The Ancient Greeks used the nine muses for inspiration. I love to study other artists as an endless inspiration source.
We all need inspiration. It promotes a sense of wonder, excitement and that golden ‘what if?’ moment.
My fascination with circles began a number of years ago. Inspiration came serendipitously from two very different sources – a piece of handmade felt with circular mounds worked into it and a retrospective of Sonia Delaunay’s work held at the Tate Modern, London. That led me to research the amazing life and work of Sonia Delaunay.
‘I have lived my art’. Sonia Delaunay
This is where it all began for me. A small piece of pink felt with huge felt mounds worked into it. All I could do was stitch around them.
Sonia Delaunay, Ukrainian/French Artist
‘I have changed everything around me. I made my first white walls so our paintings would look better; I have done everything. I have lived my art’.
Sonia Delaunay was one of the few female artists whose oeuvre traversed the worlds of fine art, fashion, costume design for stage and screen, furniture design and textiles. She felt her art need not be constrained to canvas alone and used the versatility of colour and shape to enhance the world around her. Her belief that art should be used to decorate life and design be artistic, was something she lived by.
I love to create different designs for different purposes.
Hundertwasser inspired ‘Happy Houses’.
Colour alone is inspiring to me.
According to Kate Slater, writing for The Telegraph in 2011, Sonia had names for colours: crocodile (beige to brown), cactus (green) and capucine (orange).
Her multi-disciplinary artist practice epitomised the new age of women, with her designs worn by socialites, film stars, Surrealists and Dadaists. ‘Delaunay’s bold, geometric designs encapsulated the verve and daring of the new, modern woman’, Slater goes on to say.
Glimpse some of Sonia Delaunay’s art, fashion and drawings by visiting my Pinterest board.
‘For me, there is no gap between my painting and what is called my ‘decorative work’. Sonia Delaunay.
Along with husband Robert, they created the Orphism art movement identifying the use of simultaneous contrast, creating visually powerful, intensely expressive abstract art. They dispensed with form and created stunning visual rhythm, depth and movement using vibrant planes of colour and shape.
Am I using the principles of Orphism – the art movement created by Robert and Sonia Delaunay?
In 1964, Sonia Delaunay was the first living female artist to have a retrospective of her work at the Louvre.
How Sonia Delaunay’s work resonates with me! How her passion to decorate the life around her according to her artistic dictates, resonates with me! Sonia must be one of the most amazing, respected female artists of all times. She certainly is with me.
I am trying to live my art. Who’s your muse?
