WIPs: Münter and Lurcat

On the last reveal day I showed how far I had got with my Münter-interpretation and grandly announced I would finish within the next few days. But it has been lingering - probably not only because of important changes in my professional life that still requires adjustment processes to allow for enough time for stitching, but also because I am not terribly satisfied with how it has developed. I am not sure whether that is due to the fact that I like her work in all so much that it becomes very hard to distance myself from the inspiration and make the piece 'my own'.

For my taste, the outlines of the sleeping child in my current piece are not visible enough, and at present I don't have a really good idea how to change that without ruining it completely.

I have already added a layer of batting under the head that will make it 'pop' a bit when real quilting will begin. Just recently when I was pondering over it again I had the idea of enhancing the outlines by overstitching them with some lighter thread, or even a reflective thread I have.  And handstitching some of the areas with a bit of running stitch to mark them. But it requires a bit more thinking. I will report when something develops.

For Lurcat I very quickly decided on the inspiration I would use, namely on the day the name was published. I chose the ceramic plate with a large sun from the 50s or 60s.

Right after chosing the inspiration I started a new job and have been working full time, which requires quite a bit of adjustment both on my side and my family, and the organization of stitching time has not been easy yet, so realization of the project did not start immediately.
When I began work, I traced a part of the design and transferred it onto bondaweb.

I liked the blue of the original piece and wanted to maintain that, but not the white. As the process of transferring from bondaweb results in a positive and a negative image I could choose two different colours for the 'background'. At first I did not know which I would use for the piece for the group, or perhaps make a double-sided piece.

Right now I think I will choose the piece with the orange background for the group, and the piece with the yellow background for a yellow quilt I am planning for the anniversary of the French Patchwork Organization. But I haven't finally decided yet.

In fact, as I am writing this, I have an idea about using some of the hand-stitched eyes from Guldusi's embroidery project and focus on the line of the four eyes, turn the segment and that way change the character of the piece entirely.

But this would not fit into the size requirements. So it wouldn't work for the group, it has to be put onto the back burner.

I am convinced that my adjustment to the new professional situation will be completed soon and stitching time will be more secure soon.

Raw edge appliqué: 'Freedom' inspired by Jean Lurçat.

'Freedom' inspired by one of Jean Lurçat's pieces entitled ' Liberté'

Turns out, this had been my favourite artist so far, so thank you Jinnie ☺

I certainly didn't think I would be saying that when I first say the work of Jean Lurçat. My first reaction was very lukewarm. He was yet another artist unknown to me and when I Googled his work the images I initially found were very mixed and somewhat confusing. As a result I put off thinking about this piece until quite late. However, when I did settle down to do some research I found I could not have been more wrong! I am now a great Jean Lurçat admirer,

Looking at the small thumbnails of his tapestry work really didn't help me appreciate his use of shape, line or colour - or the scale of his work. It was only when I found some high quality images that I began to see what Lurçat's work was all about.

Finding out about his life and what made him 'tick' also helped me understand why he made the work. I like the repetition of the motifs he used such as the French cockerel, celestial bodies and certain plants and animals. I particularly enjoyed finding images of him creating the drawings for his tapestries, a few of which I have added below. I can identify with his method of drawing on the wall!

Jean Lurçat at work

As I looked more closely at his work I was amazed at how he was able to create that 'glow' around many of the motifs he used. I was even more surprised when I discovered that he used an incredibly limited palette of yellow, red, green, blue, grey, ochre—five shades of each colour except green (four) and yellow (six) so that there were exactly thirty tones, plus one black, one white. This makes just thirty-two in all! 

So, for my work I decided to try and do the same and limit my palette of fabrics. I chose a few high quality images of various  his pieces of work and analysed the colours he used and pulled out a colour palette.   

An approximation of Jean Lurçat's colour palette

I searched my stash of hand dyed fabrics that would be a rough approximate to use. 

My fabrics 

By this time I had looked at a great number of pieces of his work and I particularly found myself drawn to his work about Freedom and Liberty - both themes that interest me and that I often use for my quilts. I decided to make my own 'version' of his piece called 'Liberte', inspired by his experiences during World War II and the famous poem by the French poet, Paul Eluard.

And here is my version again, created with raw edge appliqué, free motion embroidery and a little paint for the barbed wire.

'Freedom' inspired by one of Jean Lurçat's pieces entitled ' Liberté'

Claire

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