ABOUT LYNNE FELDMAN…

I grew up on Manhattan’s upper west side and began my formal art training at the age of 12 at the Art Students League of New York and continued to study drawing and painting there for the next 15 years. I attended New York University and Empire State College and received a master’s in art education from Columbia University. My works have been exhibited in galleries, museums and public spaces around the country. 

ABOUT MY PROCESS…PAINTING WITH FABRIC

I had been painting in oils for 40 years when I decided to take a weeklong workshop at Bennington College entitled “Painting with Fabric”. At this workshop I was introduced to the mixed media technique of collage on canvas - gluing fabric onto the canvas and then painting with acrylics. I totally fell in love with this process.  I had always been attracted to pattern, integrating design into my works in order to bring color and movement into my compositions. Now I not only had access to an infinite number of colors but also to a seemingly infinite number of patterned fabrics from all over the world.

I begin each piece as I would any other painting, by stretching canvas over wooden stretchers strips. I then draw the entire composition onto the canvas in charcoal and block the shapes out with acrylic paint. In this way I can plan what the painting will look like before I begin gluing the materials. I then cut the fabric, piece it into the shapes of the drawing, glue it into place and paint over it with acrylics as needed.  I layer the work back and forth with fabric and paint until the surface of it is thick and rich in color, pattern and texture.