Welcome to the Unconventional Artistry of Lisa Charles

What is thread painting, you wonder?
Excellent question.

In the often overlooked medium of fiber art—that is, art created with thread, cloth, yarn, gunny sacks, tea bags, etc.—thread painting stands out as one of the more confounding disciplines. It is a hybrid of painting and fiber art that is most similar to pastel painting. In the case of Lisa’s work, instead of hundreds of individual sticks of pastel from which to choose, she has hundreds of spools of thread.

Each painting will have three to four layers of thread. Lisa combines natural and synthetic fibers and can spend hours looking for the exact color and textured thread to add into a painting.

The physical act of thread painting is taxing. Lisa often sits at her home sewing machine for three-hour stretches. Stitches are applied using the foot pedal and the hand crank. In this manner, she creates multiple layers that give her work a sense of depth and movement.