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Tuesday 31 May 2016

Klee - House on the Water

There was no way I was just going to copy a painting, why would I do that? Why not just cut out a photo of the painting? Where was the creativity? What would I learn?  But in the end that's just what I did:






And here's the painting I (Almost!) copied

Paul Klee - House on the Water 1930

All the time that I was looking at Klee's faces that I intended to work from I kept coming back to this painting. Whilst I like the colour palette I find the use of light and dark quite disturbing, although the light areas create movement they also split the painting. I started to mask different areas of the painting to try to understand why it was having this effect on me and fell in love with the section that I re-created.
It isn't obvious from the photo's but the proportions of the selected area felt a bit 'off' when I used them on their own so I slightly changed the balance of light and dark.
Original this is not - and I apologise for that, but I love it and I did l learn quite a bit about balance and proportion too!

13 comments:

  1. I don't care that you have (almost) copied a section of the painting, I love the result! And it's a perfect example of how using textiles and texture can change the feeling of a piece, as opposed to using paint which is essentially flat.

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  2. To me this painting is all about transparency and overlaying shapes, which is not an easy thing to achieve with fabric, but you have done a most credible job, Linda. I'm not surprised that the minimalist in you responded so strongly to "House on the Water".

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  3. I had intended to enhance the transparency effect with the quilting, but once begun, I abandoned the idea in favour of the simplistic approach you see here. I would have had to at least double the amount of stitching, if not more, to give any sense of layering.

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  4. Could you explain, Linda, please, how your stitching enhances the transparency effect?

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  5. It doesn't! But I had intended to work lines of contrast stitching over some areas - you might be able to see the beginnings of this top left, withe some beige stitched over the blue.
    However when I sampled the idea I decided that to achieve the effect I was after the stitching became too intense and the sense of calm was lost.

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  6. Good idea to zero in on a segment of his art work. I love your colours which strongly reflect water and calmness.

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  7. I really like what you have taken out of the original. Your colours are restful and the idea of zeroing in on a portion of a painting can change the whole. I like it very much indeed.

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  8. You are really excelling in your minimalist phase, Linda. This piece shows skill and understanding of achieving proportional balance. Simple, subtle and successful. H

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  9. You've selected the right amount to portray - and done it very well especially with the quilting lines

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  10. This quilt is so beautifully pieced and quilted and indeed very calming . Like you I think that enclosing the light area was a very good idea . The original painting ,with the light area at the one side, was somehow disturbing.R

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  11. Very clever recreating a portion in your own style. I have also had problems trying to soften the edges of colours by the use of thread and it is not easy.

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  12. What a lovely piece Linda. You have captured something special in the spirit of this interpretation.

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  13. Simple and calm: it is lovely and very effective.

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