Sophie Taeuber-Arp was an amazing artist who worked in all different kinds of mediums and materials. She was born in Switzerland in 1889. She studied art in school when she got older and learned about all different ways to create including painting, weaving, dance, and beadwork. Sophie also taught arts and design while working on her own artworks. She began to show her work more frequently and continued to have lots of exhibitions and success, though she is often not recognized as a major contributing artist of this time, mostly because she was a woman and because she would work with materials that weren’t considered “fine art.” Sophie worked to overcome this idea though and wanted art and everyday to overlap- why couldn’t pillows, rugs, and purses have designs that were also works of art?
Here is some of her art:
We felt so inspired by her woven artworks, the texture and colors are so incredible. We wanted to make some of our own, and since we dont have weaving skills we decided to paint on top of a woven texture.
Materials:
-blank cotton placemat (we used these ones from target)
- pencil
- acrylic paint
- paintbrush
- cup of water
Before we started we first looked at some of Sophie’s art and discussed the shapes and colors we noticed, we just shared a few examples but take some time to google some more of her work together and simple share what you see.
Before you begin painting I suggest covering your workspace in some paper (the paint can bleed through the placemat). Then we laid down our placemats and sketched our designs on top with pencil. Next we painted.
It was a great experience to work on a new texture and to create a work of art that could also have a purpose. You could use it as a rug or a placemat.
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