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Living with Fashion Knitwear Designer Laura Flaszcznska, I was inspired by her work, especially the potential connections between painting and knitting. Two different techniques which at first glance appear to have nothing in common, so I decided to try to connect these two media. Weaving and knitting are present in the fashion world, of course, but they also permeate the art world and a number of artists have been inspired by, or employ, textiles in their work including Sonia Delaunay, Richard Tuttle, Bernat Klein and Magdalena Abakanowicz.

As with canvas, knitting techniques can vary depending on the thickness of the wool. You have to adopt a specific technique to suit each particular material. My painting ‘Knitting’ (as the title suggests) is based on knitting and, after studying Laura’s knitting samples, I found a way to represent it through paint – by employing fat layers of oil colours I was able to find a similar way to work. One colour connects to the adjoining second colour, and the whole structure builds slowly as with knitting.

Through this painting, I can see how pairing different media can be beneficial, from digital media to the more primary techniques like knitting and weaving.

I believe that the mass of colours and interesting structure make this painting visually attractive to many people. However, for me, the colours are merely an echo of Laura’s work which has a feminist agenda.

The project’s ‘chakras’ show a connection between body and art. Different colours indicate different chakras as well representing different personalities. We can see this in Laura’s work; orange is the colour of the Second Chakra and represents sexuality and creativity, whereas turquoise blue is the Throat Chakra and demonstrates an ability to communicate and express ourselves.