Artists who’ve done incredible portraits and abstract work using everyday string or thread.
String Art By Casey Zavaglia
‘Darbi’ – cotton, silk and wool thread on linen by Cayce Zavaglia. Sanded acrylic paint on the background only. 6.5 x 7.5″. Cayce lives and works in St Louis, Missouri. www.caycezavaglia.com
‘Dad’ by Cayce Zavaglia. “The direction in which the threads are sewn mimic the way brush marks are layered within a painting. Her stitching methodology borders on the obsessive.” 14″ x 39″. www.caycezavaglia.com
Painting with thread. Close up of Cayce’s ‘Aunt Lin’.
“Working with an established range of wool colors proved frustrating at first because I was unable to mix the colors by hand. Consequently, I created a system of sewing the threads in a sequence that would ultimately give the allusion of a certain color or tone.” 16.25″ x 29″. www.caycezavaglia.com
Sophie (detail) wool thread and acrylic on linen. 14″ high. “I still consider myself a painter and find it difficult not to refer to these embroidered portraits as “paintings”. Although the medium employed is crewel embroidery wool, the technique borrows more from the worlds of drawing and painting.” Cayce Zavaglia is represented by lyonswiergallery.com
String Art By Annemieke Mein
‘Tortoise’ by Annemieke Mein.
Annemieke Mein combines fabric, paint and sewing threads to produce works that are realistically accurate but that also breathe with life and action. Annemieke’s art is difficult to categorise, textile work has traditionally been ‘craft’, but Annemieke has moved it into the world of ‘art’. www.annemiekemein.net.au
“Splash” by Annemieke Mein.
“The materials used, such as silk, wool, fur, cotton and synthetics, are carefully chosen. These fabrics are then meticulously painted and stitched to enhance the tactile quality that is unique to textiles. For example, sheer silk stockings basically resemble the wings of many insects but with appropriate embellishment they can be made to mimic a particular species quite remarkably. Similarly, a piece of dull green wool can be transformed into a leaf, a frog, a moth wing or a grasshopper.”
www.annemiekemein.net.au
‘Damselflies’ by Annemieke Mein.
“Through my textiles, whether sculptures, wall works or ‘wearables’, I hope to make people more aware of our native species while expressing my love and concern for our natural environment. My art has evolved through my lifelong interest in Australian flora and fauna.” www.annemiekemein.net.au
‘Bulldog Ant’ by Annemieke Mein.
“The techniques I use include machine embroidery, painting, dyeing, appliqué, trapunto, quilting, pleating, moulding, sculpting, felting, hand embroidery, beading, spinning, weaving, plying, stiffening and wiring – in a limitless number of combinations.” www.annemiekemein.net.au
Annemieke was born in Haarlem, Holland, in 1944 when Germany still occupied Holland. She and her parents became Australian citizens in 1956. They migrated to Australia in 1951 when she was seven. www.annemiekemein.net.au
Other Amazing String Art Work
“Spitfire Plane and SOE” by Patricia Dahlman, thread on canvas, 2012, 8 1/2″. patriciadahlman.com
Old ship portrait with fabric hull, silk thread and satin sails, with painted backgrounds and embroidered details. By Thomas Willis, 1883-1887. 31″ x 18″.
More photos: www.1stdibs.com
‘Jubilee Bridge’, Thread on panel.
21 Feb-11 April 2009, 5 metres wide x 2.5 m.
debbie-smyth.com
Tread and nail portrait by Pamela Campagna.
NETwork07, Italy. 70x100cm, black and grey thread, nails on wooden board.
www.l-able.net
‘Mana’ by Kumi Yamashita.
Wood panel, brads, single piece of sewing thread.
2011, 40″ x 30″. www.kumiyamashita.com
Single piece of sewing thread looped on brads, on wood panel.
Close up of above. www.kumiyamashita.com
Oil and thread on canvas. Aimeé García Marrero was born in Cuba in 1972. She studied art at the Professional School of Fine Arts in Camagüey, Cuba and finished her post-graduate work at the Superior Art Institute in Havana, Cuba. Aimeé has been known to incorporate thread, wires, newspapers, lace, lead, hair and blood into her classically inspired paintings. alidaanderson.com
‘After The Mona Lisa 2’, 2005 by Devorah Sperber.
5,184 spools of thread hanging from aluminum ball chains, a clear acrylic sphere on steel stand (to see reverse image). 85” x 86”. www.devorahsperber.com
Focal length by Daniel Kornrumpf of Pennsylvannia.
2009, thread on linen, 42″ x 36″.
danielkornrumpf.com
Mondongo Argentina art collective includes artists Agustina Picasso, Manuel Mendanha, and Juliana Laffitte. From Thread/bare exhibit, 2007. Cotton threads on wood, close-up, original 59″ x 59″. www.maddoxarts.com
Cotton thread on wood panel by Mondongo, 2006.
www.maddoxarts.com
Muscle, 2011 by Emil Lukas, born 1964 Pittsburgh.
www.hosfeltgallery.com
Close-up. Emil Lukas, born 1964 Pittsburgh.
www.emillukas.com
‘Dialogue Lineaire’ by Jeongmoon Choi, who works with colored thread and lights to create illusions of perspective. Thread becomes a projection of an imaginary construction. Jeongmoon Choi was born in 1966 in Seoul, lives and works in Berlin. galerielaurentmueller.com
“Practice Bomber Range in the Mississippi Flyway” (detail) 95″ X 80″.
By Terese Agnew of Wisconsin who “draws with thread”.
Cotton and poly thread as well as cottons, bridal tulle, denim.
www.tardart.com
With a million ways to make beauty why do people want to make war!.