April 2021: Susan Opie

Susan Opie’s felted images takes a look at art history, but this time is focused on animals in art. A common subject matter, an animal may hold center stage, as in Stubb’s Grey Horse or often a cat, dog or even a guinea pig is a detail of a larger picture. Frida Kahlo has a monkey hanging on her neck. Max Beckmann’s animal is a cat mask at a wild masquerade party. Edward Hicks offers a whole zoo in his peaceable kingdoms.

I admire illustrations from the “golden age” of children’s literature and have made felts of anthropomorphic animals Babar, Uncle Wiggly and Peter Rabbit, some of my childhood favorites. Also included in this show are my original felts with no reference to literature or painting.

Try felting. It’s not that hard. All supplies can be bought on Ebay. I like to have on hand corriedale and merino wool, as they have different working properties with corriedale curly and chunky while merino has strands that are long and silky. And the more colors, the better