Sorry I'm starting a day late - I had a really crazy day yesterday - but to make it up to you I'm starting with 3 numbers, instead of 2, all picked by my lovely 6 year old Seb.
Eyes down ladies
Here we go
Your numbers are.....
#6: Turandot
This is a HAED... I know, lots of us dread them, but this one really captured me - like a lot of Marta Dahlig's work, I'm fascinated with her use of detail and colour, and this just captures something I think is fantastic. And the story behind it is just as fascinating as the art itself.
Turadnot is a three part opera - a story set in China - Prince Calà f falls in love with the cold Princess Turandot. To obtain permission to marry her, a suitor has to solve three riddles; any wrong answer results in death. Calà f passes the test, but Turandot still refuses to marry him. He offers her a way out: if she is able to learn his name before dawn the next day, then at daybreak he will die.
I don't know how the opera ends - I'm assuming badly - but the way this image portrays the character I find really intriguing. There is a fuller version of this design - you can see it
here - but I think the cropped version is way more intense - you can't help but wonder - why she is so "cold" - is it because of her life of royalty that's so constrained and restricted; does she feel she has no control - is it really as icy as it looks behind those eyes???
I just would love to stitch her
#26: Fan
Lady with fan by Gustav Klimt - I love this - the colours, the vibrance, it's just fabulous and would be totally amazing to stitch (not that I have anywhere to hang her!) She just caught my eye, and again, my imagination - moreso than his other well known work, like "the Kiss" for example. I couldn't find anything specific on the piece, but Klimt seems to be quite an interesting man. According to Wiki he is quoted as saying
"I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women... There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day after day from morning to night... Who ever wants to know something about me... ought to look carefully at my pictures."
#21: Rose
I love art, especially Waterhouse pieces, and this is one of my favourites - I think it would look amazing as a stitched piece. Most pieces I pick tend to have an element of intrigue behind them - and my imagination has always worked overtime anyway! I wonder how many times she gets to get out into the garden, if it's only in summer when the flowers are in bloom... She just looks so, well, sad really. What memory does the smell of a rose invoke, or is she remembering someone giving her a rose?
I looked up the picture's history, mostly because of this bingo
and it's really interesting. It's thought that the painting was inspired by a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poem in question is called 'Come into the Garde, Maud' and tells the story of a woman and her thoughts of her lost love.
If you fancy it (because it's way too long to post here) you can check it out
here 
That's it for tonight
I'll be back tomorrow with some more numbers
Good luck everyone
xx
for my picks. 
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