I shared recently that I’ve started to mess around with painting. It’s been fun and interesting to experiment and push myself. I’ve never considered myself a painter, so playing with these materials has been a breath of fresh air. I also believe this art will help inform my hand embroidery (which I have no intention of giving up – in case you were worried!).

So I have a set of paints, a bunch of canvases, and enthusiasm. What to paint…?

My studio is already filled with faces and I’ve decided to recreate some of them! Between my sold and exhibiting pieces, commissions, and stitching challenges I’ve done (embroidering a face per day for a month), I have plenty to choose from.

Where possible, I plan to use the same reference photos. I think it’s going to be so interesting to compare the different embroidered works to the paintings of the same subject.

I’ve done my first one in the series: David Bowie!

I’m going to have to work on my photography skills when it comes to capturing paintings – the lighting I usually use for embroidery is washing out the colors of my paintings. The colors in this painting are more accurate in the photo above.

These renditions of David Bowie were done a little over a year apart: the embroidered Bowie was completed in April 2020 and the painting was finished in July 2021. I’ve learned a lot about portraiture and art in between making these two pieces!

What do you think?