Trying Out a New Process On a New Challenge

After doing the things that needed doing after two weeks away from home (stuff like laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning...), I finally got into the studio on Wednesday.  And it felt fantastic!

Well, it didn't feel fantastic to face the empty design wall.  That felt a bit sad and very daunting.  After the big deadline of the show, I have absolutely no projects in process.  Where to start?

At the NTAQ meeting we were given a new challenge, "The Peasants" by Pablo Picasso.  The piece isn't due until our next meeting, which is over a month away, but I thought I would give it a go.  It seemed a good place to start.

My cutting table had been taken over by painted paper scraps, leftovers from the class with David Hornung.  I had a brilliant idea -- why not make a collage and work from that?

Just a bit of painted paper......

The original painting is from Picasso's Rose period, painted in 1906.  It depicts two figures, two oxen and a box of flowers.  Here is the picture pinned on my design wall.

I decided to make a small painted paper collage, recreating the composition in geometric shapes.  Not only would it be fun to see if I could turn a paper collage into a finished quilt, it would also allow me to clear some of the paper off my cutting table.  Win-win.

I started gluing pieces of paper in the upper left corner, reducing the background and figures to squares and rectangles and more or less matching the colors  As I got farther down towards the lower right corner, I started moving farther away from the original composition.  After I filled the collage with squares and rectangles, I added a few lines -- black, gold and blue.  I felt it needed a few lines.

I managed to make a piece I rather liked, only upsetting the cup of glue once.  Did I mention that I am a messy gluer?  It is kind of a problem...

Painted Paper Collage, 7" x 9"

The next step was recreating the collage in fabric.  I found that I had all of the colors I needed in my fabric inventory.  Not that surprising, I guess....I have a rather large fabric inventory.  I broke the piece into sewable sections and got to work.

I think the final piece is pretty close to the original collage.  I changed the proportions a little, especially of some of the linear elements, but side by side you can see that they are closely related.

Collage with as yet unnamed challenge piece, 31" x 39"

It was fun working this way.  In fact I'm on my way up to the studio to make another collage.  Perhaps it will also turn into another quilt!

I'm linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, Confessions of a Fiber Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.  Go see all the wonderful work there!