In the Art Noveau Style

Art Noveau – french for New Art, a style made famous between 1880 – 1920 roughly, featuring brighter colors, intense stylized nature, and brilliant patterns rich with curvaceous lines.  Its the passion of my heart… and the love of my life to replicate some of these patterns in silk.  Recently I copied the wallpaper patterns of a french artist Maurice Pillard Verneauil (29 April 1869 – 21 September 1942).  He was in the center of the Art Noveau movement, creating bold floral designs for ceramic tiles, wallpapers and furnishing textiles.  He worked through both the Art Noveau and later Art Deco movements with his designs.  He gained great acclaim for his designs, among which were the dandelion, a wallpaper published in 1896, and the nasturtium, also a wallpaper that was published in 1895.

I could not resist my attempt to copy these patterns onto silk to be work as a scarf.  Taking some liberty with the color of the foliage of the dandelion, the soft blues of some leaves contrasted with the deep and dark greens of others, all focusing your eye on the delicate flowers. I connected with the style, and delighted in trying my hand at drawing it into a pattern for my silk.  And my initial posts of photos on social media drew some interest.  I am never clear if it is because i took the time to tell the story of Maurice Pillard Verneauil, or because of the reproduction of his style that garnered the attention… non the less, it was something very inspiriting to me.

Recently while we were at the Great Lakes Art Fair a lovely woman was looking through my rack of silk for something with both blues and greens.  I showed her the dandelions and that was it – sold.  I told her this was reproduced from 1896 wallpaper and i think her husband giggled more than i have ever expected…. then he announced he would rather see her wear it as a scarf because the print would be too much on the walls.

I love when what i do resonates with someone else.  Out there somewhere in Michigan is a woman rocking the dandelions like nobody else in the world! Yes!!!!