Pages

Wednesday 28 February 2018

MY MUM

This artist really had me thinking.  I had already done a still life in the series so put that one aside.  This left me with his collages and portraits.  Initially the collages spoke to me and I even went as far as collecting possible bits & pieces but then I did a complete about turn and decided to go with the portraits.

Before I was born and possibly in my very early years my dad also did some painting of which we only have the actual works as memories. I remembered my brother had a painting that my dad did of my mum in their early years so asked him to send me a photo of it.


The colours are slightly wrong as he took it at night but it was sufficient.

I painted the background cloth and my mum is appliqued, dyed fabric.  As a consequence the whole piece was quite 'flat'.  I did not want to over quilt it but needed to give it some texture.  The proportion of my mum to the background is fractionally out (approx 1") but I can live with it. 


What is strange is that I never would normally work in pink tones and yet the previous challenge and this one have taken me down a different road. 


8 comments:

  1. You are braver than I am. People as subjects scare me to death so I salute you taking this on. For a split second I did think I should challenge myself and tackle nude - but it was a nano-second! Funnily enough when you asked if doing a nude would be acceptable to the group, I immediately thought of this painting by Dad. (A 'back' story to this painting is that he used the reverse to create and paint the coat of arms for the borough we grew up in, Queensburgh, and the workmen who took it down when a new hall was built were shocked and amused to find Mum on the back!). Clever quilting.

    Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a fantastic portrait of your mum. Your dad was very talented and your mum so beautiful ! the flat planes in your piece are very reminiscent of Lundstrom. great combination of a tribute to your parents and inspiration by the artist.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very interesting story and take on Lundstrøm - and very a very personal at that. It shows how far you can take inspiration and make it your own.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely to do a quilt which brought back memories of your Mum and a reminder that your Dad had painted it years ago .Wonderful idea . I am always amazed at how quilts evolve as one makes them and I wonder if the colour palette did this with you with this piece?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think that you were brave to choose one of the nudes, but then the personal story makes this quilt extra special.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This worked well for you, colour wise and subject which was a very personal tribute to your Mum. Lovely to be able to use this in an interpretation of the artists work. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Isn't it interesting how much one's approaches change when one starts working in colors beyond one's comfort zone? I once had my group do a work in their 'hated colors'. They were furious when I posted that challenge, but in the end virtually all of them admitted it had broadened their minds.

    ReplyDelete