A Bit of Fun with Pierneef: Holstein Heaven

I find Pierneef's work somber, imposing and even ominous, so the title of this post is a bit tongue-in-cheek. Pierneef doesn't seem like a fun kind of guy.

Composition in Blue, Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef

I chose one of his paintings, Composition in Blue, from 1928, and focused in on the lower right corner, which gave me a simple little motif to work with that still represented his approach to landscape.

Composition in Blue, Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef (detail)

My first inclination was to duplicate the colours that he had chosen, and I got as far as selecting appropriate hand-dyed cottons.

hand-dyed cottons that match colours in painting

But that seemed a bit slavish. Where was the originality in that? I must admit I wasn't all that taken with the work of Pierneef, so I took some liberties and produced something in black-and-white patterned fabrics instead:

Holstein Heaven, 16 x 16

I happened to have some cotton printed with Holstein cattle so I cut them out and added them for a whimsical twist. A nod to the rolling pastoral landscape, complete with sheep and cattle, that I recently enjoyed in Shropshire with Hilary and other members of 12 by the dozen.

Pierneef in NZ

After a lot of thought I decided to try capture some of the essence of Pierneef's stye, rather than take a specific picture as inspiration, and imagine what he might have painted if he had visited New Zealand during his life.  This was also driven by the overwhelming feel of vast landscapes in his work, a feeling I had experienced at first hand during our three month tour of NZ.  I was influenced mainly by three of his pictures, and decided the sky had to be a major factor, together with a feeling of looking into the distance and seeing the landscape draw you in.  I chose one of my own photographs from our trip, increased the sky area and simplified the foreground.  I have used screen prints of the flower of the NZ flax to frame the picture, in the same way as Pierneef used the trees, but now think I should have used a more contrasting colour.

Here are the three paintings that inspired me, and my own photograph from NZ.

 

 

Pier Neef Trees

I suspect that many of us will have zeroed in on Pier Neef's trees. At least I did. Based on the lithograph Doringboom en Veld, I created a silk screen of the tree and printed it onto some batik fabric after several unsuccessful attempts at painting the background fabric.  The trees are machine quilted, and the small houses and trees are freehand machine stitched as well.

Storm Clouds

One of the things that captured my attention in Pierneef's paintings was his use of clouds - they really seem to dominate the landscape.  And of course, so do his trees.   So the painting that I chose to use as an influence is A Farmhouse, Naboomspruit.

Below is a variation using my cottage but maintaining the cloudy skies that were so dominant in his other paintings.  It's the middle of summer here and so I tried ice dyeing with very poor effect.  This piece was sitting at the bottom of the tray to pick up stray dye and was the best of the lot.

Through the windshield on the way to the cottage. 

So long and hello again

'So long' to Heather who has been with us on this 7 year journey from the beginning.  You have contributed so much to the group with your work but also your insightful comments.  Thank you, Heather.  I am sure the others all join me in wishing you much success as you forge a new direction in your art.  Please stay in touch and let us know how you are getting on.

A message from Heather:
Since joining 12 by the dozen, a few months after the group began, I have been inspired by the challenges we have set for ourselves, and warmed by the friendships we have forged. My most recent series, almost five years running, began as a response to the challenges in our first set, including “Street Life”, “Steps” and “Fine Living”. At this point I would like to focus on finding a new path and a new series, and I need to give this my whole attention. Of course I will continue to follow the merry adventures of 12 by the dozen on the blog. Thanks to all of you for your always-kind encouragement and support. Having the chance to get to know each one of you, whether on-line or at our wonderful get-togethers, has meant a great deal to me. 

And 'Hello again' to Venetta.  Welcome back Venetta.  It is lovely to have you back and in such good health.  I see Linda F has posted her chosen artist so you will be able to jump right in with Charles Sheeler (must go and do some research as I haven't heard of him either).

For those of our group who are newish, Venetta was one of the founder members but left to recuperate after health problems and Venetta, you will see we have a few new members as well but you won't have met Patricia (Joburg, South Africa) and Rosemary her sister in New Zealand, Michele in Montreal and Jinnie who lives in Paris. 

So now I will have to go into the website and up the statistics again!

Hilary


 

Our next artist

I was totally unprepared for choosing the next artist as I've been so busy with other matters recently.  However, in the relative peace of being in France with only six others still here (seven have already left) I've spent some time googling possible artists.  I'm going to pick an artist I've never heard of before, purely on the basis of the images I found on Google - I hope you like my choice.

Our next artist will be Charles Sheeler (1883 - 1965), an American painter and photographer.

Linda

A Reunion

Thanks to Hilary we are having a lovely reunion at the Upper Norton Property.  We miss the ones that weren't able to join us.  We had a show 'n tell of some of our challenge pieces and it was very nice to see them in person, and they do look so much better than in photos.

We've done a few exercises to play with colour,  test our eyes for line and design,  helped Colleen design quilting for a quilt and basically lots of talk, laughter with walks, drives and great food.  A glorious four days. 

Phillida

Hilary

Dianne

Heather

Colleen

Linda

 

Helena

Jinnie

the group in Pembridge

One of the lovely houses that we are staying in.

Hil and Phil having  a sketching session

Colour issues

I have my design worked out for our Pierneef challenge and wanted to use his work as inspiration for my colour choices too but oh my is that difficult. Take a look at these two versions of his work 'Geloftekerk' las just one example:

  

I  suspect that the end result will reflect the fabrics that I have to hand as much as the colours of the landscape that he painted!

Hudson Artists Spring Show

Though fewer artists than usual entered work in the AHA Spring show, 28 compared to an average of 33 or so, there was lots of energy at the opening night on Friday. I find that usually I can't take photos at the vernissage, because I am so busy chatting with visitors and other artists.

I went back at a quieter time to get these pix:

Heather's colour studies, acrylic paint on paper, mounted on birch cradleboard, 10" x 10"
and four mini-collages, 6" x 6"

My work was displayed back-to-back with Michele's:

Michele Meredith's compositions in raw silk,
the larger three framed under glass, the smaller on 6" x 6" stretched canvas

The event was well-attended, and Michele and I each sold a piece. A total of 18 works were sold, with net sales approaching $5000.

The group plans to paint the boards a dark grey for the next show, with the hope that the holes in the boards will visually recede, giving more prominence to the works on display. It seems that most community art groups have less than ideal venues to display their work: lighting, floorspace and methods of hanging are often compromised. Still, these local shows do add to the cultural life of the community.

DOTTY ABOUT KLEE

  Ad Parnassum is one of my favourite paintings, so I had no difficulty making my choice. The more I looked at the painting, the more complex it seemed. What I find fascinating is the layering, first the coloured squares, then the white dots, followed by a second layer of diluted colour over the dots. I wanted to try to give an impression of complex layers of colour and  I spent a lot of time thinking about how I was going to approach it. I decided to overlay my fabric scraps with a sheer fabric and then add dots with  white markal which were then overstitched with stranded cotton. I was not sure whether it would work and found it difficult working out what colours of thread to put where as I could not see the overall picture until it was finished. The stitching shrank the piece rather more than I had anticipated and when it was finished it was less than 15 inches square. However I am going to solve this problem by mounting it on a sqaure of black felt (I do not have any at the moment so a square of ordinary black fabric has had to be a stand in in the photograph!). I actually prefer it with the black 'frame' as it makes it stand out and finishes it off better.

A blast from the past!

In looking at the pictures under 'images' for Pierneef a couple stuck out that reminded me of a piece I have in the back of my cupboard.

The medium used is dyed tissue paper glued onto a board, paint added and then sealed with a water based varnish. This is the result from a workshop I did many years ago called 'Mark Making' run by Sue Physick, a local textile artist.  It was 2 days a month over nearly 6 months and took me to places I had never been before and also boosted my confidence into making 'marks' on my cloth in ways I would never of dreamt of. Hence this piece takes me back and reminds me of where I have been and come from. It does one good to look back every now and again !!

Paul Klee - 'Inventions'

Paul's work during his Weimar period often depicted the serene, light-hearted side of his nature. The title 'Inventions' was given to these drawings, which are often purely of a graphic quality.

The twittering machine, 1922.

The invention of its themes and figures always start from an idea of a technical or compositive kind: from elements that produce forms.

This is the one i used for my inspiration / interpretation and I think it is called 'The tight-rope walker'.  Sorry everyone, hope this gives some info behind my piece.