Sunday, June 1, 2008

Music From Across the Water



I so enjoyed making this water piece!

My goal was to convey a sense of water that wasn't blue. I found myself thinking about reflections in water, and the wonderful ripply lines.

And then I found a stunning photograph by Flickr friend Russell Docksteader. You can see Russell's "Water Music" photograph here. (He has a lot of stunning water reflection pictures on his photostream, in case you want to cruise.) With Russell's permission, I translated the image into fabric for my piece.

I did this as a whole cloth piece, painting the colors with Tsukineko inks. Then I machine quilted it. I studied Robin Ferrier's facing/corner triangle method and used that on the back -- it was easy and worked great!

Karen, you picked a great topic. This had a great range of possibilities and I really enjoyed it.

11 comments:

Kristin L said...

Kudos to you for doing water with little to no blue!! And it still reads most definitely as water. This would be a great one to do again large using mola-style applique instead of inks.

Diane Perin said...

Originally, I was going to the piece with reverse applique -- but I knew it'd be way too hard for this small of a piece. That's when I resorted to paints. But you're right, it'd be very cool to do as a large piece. I'll add that to the list of projects I want to get to! :-)

Terri Stegmiller said...

It's gorgeous Diane. My eyes keep traveling around to all the lovely colors and I agree with Kristin, it definitely looks like ripply water.

Gerrie said...

I went and looked at his photos - fabulous! You did a great job of recreating his lovely photo with inks.You see water right away. You got lots of lovely value changes in the painting which adds so much to the composition. Great job.

Unknown said...

Excellent water translation Diane! It makes me think of the water by the boat docks with all the gasoline in it, yeah, pollution I know but it always looks so beautiful.

Karen said...

When I first saw this I saw so much movement, and when I read about the music it made perfect sense. I have some of those inks, now I'll have to try them, this is really beautiful

Deborah Boschert said...

Wow. I am really impressed, Diane. Did you use some kind of overlay or tracing from the photograph? Or did you just eyeball the painting. It's really effective. I love that white reflection down the middle. It give the whole piece of sense of balance and symmetry.

Terry Grant said...

Very effective! The colors are so unusual and yet there is no mistaking that this is water we are looking at. I would love to see this piece in person.

Nikki said...

Love the watery reflection! The piece draws me in and makes me want to see more of the surroundings. The reflected buildings must be a beautiful rainbow of colors. And what is that bright white line.

I also enjoyed Russels's story of Handel's "Water Music." I can see the music dancing across the river.

Great Job!

Françoise said...

Beautiful! Love the rich colours. Lots of movement too in this piece. Well done!

Anonymous said...

It's wonderful how you have been able to use an image from one sharing community (Flickr) and transport it over to another online medium. For me, this has a deep south Muddy Waters feel to it. Perhaps, this should be a mult-media installation accompanied by jazz!