Art Bead Scene monthly challenge May 2011

Cache-cache (Hide-and-Seek), 1873

by Berthe Morisot

Oil on Canvas, 18 1/4" x 21 3/4"

I did indeed find this months artwork quite a challenge to interpret. It's not the kind of a painting I would normally tend to engage with and I think it's harder to draw inspiration from something you don't connect emotionally with that much. That said, I do love the colour palette and if anything, had far too many options when it came to choosing components - it's like having a very long menu in a restaurant...after a while you lose your appetite! On the up-side, I knew what I wanted to use as my focal pieces so I set to and did some serious bead elimination and this was the final result.

The focal element consists of a lovely ivory lampwork dove by Lori Lochner and a lampwork brick by Helen Chalmers  (to find out more about these bricks check out a previous post about Helen's beads). The brick is intended to represent the buildings in the background and link them with the natural environment through the flower decoration. The dove represents the harmonious relationship between the mother and child.

I then used a selection of beads to draw out the colour palette. Ivory lampwork beads by Outwest, coral coloured Howlite pumpkins and wooden beads represent the centre panel of the painting with the tree and the dresses. The slightly acid/earthy yellow-greens are brought into play with yellow opals and Czech Picasso glass beads. All the beads are linked with oxidised copper wire and the piece is pulled together by the hand dyed silk strings from Diane Turton which combine just about every colour in the palette and were in fact my starting point.

All in all I think it works... and since it was very much outside my comfort zone, It did stretch me and that after all, is what a challenge is supposed to do.

To see how other people interpreted the challenge pop along to the Art Bead Scene Blog .