Tuscan Landscape by Trish Burr

10th April 2020

In our opinion, art and needlework are one and the same thing. But we love it when designers draw on traditional art movements to inform their needlework and Trish Burr’s Tuscan Landscape does just that.

This stunning needle painted masterpiece harks back to the days of the Post-Impressionist artist, Cezanne, and would not have been out of place in the Paris salons of the 1880s and 1890s.

Cezanne was an artist whose use of bold colour and flattened perspective marked a break with Impressionism before him. His observation of nature and landscape highlighted the layering of colour and the demarcation between objects, something which translates beautifully into needle and thread.

In keeping with that style, Trish’s Tuscan Landscape is worked in rich, jewel-like colours which speak of the heat of a summer’s day. Yet each hill and each flower has a distinct border which serves to emphasise the overall perspective.

Subtle shading is used in each element and, as with all threadpainting, it is the combination of colour blending and stitch direction which gives such a painterly effect.

Tuscan Landscape draws you in. You can almost feel the soft summer breeze and the heat from the landscape, smell the lavender from the distant fields, and hear the sounds of birds twittering in the trees sitting snugly against the ancient farmhouse.

Whether you’ve been to Tuscany or daydream about one day visiting, Tuscan Landscape is both a beautiful memento and an inspirational project to stitch.