I may have missed the very promising exhibition The Pre-raphaelite Sisters at the National Portrait Gallery in London, what I did not miss though, is that:
a) its curator Jan Marsh has a blog where you can read about history of art, the making of an exhibition and other art-related subjects; and
b) I fell in love with artist Marina Elphick‘s work, discovered through Marsh’s blog.
Elphick was showcased at the Preraphaelite Sisters conference at York, where she brought her own depictions of the famous Preraphaelite models made with fabric and thread. Her “muses” as she calls them, are skillfully crafted (look at the hair! look at the dresses!) and perfectly beautiful. But that’s not everything. Not only did she create these amazing figures, but she also collaged them into illustrations, photographs and paintings of their contemporaries, thus creating new artworks for us all to enjoy.
Posing in picturesque landscapes and Victorian interiors, the muses are depicted as Elphick imagined their lives were. But she didn’t stop there either! On her website, she also shares the biographies of each of her muses, filled with details, portraits and anecdotes.
The creative process Elphick went through to create this multifacted project resulted in a very aesthetically pleasing, dream-like world where her enigmatic figures evolve surrounded by art and history. *le sigh!*
The Art Gazette 