Experimenting With Color
After I finished my couching course with Natalie Dupuis, I signed up for her “Ode to the Palette” course. This class is all about color. We studied color theory, deconstructed works of art to better “see” the colors the artist chose and used that palette to create a work of embroidery of our own.
Color is something I learned about in elementary school. Newton and his prism and the rainbow. ROY G BIV. Color wheels. That, however, is only the top of a very big iceberg! I had no idea that color theory had been studied and written about by so many people. I found out that Goethe - the German poet and philosopher - has a theory of color!
A palette I made during the course using pastels.
During the class, in addition to learning about various color theories and experimenting with color, we got to choose a piece of art to study deeply with reference to color.
I chose to study a painting by Van Gogh called Green Wheat Fields, Auvers, 1890. It’s in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. If you would like to examine closely, the NGA has a fabulous image online here.
Green Wheat Fields, Auvers, 1890, Vincent van Gogh
You can see from my color palette (above) that I had to choose some, not all, of the colors Van Gogh used when considering what to use in my class piece. That was the first difficult process; how does one choose some colors, but not others, when representing such an amazing piece of art? That’s where Natalie’s expertise and guidance comes in. She gave us tools to use and taught us about color interaction. None of the work was overly complex but all of it challenged my perception of color.
I found myself walking around looking at everyday things and nature with new eyes!
We used the technique known as couching to create our pieces. The silk threads were chosen from the colors in the painting and the metal thread color was chosen by each student. I chose to use silver.
The project took many hours to complete. It required concentration - mainly to ensure that my circle stayed a circle. I loved every minute I spent on this piece and am thrilled with how it looks now that it’s complete.
The glass piece in the middle was sent to me as a gift when I purchased a necklace on Esty last year. It was only as I was finishing the piece and thinking about what to put in the center that I remembered this little glass tie tack. It couldn’t be more perfect.
If you want to learn about color - really study color theory - I highly recommend this class, Ode to the Palette. Natalie Dupuis is a wonderful teacher with a deep knowledge of both fine art and metal thread embroidery. You can find her blog here and information about her classes here. You can also find her on Instagram @sewbyhandmtl.