PJ's Studio: 2025

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Embroidery: The Kiss

Klimt’s painting “The Kiss” is a study in beauty, so it’s no wonder that so many artists riff on it. I am no exception.

When Edward and I got engaged in 1987, we headed over to Central Park to take some photos. Apparently, while we were setting up this one, we attracted a crowd. They clapped when we kissed and I couldn’t help laughing – hence the body language.

Given that our positioning was so similar to those in Klimt’s kiss I started thinking about ways I could pay homage to the original. First, I replaced the background with bigger azaleas.

Then I needed a way to combine the foreground and background, so I added a shot from NASA. After all, he does make me see stars. 😉

I have to admit that I was so taken with the result at this point that I hesitated to add embroidery.

But my goal was to create an embroidered piece, so I forged ahead.

Only to admit to myself that I liked it better before I added the embroidery. And, it didn’t really look much like Klimt’s kiss.

I realized that it needed to be gold for the inspiration to be obvious, so I turned to photoshop.

And then I decided that it was too complicated, so a close-up would be better. And so, it is.

Here’s to the next 38 years.

Links to other embroidery blogs…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2011/12/pink-hibiscus.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/07/embroidery-chat-eiffel.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/07/embroidery-tall-coral.html

Cheers!

Sunday, August 10, 2025

The Cotswolds

Tim Baynes – artist extraordinaire – and my frequent collaborator, is now living in The Cotswolds.

How cool is that? So many cute little towns to capture.

Unfortunately, he tells me that they are in the midst of a drought.

How sad.

How un-England like.

And how I wish we could send him some of our rain.

It’s always like that with rain.

Either too much (currently Hong Kong) or not enough (currently France.)

Tim probably wouldn’t mind the lack of rain too much since it would make it easier for him to sketch the local sites.

But his wife is a gardener… so, I feel a “rain dance” coming on. 😉

Here are some previous UK blogs…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/07/london-part-1.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2018/09/uk.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2023/07/brighton-england.html

Cheers!

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Rome digital collage

This month’s digital collage features this photograph from Rome, which I took on my visit in 1997.

There’s actually an interesting story about it. I liked it so much, that I bought the negative into a photo store to have it blown up to 20” x 30” for my walls at work. Yes, it was pre-digital.

When I returned to pick up the enlargement, I was horrified to find that they had given me someone else’s photo. Presumably they had not lost my negative, but merely had sent it and my photo to whomever owned the one I was looking at.

The people at the store asked me what the subject of the photo was so they could attempt to retrieve it. I told them that it was a photograph of “The Roman Forum.”

Several days later, I received a phone call asking me if the missing photo was of “three columns.” I responded yes. But I also realized then that not everyone knows what the Roman Forum looks like. Go figure. 😉

When I began teaching/training, I used the story to illustrate the fact that communication doesn’t work if your audience has no idea what you are taking about.

I combined the photo with this drawing of olive oil and cherries for the final collage.

Here are links to previous collages…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/02/tulum.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/03/venice.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/05/spain-collage.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2025/07/salzburg-digital-collage.html

Cheers!

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Madame X

I visited the “Sargent & Paris” exhibit at the Met again before it closes next week.

There’s no doubt that the star of the show was the notorious “Madame X.”

Several preparatory sketches were included in the show.

Showing that famous profile.

No wonder I recognized her immediately when I saw her again at the Isabella Gardener Museum in Boston. (They have loaned this painting for the exhibit.)

This full length almost finished sketch does not include the infamous sleeve.

This photo from the salon is the only record of it in its original scandalous position.

It’s hard to believe that it caused so much upset.

But the final version – part of the Met’s permanent collection – shows it high on her shoulder. Yes, he had to “fix” it to get people to move on. Sigh.

One other painting really caught my attention.

“Edouard and Marie-Louise Pailleron – 1881”

According to the caption “its creation involved a staggering – and possibly apocryphal – eighty-three sittings during which the artist and the headstrong girl battled over her attire and pose.” She certainly does look like a handful.