Monet's Flowers

When I was working on the Vincent's flower studies a friend asked if I had ever considered making flowers in Monet's style. At the time I hadn't. The primary reason I "played with Vincent" was to interpret the atmosphere around his flowers into fiber. The air in Van Gogh's paintings that I saw at the Art Institute seemed so vibrant and full of life.After three studies, "Vincent's Flowers" was the resulting piece.

During the next summer that suggestion niggled around in my brain until I gave in. My first attempt was definitely not Monet. It ended up as the fun and playful background in "May Day Tea Party".My next attempt was closer. The flowers were painterly, but the pure colors as well as the quality of light that the impressionists achieved was not there. This one is soft and lovely and it was finished as a present for a friend.
The third try surprised and delighted me when it ended up with the pure colors dominant plus the quality of light of a sunny day. To get this effect there are multiple layers of cut apart silk flowers, roving, and pulled apart batting in this piece ... so many I lost count.
The backing, as well as the foundation layer which is not at all visible, is fabric I had hand-painted. This was a warm-up ... a way to get myself into the spirit.
The piece is quilted with the word, "Monet", in script. The paper on which I had doodled the quilting pattern is pinned to the backing in the above photo. This study is still unfinished.

PS: Here is the "unfinished study" finally finished in 2009.

"Imagine Monet" 30"x 32"

To read about its construction process type the title into the search box in the Blogger bar at the top of my blog.

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