Sunday 15 April 2012

Transformations


In 1882 John Constable painted some cirrus clouds using oils. The original is in the V&A, Heres a link. 
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82649/oil-painting-study-of-cirrus-clouds
In 2012, only 130 years later,  I attempted to copy this painting using pastels. Not quite my first time using pastels , but I am a real novice.
Then I made a felt picture using merino batts. I have used merino tops many times, but never batts before. They are very fine short fibres randomly mixed,like fluff, rather than lined up neatly as they are in a top. Interesting different, one I need more practice with !!
I then photographed this felt picture and printed this using my ordinary printed onto silk. I never even knew this was possible. 
It is not as clear as it would be as a photograph but recognizably,upside down, I think.
Finally, I felted the silk using some merino tops , yellow , white and blue fibres. I mixed some white and blue fibres together with my carders for the background. The shrinkage of the silk gives a wonderful crimped effect - unfortunately some of the colours have been lost.  
Transformed from oil on canvas,via the V&A website, to pastels on paper, to felt, then via the computer and an inkjet printer to silk and then shrunk into a small silk and felt picture, 130 years after the original was made.  
Bizarrely this small size felted silk is almost the same size as Constables orginal oil!

1 comment:

  1. ha! love your experiments !
    the colours in the first piece are very vibrant. The silk you printed on (never tried that, in case I break the printer down) is probably very thin so part of the printed colours get lost in the felting proces ....

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