Impressionist Art...

Most of us are familiar with impressionist art like that of Claude Monet or Vincent Van Gogh.  Many have admired this painting style & personally speaking, wish that I could paint like the impressionists.   Even though I've dabbled in painting (won't show any of these amateur-ish paintings for now), my favorite medium is fabric.

I've experimented in trying to emulate impressionism by using 2 - 1/2" squares of fabric that blend color into the next piece of fabric.  To see examples of these quilts click on the tab, Gallery-Impressionist  to see the quilts resulting from these squares.  This process takes a bit longer than I like because there is quite a bit of sewing of many small squares.  Like a lot of quilters, I'm open minded about trying new techniques as I discover them.  Trying something new can be fun & it challenges your brain.

Over the years I've seen numerous quilts, at quilt shows, using various methods known as snippets, confetti strips, collage with fabric, or simply capturing bits of fabric under a layer of tulle to create a painterly look. While all methods probably work well for each person creating their quilts, I haven't tried these methods.  

One day I was feeling adventurous & it occurred to me to take irregular shapes of small fabrics & fuse them to an outlined background of whatever my drawing would be.  In order to appear painterly in your art quilt, the small chunks of fabric need to be smaller than what you see below & irregular.  However, the irregular shapes should look like they go together.  For example, I didn't use a square shape next to a round shape. The fabric color needs to appear like broken brush strokes that will blend into the next color, or brush stroke...

By the way, the glue you see in the next photo is to secure any stubborn fabric that insists on sticking up & out.  Use it sparingly...

You know....I've often thought that it would be easier to have been a painter because art quilts have so many steps.  I've tried painting & it's a whole new challenging skill to develop.....it's not easy....but it's fun....I have a great admiration for people who paint.

Below are the irregular pieces of fabric that I worked with.  There is no fusible web on these small chunks of fabric.  The fusible web is on my background that I'm building on.....

These are the photos that inspired me to make this quilt....I happen to love all the different varieties of Lavender.  Below is Spanish Lavender that is a perennial in our zone.......I planted this lavender about four years ago & I love it.........

There were several bees buzzing around the Spanish Lavender but none would stay still long enough for me to take a clear photo......

This honeybee kept moving every time I tried to zoom in to take the photo.  It wasn't easy but, I was patient & kept trying....

Below is the enlarged drawing.....I tiled the 8 x 10 inch drawing so that I could enlarge it using Adobe Photo Elements....once I got it to the size I wanted, I taped the tiled pieces together....

Next is to select fabric for building my background.....the fabric needs to be in small irregular chunks or shapes so that the background will appear painterly......

Fabric for the bee's body, eyes, legs....

I'll fast forward to building my background....you'll see an outline in my background which is how I know where to place by small bits of fabric.....my Spanish Lavender, honeybee, & stems, leaves will be appliqued after I build my background....

At this point, I add some of my applique pieces before continuing to build the right side of the background....this is just how I choose to work....it is okay to completely build your background if you prefer....

Anxious to applique the bee on the Spanish lavender.....I have no idea how I'm going to applique the wings....I work that out later....

Taking shape now that I've added the Spanish Lavender pod & petals....etc....by the way, I've taken many breaks during this process....

Okay....honeybee in place.....now to complete the background....

Have my reference photo close by to make sure I stay true to my original photo........only because I liked my original photograph....

I've added some dark brown textile paint to the honeybee's body & highlighted the eyes with white paint, added some depth to my leaves & stems with fabric & paint where I thought it was needed.....

Undecided about adding a wide border fabric for framing or not.....

 I decided to leave off the wide border as a frame because I wanted to keep the size smaller.  So now pin basting for quilting......

Close up of the irregular shapes the background is made up of.....all leftover fabric from other quilting projects I've worked on....

Ready to quilt the Spanish lavender pod.....I don't know if it's actually called pod or not........I don't know how I'll quilt the whole thing.....probably just heavily quilted since this is the easiest thing to do....

Quilted wings.....I thought of creating the wings but, wanted to hurry up & finish this piece so I used a double layer of gold glittered tulle & quilted the tulle with dark brown rayon thread....

Thread work from the backside....

Scroll back up to top of page & click on Gallery-Impressionist to see finished front side of this quilt....

Hope you enjoyed seeing the process....can't wait to start my next piece!