cayce zavaglia

caycezavaglia

Brace yourself… embroidered portraits. Yep, insanely detailed embroidered portraits by American artist Cayce Zavaglia. I have loved her work for years but never wrote about it because, well, everyone else already had! You know what… I don’t care! Look at this embroidery, these beautiful color choices, and all of those lovely faces. It’s like impressionism, but with thread. STUNNING. Sigh. There, I feel better.

{Thanks to my friend Melinda at Good Eye Gallery for reminding me about Cayce’s work}






comments (16)

  1. sandra sorensen /// 04.13.2016 /// 3:47am

    wow! incredible, beautiful, and astonishing work…. what a labour of love!!

  2. Cecile /// 04.13.2016 /// 5:32am

    It can’t be… My first thought was “maybe this is a painting of an embroidery painting?” The patience and detail are mind-boggling!

  3. Cecile /// 04.13.2016 /// 5:35am

    And her verso paintings are even more amazing!

  4. Sally Herman /// 04.13.2016 /// 9:44am

    I can’t even.

    A true master.

  5. Cayce zavaglia /// 04.13.2016 /// 10:22am

    Oh you are sweet. Made my day! ❤️

  6. Sherry Knutson /// 04.13.2016 /// 8:23pm

    Wow! The biggest inspiration ever…just starting my steps into needle point and I am an oil painter! Thank you! Just amazing!

  7. Jen /// 04.13.2016 /// 10:19pm

    Woah. Unbelievable!

  8. brandi marie /// 04.14.2016 /// 2:17pm

    Holy wow!

  9. Cindy Press /// 04.16.2016 /// 5:52am

    When I saw these in person I had to keep telling my brain they were actually embroidered, just breathtaking!

  10. Hollie Regalo /// 04.16.2016 /// 10:50am

    YES! So excited to see Cayce’s work here, she is a huge inspiration for my own work. I’ve met her and she is a lovely person (and a fellow St Louisan).

  11. Faye Robinson /// 04.16.2016 /// 6:03pm

    I do embroidery with a threaded needle rather than by machine. I am totally in awe of these pieces, what talent and what an eye for colors etc. It has been my pleasure to see them. Thank you

  12. Mavrick /// 04.17.2016 /// 12:51pm

    Kewl you should come up with that. Exectlenl!

  13. Niki Havekost /// 04.20.2016 /// 8:36am

    Cayce has long been one of my artist crushes…have you seen Jess Larson’s work? She is another crush who makes really lovely embroidery that I think you might like. Here is a link to her portfolio:
    http://jesslarson.com/wordpress/portfolio/

    Thank you for this amazing site. It is such an inspiration!

  14. Uncle Beefy /// 04.23.2016 /// 10:03pm

    Good lord!!! STUNNING! I am swooning!

  15. Sara Cassidy /// 05.11.2016 /// 4:25am

    Dear JC, am really enjoying your divergent art selections each week. As a teacher of high school students And an artist in my spare hours, I am often looking for inspiration. Being a visual omnivore it is really useful to know the actual size of an artwork, then you can really conceptualise it…. Could you please include this information. Is Zavaglia’s work in miniature or not?

  16. the jealous curator /// 05.11.2016 /// 6:51am

    she doesn’t have dimensions on her site, but i did a bit of poking around in her exhibition section (click on her name, it’s a link to her site) and most of the embroideries are quite small (8x10ish, 12×12 maybe), but her painting/embroideries are HUGE! (not shown in this post)