For Christmas, I received the book “Beguiled By The Wild” by Charley Harper from Hannah. About his style of painting, Charley Harper coined it “minimal realism.” He said, “Instead of trying to put everything in when I paint, I try to leave everything out. I distill reality. I reduce the subject to the simplest possible visual terms without losing identity. I never count the feathers in the wings – I just count the wings.”
I make my critters and birds look as realistic as possible in my designs. Yet reading “Beguiled By The Wild” and exploring more of Harper’s work got me thinking about minimal realism. I put the book aside and took a stab at creating, what I call, a minimalist chickadee. Only after I’d finished did I look at Harper’s chickadees. He distilled them down even more than I – but I’m happy with my versions.
I created Chickadee 1 out of felt – flat on a piece of light blue felt for backing. In hindsight, I could have selected a backing with more color contrast.
Chickadee 2 I made from paper. Let me know what you come up with as you play with these Chickadees!
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The one on paper is amazing! I love Charley Harper. Just used CH fabric on the back of a fall quilt. The colors are so striking! Happy New Year. I enjoy reading your posts.
Thank you!
Wow! This is really “thinking outside the box” and a quite different style for you. I love what you have done with this experiment. Thank you for continually sharing your creativity with us.
If you like the Charley Harper chickadees, check out Josh Brill, Scott Partridge and Eleanor Grosch. They all do chickadees and other birds in a similar style.
Yours are adorable…would you give me permission to stitch them in needlepoint rather than felt cut outs? I kind of have a needlepoint chickadee collection…
Thank you so very, very much for your bird patterns. My mother died unexpectedly at the end of March (I wasn’t ready). When I cleaned out her closet I saved a few of her shirts – the ones that really made me think of her- and I’ve been making birds from the shirts and from her large stash of quilting fabric scraps. Your bird patterns have been a wonderful inspiration. I had hip surgery a couple weeks ago and while I heal I’ve been hand sewing and embroidering birds – so many birds. I made your wood pecker to look like my native “hairy woodpecker” and I’ve used your chickadee pattern. I’m making birds for all the grandchildren. I’m appliquéing birds on tea towels, and on pockets of her old jeans to turn them into tote bags… I’ve made a bird a day. My husband is afraid I’ve gone Alfred Hitchcock on him! It’s been very healing to hold the fabric that she once held and to stitch and remember her. Thank you again for the spark. Also, I LOVE Charley Harper’s designs so I think this pattern will be tomorrow’s work! Gratefully yours, Deb (when I can figure out how to upload photos I’ll send…)