British artist Benjamin Shine creates textured “paintings” by carefully folding and ironing one giant sheet of tulle fabric. His subjects range from portraits of iconic stars like Elizabeth Taylor to realistic renditions of elderly hands and beautifully abstract faces emerging from the flowing netted material.
Shine says, “The idea of ‘painting with fabric’ led to the development of this technique where the portrait image is created through the intricate pleating and pressing of a single length of tulle fabric. The technique aims to utilize the translucent qualities of the tulle fabric to generate various gradients, tones and textures.”
The naturally semitransparent mesh is layered upon itself to succeed in simulating varying shades. The result is an amazing monochromatic image rich with texture. For some of his more abstract work known as Flows, Shine says, “[They] take their compositional cues from the fabric itself to reveal the inherent qualities of motion, fragility and transience.”
