In yesterday's post we mainly focused on needlework as art, so let's continue the thread (pun intended...) by exploring art that incorporates needlework. Examples in this case are provided by Karen Harkness, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art.
The artist mixes Renaissance tapestry and her passion for painting with personal memories, trying to explore the relationship between elements of time, landscape and religion in a contemporary context.
In her work "Lace" she combined net fabric, acrylic and ink to create a fragile piece, while "In the Beginning" (not pictured in this post) "Annunciation", "The Assault", and "Purification" incorporate acrylic paint and thread on leatherette.
A visit to Stirling Castle inspired the artist to make a series of contemporary paintings based on the Christian narratives of the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries with her paintings integrating embroidered elements inspired by the four panels of the series with the hunters entering the woods in search of the mystical unicorn, a creature representing Christ.
Specific scenes such as the unicorn dipping its horn into a stream and drawing a cross cleansing the water from poison and sin, the hunters attacking the unicorn whose horn has magical qualities and the unicorn defending himself from attack and running to safety, are all taken by Harkness as the starting points for her abstract representations.
While this technique mixing paint and thread may not be that new, it works particularly well when Harkness draws on ink and comes up with architectural designs such as her drawing of the Glasgow School of Art building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. You can discover more about her technique and work on the artist's site.
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