Little Swarm

 I had never heard of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, so I was delighted to discover her great talent. I will continue to study her work.

I chose her painting ‘Swarm’ from 1963 as my inspiration.

Swarm 1963

Little Swarm

For Little Swarm I chose a light grey fabric for the background and bonded the squares with ®Mistyfuse, a few at a time, and quilted as I went along. The squares are all ®Colour Catchers, the red ones painted with acrylic paint. I loved using this method and I see a series coming...............

And now for a big apology to the group:

So embarrassing, I had it in my head that the reveal day was end of June and thought I had plenty of time. So when Hilary contacted me, to hear if anything was wrong, I meant to do my piece as quickly as possible, but as you can see, it didn't happen, sorry everyone.

I just love being a member of this group and hope I will be forgiven. 

And the next artist as inspiration is...

I have been determined to name a female artist as inspiration since I understood the principle of how we are doing it. But I keep changing my mind as to whom to choose... There are so many fabulous women making art that it is indeed very hard to decide on one single person. Only this morning I debated with myself whether I should name 'the women of the Bauhaus School', but as they are a number of women I wasn't sure whether that was allowed. Plus I wasn't sure as to how much information and literature would be available in English, although there has been quite a renaissance for them in Germany lately. Then there are so many others - Georgia O'Keeffe, of course, or Ana Mendietta. Or Nancy Holt. Or or or.
But I went back to a painter (and photographer) after all.
This is a photo of her, taken from a postcard I bought when I went to see one of her exhibitions:

This is a photo of two of her drawings as presented in a catalogue:

She was a student and then fiancée of Kandinsky who deposited a number of paintings in her basement before he went back to Russia (and returned with a different woman for a wife). These paintings then were legally pronounced hers as renumeration, and it was these paintings that were the foundation for one of Munich's famous museums, the Lenbachhaus, a must-see-address if you are interested in expressionist art. She was one of the few women members of the painter group Blaue Reiter, for a while, before she went her own way and settled in Murnau, south of Munich, in a small house that today is a museum in her name. Although there are not that many paintings on display.

Some may have recognized her by now - her name is Gabriele Münter, and I hope you will enjoy letting yourself be inspired by her work.

Cover of a catalogue

Hi all
It is fabulous to see all your work. Unfortunately I am still not able to get comments of any sort to post on each of your quilts. I have tried everything I can think of, but no success. BUT I can write a new post! So here we go.........

Dianne: A really beautiful and gentle piece, and I like that you used your own image to interpret in her style.

Helena: I love all that rich colour and texture you have created.

Rosemary: Brilliant! I like them both, but I think I prefer the squares too - the stamp made some great marks.

Patricia: I agree Patricia - it was difficult to decide which of her pieces to use - and I did like this one too!I love your interpretation.

Phil: Eish indeed! Gosh - your piece makes me feel so homesick - that was my view every day when I lived in Blouberg and I miss it so. Thanks for the lovely reminder. Why didn't I think of that??

Jinnie: What a great find. All those layers have made a great 'sea'. Glad you put the closeup on the blog for us to enjoy.

Linda: I like how you took the very essence of her lines then used that to create something else. Isn't that what this is all about? I also like your question - I dwell on that a lot. Love the way you were able to develop your idea for another project too.

Allison: I love your interpretation and use of different textiles to achieve the look you were after.

Hilary: I love your interpretation of the same image I chose - how cool that our pieces are SO different! All that dense free motion stitch on the rock surface is perfect. Love it.

Thanks for all the lovely comments on 'Old Man'. He is a drawing of a homeless man named Paul that I used to see every day. I don't know how old he really was (he didn't know himself!) but he used to tell me he was just an 'old man'. I loved making him and yes, I am pleased. :-)))


So Uta........... who will it be???? 

Best wishes to everyone

Claire
x

And the next person to choose is .....

..... Uta!

Looking forward to see who you choose Uta.

The Dragon Sleeps

Sorry, I'm late - partly because I knew early on what I wanted to do and partly that I got carried away and it grew like Topsy.

I loved your choice, Linda.  So much to choose from but the line drawings spoke to me right from the beginning.  Her seas...all those lines.  How could I resist?!

So following on from being inspired by an artist's style and interpreting something local or familiar, I have chosen to base my piece on a well known feature of the Jurassic Coast (a World Heritage Site) on my doorstep - Durdle Door.

Durdle Door dragon

Durdle Door

Linear Meditation 2

Lots of stitching, changing of threads, tying off and losing threads and Inktense painting.  It is a whole-cloth piece.  I wasn't able to paint as I wanted because of the quilting and potential bleeding but I'm reasonably happy.

Now, what's next?

Hilary

Line Series

I loved the choice of Wilhlemina - so many different avenues to explore.
I finally settled on her very simple exploration of line.

 These are from her Line series. I love the feeling of movement she portrays with just simple lines.


I thought I would use the same idea to draw another portrait. Could this be a recurring theme???

I stitched the lines with thick black thread then added more to the background. Dilute acrylic paint and Markal oilstick were used to add soft colour. I am most pleased with his ear!

I am absolutely loving being in this group. I have tried so many times to post comments about the posts everyone adds, but I have no idea where they end up as they never seem to show on the blog postings. I will try again this month and see if I can get anything to 'stick'!

Claire
x