Ellen Lindner: Art & Creativity

A while back, I got the idea to paint over an ugly quilt.  Although I never finished that project, it was clear that the idea of painting over quilted areas had great potential.  I’ve even seen artists, such as Deidre Adams, who do this almost exclusively. 

So, I decided to give it a try.  First, I painted a piece of fabric,
with no particular design or plan.

Click on any image for a larger view.

Next, I layered it with batting and backing and quilted it, from the back.  (Just so I could
see where I was going.)  Again, I planned very little, and I got this, the back:

Then, I began to regret my lack of planning, as I tried to come up with a design that went with these shapes.  I eventually settled on the combo below, even though I knew I’d be changing the colors some.  (Looking back, I can’t believe I liked this!)

Finally, I began to paint.  Thankfully, it was looking better than my sketch above,
but I definitely had a long way to go.

Version 1:  The photo below shows what it looked like after I covered it with paint. 
I changed some of the orange rectangles to purple.  At this point, I painted each
shape exactly as it had been stitched.  I deviated from that later.

Check back to see where I went from there.  (I promise:  it gets better.)

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  DO click on that last photo, so you can appreciate the texture of this piece.