Marie WheelerSonia Delaunay was the inspiration for Love Art, Happy Life this week. I must say, I was a little daunted by this one,
not because I didn’t like it or because I didn’t feel it was worthy, but more because I wasn’t sure whether to try it in fabric. Delaunay worked in many mediums throughout her lifetime and she did a lot of design for fabric and clothing.
I find it fascinating that this is my first exposure to Delaunay despite the fact that she is the first living woman to have a retrospective at the Louvre. This tells me that there is importance to her work, but makes me question why she isn’t more well-known. She was the co-founder of Orphism, which from what I gather is a nuanced form of Cubism.
Either way, I know of her now and her work, Rhythme, which is an oil on canvas from 1938, inspired me to create. I did my version with gouache on watercolor paper. I really struggled to make circles as I didn’t have a protractor, so I ended up going with sweeping curves instead.
In the end, I kind of feel like it looks like a mother holding a child. This isn’t a motif that is something I would have planned as I am not one with a maternal instinct, but it stands out to me as having that form.
I like this test piece and might consider translating it from paper to canvas with acrylic paint instead of gouache.
As an aside, I am grateful that I decided to take this online course, Love Art, Happy Life. I’m not going to say that it is groundbreaking or anything, but it is succeeding at doing what I needed: teaching me about artists and expanding my knowledge base. I think that we all benefit from lifelong learning as it expands our view, expands our circle and keeps us thinking and moving forward.
