Making progress on my reinterpretation of a portion of Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Flora meretrix, painted in c.1590 - it's slow but we are getting there…(I say "we" because I feel like the original embroiderers and the original artist are collaborating, silently, with me!)
Today I took her tulle backing down from the wall and have begun extracting the different sections and pinning them to the museum mount board.
I'm using vintage velvet for the background in the top left corner - a deep midnight blue which will be overlaid with antique black lace; Mason's regalia brass thread embroidery for the hair (which, in the original painting, Arcimboldo references Octopus' tentacles!) and; everything else is reclaimed embroidery and lace. The collar of her garment will be made of white flowers that are set in relief from the rest of the work.
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Flora on the table with colour coded boxes of embroidery and lace
and the inspiration - Flora meretrix by Giuseppe Arcimboldo c.1590
The bottom right hand corner is cut away from the tulle backing
ready to be stabilised on a layer of silk organza, before pinning
to the archival mount board
Flora's breast with midnight blue velvet, brass thread Mason's regalia
for hair and reclaimed embroidery for the garment and embroidery and
lace for the body. The collar of her garment is yet to be pinned with
white flowers (below), raised up in relief above the rest of the work.
The addition of blue velvet background and some white flowers
which will eventually fill the empty spaces and create the floral
Ermine that Arcimboldo was imitating
which will eventually fill the empty spaces and create the floral
Ermine that Arcimboldo was imitating
And for a remind of the original incredibly exquisite painting by Arcimboldo
which I could never hope to replicate, I simply hope to reference him
and pay homage through the exquisite art of needlework
