Ode to Paul Klee

In March our InspiredArts Guild chose Paul Klee's picture "Red Balloon" for this year's challenge piece.  The idea is that each member would design and create something of their own based on this picture. 

I was very excited about this because as I looked at the picture, and saw all of the very delicate shading used, I thought it would be a wonderful exercise for my punchneedle skills.  I determined to copy the picture by using thread and punchneedle.  Well, that didn't go too well.  I carefully worked on it -- but soon realized that it was becoming a chore, not a pleasure.  I didn't like the way it looked, disliked the heavy colors I'd chosen, disliked the disjointed appearance of it and certainly didn't seem capable of duplicating the shading.  Obviously Mr. Klee had no competition from me!!

And so I gave up my first try and decided to start anew.  This time I made up my own design.  I did keep the balloon and I also kept the idea of the 'boxes' that appear in the original painting.  Otherwise I was off and running with a new design, new colors and a whole new outlook.

I used the colors of coral, yellow and green with a darker rust thrown in for contrast.  This piece is larger than any others I've done at 8" x 6".  Amazingly, once I had thrown out my original idea and actually developed my own design the whole project went much faster.  Best of all I truly enjoyed what I was doing and loved seeing the design grow beneath my needle.

"Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see". - Paul Klee