For any textile fan, the appeal of Matisse is relatively easy to see. Born in 1869, he was brought up in the industrial north of France, surrounded by woollen mills and other fabric making ventures. He collected fabrics and used them in the background of his paintings. The patterns are often very exciting and I can spend more time looking at them than at the person who is the subject of the portrait. During the Second World War, he was very ill and had an operation which he was surprised to have survived. However, due to this and other ongoing bouts of illness, he always struggled with the physical aspect of painting. Towards the end of his life, he was effectively bedridden. At this point, most of us would have shrugged our shoulders and mourned the passing of the active part of our lives, trying to adjust to a life without. Not so for Matisse. Art was his life, and he needed to find a way to express the ideas that were bubbling away in his head; this is when he developed his cut-out technique. Using massive scissors akin to traditional tailor's shears, he cut shapes from sheets of painted paper and had them pinned on to the wall. From his bed, he directed and re-cut until he was content with a piece, leaving them on the wall for days or months until he was truly satisfied. He had a number of assistants whose roles consisted of painting papers with flat colour, then placing the shapes on the wall in the right place, attaching them with pins and a hammer. Finally, through a tracing process to get the exact placement, the assistants would transfer the precious coloured cut-outs to a background paper and glue them in place. To start with this process was treated with derision by the art world; just an old man's hobby, a great artist reduced to a mere shadow of his former self. Over time, however, these works began to be viewed as revolutionary - an entirely new technique of artistic expression.
COLOUR
Matisse had a wonderful sense of colour, which brings these works alive. It is very bold - no soft pastels here. Making something with flat colour, without printed detail or batik pattern,is something unusual for quilters today; seeing these works on paper by Matisse convinced me that it's something worth trying, as it has such an impact.
COMPOSITION
Matisse's compositions are also very powerful. Look how carefully balanced they are, and at his use of negative space. (This is the space around the main blocks of colour in a work, giving the colours space to breathe). He also uses repeats to clever effect to emphasise a shape. He achieved this through repeating the shape or using the paper the shape was cut from; a positive and negative of a shape in the same work.
TRANSFERRING TO FABRIC
Matisse described his cut-out technique as drawing with scissors. This could also be a useful way of describing applique, if you add 'and a needle' in to the phrase. His work is so fresh that even looking at the originals it is hard to believe that they are over 60 years old. Their potential for transfer into patchwork is evident, but just as I have no desire to exactly copy someone else's quilt, I have no desire to exactly copy a Matisse cut-out in fabric. However, I fell in love with the idea of the technique, and after exploring the exhibition I was desperate to try out some more paper collage and applique. My first attempts, using my daughter's pack of Ikea coloured paper, reminded me of just how skilled Matisse was. It takes a real genius to make something look so simple! I would suggest that using paper, scissors and a glue stick is a great way to experiment before you cut into expensive fabric, to get a feel for the possibilities. Matisse's shapes developed over time - the more you cut into paper or fabric, the more you will discover which motifs suit your work, as they will keep recurring. To make in fabric, you can either press fusible web onto the back of the fabric before cutting, then fuse onto your background. Alternatively, raw edge applique can be used; cut the shapes out and stitch in place using a matching or invisible thread and a blind hem orzig zag stitch. If you follow the latter approach, layer up your background with wadding and backing fabric before you start, then you can stitch through all the layers at once, thereby quilting at the same time as appliqueing.
DESIGN WALL
Matisse's way of using his bedroom wall to work out the design, pinning his paper pieces in place, has remarkable similarities with the concept of a quilter's design wall. The advice given by quilt tutors everywhere, including myself, is to pin your quilt pieces on a design wall or a piece of wadding stuck wherever you can and look at it. Make adjustments as you think necessary, walk away and come back with fresh eyes and look again. Adjust and tweak until you are happy with the design. If s so much easier to change at this point than once they are stuck/stitched in place! One huge advantage we have over Matisse nowadays is the proliferation of digital cameras, enabling us to photograph a layout, muse over it and then, if we don't like the next round of changes, ifs much easier to alter the layout back to the original when you have a photo.
USEFUL IDEAS FROM MATISSE
The background colour for your collage/ applique does not need to be white.
You can use both the piece you cut and the piece you cut the fabric from - they will echo each other as a positive and negative of the same shape. They can be used in the same quilt, or in two different ones.
This technique works for all sizes. Matisse's works ranged from approx A4 in size to over 6m wide. You don't need to make your quilts quite this big though! If you want to adjust a shape and you've cut it too small, you can always add another piece over the top to get it to the right proportions. From reproductions in books, it often looks like Matisse has used one piece of paper. In fact, some of the shapes are pieced from four or more smaller pieces, with some small contouradjustments at the edges.
Try and try again. Matisse wrestled with certain pieces like his Blue Nude series for years. The last one in the series of four was actually the first one started.
FABRIC ADVANTAGES
Creating these pieces in fabric has some advantages over paper. Matisse obviously wanted the flat, simple colour as he specified this to his assistants and he rarely added pen or ink marks on top. However, you could make the surface of your piece come alive with your choice of quilting; the background could be faded back, making the shapes pop out even more, or different coloured threads could be used. You could add embellishments, such as buttons or beads to create a lively surface. I also think using a tone-on-tone coloured fabric could result in some interesting work.