Tuesday, September 13, 2011

An unusual CJ

I'm currently taking part in a circle journal called "Artistic Licence" - the overall theme is art, and each participant has chosen either a work of art, a particular artist, or a general artistic style for the rest of us to take our inspiration from

(you may remember that I chose the genre of wildstyle graffiti for my own book)

Above is my entry for the next CJ in this circle, which is based on a 1919 painting called Cosmic Composition, by Swiss artist Paul Klee

Here's the original painting:


I can't believe this is almost 100 years old, it looks so modern and fresh!

Usually, I'm used to CJs where a theme is given, but you have the creative freedom to do whatever you like for your own page, but this one is very different.

The CJ owner has divided the painting into 9 sections, and has allocated us each a section to reproduce, in any technique we like, as faithfully as possible.  I got given the bottom central section.

At first that felt like all my creative freedom had been removed, as I hate to copy.  But in the end I enjoyed working on my little embroidered quilt, I love to sew by hand, it's relaxing....

I hope I got it close enough to the original:


I first hand painted the cotton material (the colours look very different here under the flash, but in daylight it's a much better match) to mimic the colour blocked background of my allotted piece, and then embroidered in all the detail with a variegated thread through a thin layer of batting, before mounting the quilt to the piece of mountboard provided.

Here's the full painting with my bit in place (again, honestly, my colours do match better than that IRL :) )

Only the three sections in the middle have been "arted up" so far - my fellow participants will be recreating the remaining 6 sections.



I can't wait to see what other techniques everyone chooses - and how the complete piece turns out

11 comments:

Sid said...

Brilliant idea and it looks so good !!

Shirley said...

WOW Sarah such a perfect reproduction and love the technique.
I wonder which section I will be doing!?!

Sue said...

What an unusual idea.....and a REAL challenge!Well done:)

new2this said...

Ooooh, I love it ... Thank You.

Carmen said...

Oh my word - that is going to be an amazing piece of art she will end up with.

I agree, never heard of the artist or seen this painting before but it looks so NOW.

VickiA said...

Neat idea for a CJ. Love your piece for it.

Marit said...

That is going to be a very special journal! I would probably have the same feelings as you had at first when I would have to do something like this.. you gave it a beautiful twist though!

Tessa said...

Wow... this looks very special: beautiful!

xx Tessa

P.J. said...

That is very cool. Quilting is a really wild thing, when done right. I think you definitely did some justice to the piece!

Michelle S said...

Looks really cool Sarah! Ur very talented! {So jealous!!! lol}

Shelley Malone said...

WHAT AN AWESOME PROJECT!!!! It's strangely specific but very still an enticing idea. I really love what you did with the embroidery.