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This artform can be traced back to 16th century Denmark. Danish NeedlePainting was brought to Canada by Yrsa Wennike Petersen in 1930. She was inspired by a wool painting she had seen made by King Christian IV. In the early 1960's Dorothy Brooks (Niagara Falls, Ontario) became a student of Petersen's and quickly excelled at the artform. In 1969, she brought her talents across the boarder to her new home in Rochester, New York. There she too became a DNP instructor and mentor to many would-be artisans in her new community.
The process begins with white satin, stretched over a wooden frame and stapled to the edges. Most of her paintings were 8"x10". Dorothy would sketch the scene to the satin using a ball point pen. Next, the sky was colored using pastel chalk. Then came the intricate task of filling in the landscape, which was sewn freehand using tapestry wool. She used an old fashioned iron as a counterweight to hold half the frame to the edge of the kitchen table and hang the other half over the edge, giving her open space to sew above and below the frame.
When the painting was complete, the staples were removed from the satin and frame, and the painting was stretched over masonboard with the excess edges folded to the back and glued. Once the glue was dry, the painting was framed and covered with non-glare glass.
Over the years, Dorothy taught many people the art of Danish NeedlePainting. After moving to Southern California in 1974, she became a fixture at local arts and crafts shows, selling many of her paintings and winning 1st place and Honorable Mention at several.
Dorothy often found inspiration for her paintings from scenic postcards, calendars and other photographs. Dorothy's masterpiece was called "The Old Forge at Sunset," a quaint English countryside scene originally painted by JW Gozzard (AKA "F Arnold") and made into a greeting card. Dorothy's mother-in-law Eva Brooks gave her the card and suggested it would make a good DNP project. Dorothy agreed and set out to make "The Old Forge" her magnum opus, even doubling her typical canvas to an oversized 11x17 canvas. Dorothy worked on the painting off and on from 1969 to 1973. When she finally completed "The Old Forge" and unveiled it to her mother in law, Eva assumed the painting was a gift for her and said, "Oh Dorothy! Thank you so much! It's beautiful." When Dorothy's husband heard his mother lay claim to Dorothy's masterpiece, he quickly intervened and said, "I don't think so! She worked really hard on that and we're keeping it!" Feeling dismayed over the misunderstanding, Dorothy set out to create a second "Old Forge" for Eva. Fueled by guilt and a desire to right the misunderstanding, Dorothy made her second Old Forge in less than a week and presented it to a very happy Eva. Over the seven years that followed, Dorothy made and sold five more Old Forge's each selling for over $400 or more.
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