It’s a good question, no? Why thread? Why sew a portrait, and not paint it?

And actually, almost every time I make a pet portrait, I do start with painting. Imagine future picture restorers conscientiously brushing off the dust, and removing the threads to reveal the masterpiece beneath. Well, let me save you some time right here: if you unpick these portraits, all you’ll find is a scrap of cloth falling to bits, completely shredded by the number of holes made in it. So don’t do that; but you can go back through the photos and find some treasure.

I absolutely love these. I love the gentleness of them, the ghostly fade as the paint bleeds down and becomes lost in the muted shifting colour of the material, or even just in its texture – the angle of fabric’s warp and weft also holds an influence on the play of the light across the piece. So what I’m basically saying, in a paragraph about painting, is how much I love textiles. Go figure.

Ah, now here’s an all time favourite painting of mine. I don’t know why, it’s not the best technically, but there is something magical in how the paint brings life into a very basic appliqué: three brown patches on a white cut-out now has a winsome charm you can’t altogether explain.

That nose!

Black dogs are different. Black fabric paint (all I ever use – though I have dabbled with using tea off and on – sometimes intentionally, sometimes when I dip my brush in the wrong tea cup!) wouldn’t work. With a black dog, I can do little more than lick my water soluble white pencil, note the eyes and nose and then plunge in with the sewing machine, feeling nervous.

So why not do that with all the dogs – just plunge in? Why waste the time painting if it all gets covered up? I started this post trying to answer one good question: why not just paint, and have ended up posing another: why paint. I’m not sure there’s an answer to either. How you work changes all the time, and maybe at the end of all this thinking, the lightbulb that has been sitting patiently over my head for some years now, will finally ping on, and I will start saving myself all that painting time (or all that sewing time – and that would be a much greater saving!!), but I don’t know. The first reason for painting, is that I like it. I love it, and I love the paintings, for the short time they hang around.

I suspect that the real reason for painting is procrastination. It puts off that dreadful moment when you have to start sewing. That early stitching, when it really doesn’t amount to much, when you begin to doubt that you’ll be able to pull it off again this time, that is not so much fun, so it’s good to keep going with a painting that will never be seen. But I’m not sure that’s altogether fair, nor, indeed, that procrastination is always a bad thing – arguably it allows you more thinking time (it’s up to you how you use it). So perhaps there is value to the underpainting, perhaps it is a bit like writing an essay plan before an essay. It’s a chance to marshal ones thoughts, to get a feel for the shape and character of the portrait before the anxiety that every mark matters.

And the answer to why sew? That will have to wait for another time.