As we all know, Pinterest gathers together images that their algorithm flags as things that may interest each of us, given our previous searches and pins. As I scroll down their latest selections I’m always on the watch for patterns that people are making with stitch. Indeed one of my Pinterest boards is titled ‘Contemporary Stitch’ and the introduction to it reads “These are pins of stitch as art – “ and it’s where I pin interesting images of what people are doing with hand stitch – one of my long term loves.

So this image caught my eye and my reaction was (a) Oooh, lovely colours, and (b) Nice stitch patterning … but as I followed the embedded link I found this was not stitch but painting.

They’re examples illustrating a then-new online painting class Australian artist, Laura Horn was announcing However, they could have been stitching texture patterns, right at home in the art of Dorothy Caldwell Christine Mauersberger, Rieko Koga and others whose fibre art I admire. I have found stitch filler patterning in other painters like Agnes Martin , Liam Murphy, and many contemporary Aboriginal painters. To me dots=french knots, short lines=straight stitches, and longer lines=couching, maybe – all of which there are plenty in this photo.