Created for the UN Women UK “Hope In Action” Summer Party, this painting shows how many references can be combined into a single harmonious piece.
I started with a quilt made for my son Leon when he was born, by my mum, from my husband’s shirts:
I downloaded some licence-free images from Pexels show an appropriately diverse selection of ‘sewing’ hands
Leon (who turns 20 tomorrow) modelled how the sewing hand positions (above) would cause his quilt to rumple and fold (below):
The painting uses the brand colours of the charity instead of the colours of Leon’s quilt:
Answers are gathered from Summer Party guests (when they checkout from the event ticket purchase) to the question: “What holds us together as we drive change?”. I had access to some responses from the early bird ticket purchasers.
I painted in stages, assembling elements along the way:
Having completed the quilt I started adding the responses, as though stitched on. But it felt as though something extra was needed.
I remember from my quilting days that you would always have scissors, thread, and a tape measure nearby. This reminded me of Michele Ashby’s beautiful pastel still lifes (shared with permission).
Michele very kindly allowed me to integrate them into the painting. You can see I made some adjustments to help them fit the scene:
On the evening of Wednesday 24th June I will be painting LIVE at the Summer Party, adding more words and phrases to complete the painted quilt.
Hosted in The Mall Galleries, surrounded by the Society of Women Artists’ 165th annual exhibition, there will be a raffle of paintings and sculpture. The phenomenal jazz harpist and vocalist Tara Minton will be playing live:
The UN Women UK charity aims to “go beyond crisis response — enabling long-term, systemic work that helps prevent violence and advance gender equality across the UK and around the world”
There are still a few final release tickets available:
Here’s a little video of painting process, set to Tara’s music:
I hope this inspires you to bring disparate elements into a creative project, let me know how you do that!
Gail x
Lovely scene. 👍😊🥰