this. I think it would look great on a maxi skirt as well as a shirt.
You amaze me with your creativity.

[Robbie Lloyd]

Love this

[Gail Beam]

Love the way you graduated the colors for your background fabric and your fish are just magnificent!

[Lisa Cox]

Lovely! Is this going into the exhibition?

[Sunny Chandonais]

Well done!!! As one of my dear friends always says, "You go girl!" I can see this idea done with deer, rabbits, etc., but I love the fish and the "waves"!