Inspired by Degas -- The Art With Fabric Blog Hop

Alida P of Tweety Loves Quilting has organized a blog hop featuring quilts inspired by works of art.  I was excited to be asked to participate.  I love to challenge myself by choosing a known object, for example a painting, a building, a sculpture or even another quilt, and using it as a jumping off point to make a unique piece of my own.

The theme this time around was Mother Nature.  I chose a painting that celebrates the female form.

This summer, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosted an exhibition of paintings from the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.  It included paintings by an amazing number of famous modern painters: Matisse, Van Gogh, Mondrian, Rothko, Monet, Manet and O’Keefe, and many many more.  One painting that caught my eye was a large piece by Edgar Degas, Dancers at the Barre, which he painted sometime around 1900. 

Degas, Dancers at the Barre, c. 1900

Degas was fascinated by the ballet.  He frequently painted scenes of dancers both onstage and backstage, depicting the grace and beauty of the performance and the unglamorous lives of the dancers behind the scenes.  Dancers at the Barre depicts two dancers stretching backstage before a performance.  It is a very large piece, and painted largely in orange and turquoise.  It definitely commands attention.

I decided to create my own abstract piece about dancers inspired by the painting.   So I squinted at the painting and decided that two things jumped out at me: the orange and turquoise color scheme and the curves and angles of the bodies of the dancers.  (As an aside, I find that squinting is a very valuable tool in abstraction.  If you blur out the picture itself, somehow, you can break the piece into the basic elements of its composition.)

I pulled a variety of shades of turquoise, orange, cream and black/gray and started to cut freehand curves.  I love to piece curves.  But I find that it helps a great deal if I make a few chalk marks to match up after I cut the line:

Chalk marks across the cut line

And it helps if I pin carefully:

If I’m careful with the cutting, marking and pinning it is a breeze to sew a smooth curve.  Well, except for a little interference from my studio assistant: 

 After the first afternoon, I had this:

I liked it and thought I was perhaps finished.  I left it hanging on my design wall overnight.  A few hours away from a composition always helps me evaluate it more objectively.  When I walked in the next morning, I stared at it for a while, and decided to make it larger.  

I got to work.  First, I added another section:

Here is the piece at the end of the second day:

I was liking the movement and the interplay/interconnectedness of the piece.  With each addition it was moving further from the inspiration piece.  Intentionally.

At the end of the third day, I had tried different arrangements of the sections I had pieced together.  It went through several iterations:

And ended up here:

Dancers by Heather Pregger, 29"w x 24"h, © 2017

So the end piece does not look much like the inspiration painting.  But isn’t that the point?  

Visit the other artists in the Art With Fabric blog hop!  This week also features posts by:

Monday, October 9th, 2017

Wendy: http://www.kwiltkrazy.com/

Yanicka: http://yanickahachez.blogspot.com/

Barb: http://www.bejeweledquilts.blogspot.com/

Alida: http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, October 10th, 2017

LeeAnna: http://lapaylor.blogspot.com/

Krysia, Hosted by Alida http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/

Heather: http://heatherquilts.blogspot.com/

Tami: https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com

Wednesday, October 11th, 2017 

Janeen: http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/

Andrée: http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com/

Carol: http://www.quiltedfabricart.com/

Karen: https://tunaquilts.wordpress.com/ 

Thursday, October 12th, 2017 

Kat: https://www.katknapcrafts.com/

Terry: http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/

Anita: http://quiltlovefordomesticfelicity.blogspot.com/

Chris: http://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 13th, 2017 

Patty, Hosted by Andree http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com/

Edith: http://ediscraftinglife.blogspot.com/

Betty: http://sewnoworries.blogspot.com/

Dione: https://www.cleverchameleon.com.au/blog

I'm also linking up with Esther's Quilt blog's WOW! and Sew Fresh Quilts "Let's Bee Social", 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!