Denver painter Madeleine O’Connell turns her vivid canvases into gorgeous fabric. BY MEGAN FELDMAN • Madeleine O’Connell doesn’t shy away from whimsy. The Highland artist’s oil paintings—ornately adorned women and tropical birds, for example—burst with color, and her line of vintage-inspired statement jewelry sparkles. So when we heard about O’Connell’s newest artistic endeavor—fabric design—we were thrilled. It all began two years ago with a nudge from O’Connell’s sister, who asked to use one of the paintings to make fabric for a shirt. (Creativity runs in the family.) To O’Connell, it was an I-can-do-that moment. “I’ve been painting for 30 years, and I’ve always responded to patterns and textiles and fabrics,” she says. So she photographed portions of her paintings—the tablecloth of a still life, a woman’s dress from a portrait—then used a computer to create patterns. The result is the newly launched Madeleine O’Connell Textiles, a collection of kaleidoscope-like fabrics. Perfect for an accent pillow or occasion chair, the fabric will add a punch of the unexpected—and some local art—to your home.
A bold fabric pattern can be a great starting point for a color palette. Here, velvet chair upholstery with a vibrant Foo-dog motif—adapted from a painting by Denver artist Madeleine O’Connell—sparked the blue-and-citron theme, which benefits from a few subtle pops of pink. “I like to use the less obvious colors in a bold pattern,” Schroder says of the latter. “It’s not so in your face, but the eye picks up on those details.”
Denver County Fair 2011: Winner Grand Champion of Fashion Pavilion Fabric Design : Blue and Red Ribbons Jewelry Design: Red Ribbon Recycled/Reused: Red and White Ribbons