Haystacks of Giverny

We all hear about Monet and his haystacks--unfortunately to the point that we overlook them.  I'll be honest, I overlooked them in books.  Why is it that if an artist uses a repetitive subject matter that we do this?  There is so much to learn (I am learning) from looking at the iterations, the subtle changes from this version to the next version!  Here's just a selection of some of his Haystacks. 

I had never seen a Monet haystack until we went to the Musée d'Orsay.  I was completely overwhelmed with their Impressionists exhibition and the sheer size and amount of amazing pieces on display, and yet the one piece that caught my breath, that made me really pause and wonder was Monet's "Meules, fin de l'été" (Haystacks, Late Summer).  The colors, the mixtures, it GLOWED!!!!  It was the first of many Monet Haystacks I saw that trip and I cannot get enough of looking at them since we returned.

 

 

When we were at Monet's House and Gardens in Giverny, I took a ton of photos and plan on turning these photos into a new series of work integrating the color mixing principles that I am experimenting with and learning into these compositions.  This is my first finished piece.  It utilizes my photograph digitally printed on Kona cotton from Spoonflower layered with the same image digitally printed at home on silk organza with mixtures of Valdani 6-strand embroidery floss, DMC metallic floss and stretched gilt smooth purl.  

I purposely utilized a very limited number of stitch types to really challenge myself on the color mixing aspect of this piece.  Stitch types included are:  seed stitch, detached chain, bullion knot, french knot and herringbone. 

For the haystack, I have layered flat herringbone stitch in just cotton stranded Valdani, then layers of Valdani + DMC metallic floss and finally a top layer of stretched smooth purl.  Part of me wants to put some more cut purl on there but I think I need to live with the piece for a little bit first.  

For the dahilias, I had originally planned to silk shade them.  I had thought that it would be interesting to have just a bit of more realistic stitching in the composition to contrast with the more pixelated quality of the other stitches.  However as I worked the composition, I thought it would actually feel weird and not match.  I landed on using bullion knots with French knots to capture the energy of the petals in the dahilias and also to build up the texture more as the bullion knots and French knots sit higher on the piece than the detached chain stitches. 

 

  There are over 40 different color combinations from 10 different variegated Valdani threads used in this composition, referencing not only my photographs but also the color mixing that Monet used in his Haystacks.  I worked from the shadows up for the most part, though as with any project, there are always exceptions!  There is zero white and black in this piece, and the only time I have used pure color (a single color by itself) is when I have used 1 strand of floss for the seeding.  It is also interesting to note that I have bumped up the saturation of the the floss colors in the highlights and shadows. 

 Finally, I purposely did not use a hoop to allow for the fabrics to twist and bunch in areas and allow the different layers of the digitally printed images to shift.  I'm excited to start the next one!