Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Seeing Through

I really loved this theme. Thank you for picking such an inspiring image, Gerrie.

I wanted to explore layers, transparency and variety of texture. I've titled it "Seeing Through."

On a few of the daily pieces I've been doing for my Lent series, I've set small pieces on two layers wool felt. I like stitching through it and I like the additional border detail.

I did printing with paint using a Lego on the building on the left. The next building is some sheer-ish netting on which I did some hand embroidery. The next piece is hand painted and I cut all the windows out with an exacto knife. You can barely see the greenish building that is painted on the surface using a freezer paper stencil. The short navy building has a grid pattern that I printed with paint on plastic canvas. The wide purple building has lots of big cut out windows and the blue sheer building on the right is made with poly organza and stitched with more hand embroidery.
I machine quilted three building images in the background before I added all the buildings in the foreground.

Like Gerrie, I love the grid format of windows in big buildings. In fact, I love the grid in general. I really enjoyed exploring this design element for the windows theme.

14 comments:

Karen said...

Deborah, there is so much great texture to this piece, I want to touch it! I'm going to have to explore felt further, yours is the second one I've read that uses felt and it seems like such a great idea

Dolores said...

What a great interpretation. I love all the layers and looking at it very closely.

Terry Grant said...

Oh, I love the sense of space, of filtered light. There is something both familiar and mysterious in this piece. It makes me think of that wonderful light of very early evening--the "blue hour"--where even the air seems suffused with that glowing blue.

Françoise said...

Beautiful! I like the colours and all the different shapes.
Love the edges too. Great idea to use this double layer of felt.

Diane Perin said...

Yes! I agree with what everyone has said -- beautiful colors and shapes and the sense of light and transparency are wonderful. I love how you've used the shapes and sizes and textures to add to the sense of a cityscape, too.

Kristin L said...

What a fun collection of techniques and textures. You've pulled it all together quite nicely (of course). I like how it's playful and sophisticated at the same time.

Terri Stegmiller said...

Layers upon layers upon layers of buildings and windows....love it! I like the repetitiveness of the grid look as well. I enjoyed reading how you created each building and that they are all different. Love the color scheme too.

PAMELA said...

I love your use of colour; also combo of square and circular shapes. Very simple but so effective particularly for showcasing windows. Congratulations.

Gerrie said...

This is probably my favorite piece and closer to what I might have done. I love each little element and how the work together to create one of my favorite scenes - highrise windows. I love how each element almost seems to move in and out of the other. That dark rectangle in the lower center is genius. It really anchors the piece. Great job!!

Anonymous said...

Deborah, this made me gasp! So pretty :) The sheer variety of techniques is surprising because it all looks so cohesive. Love the irregular edge, too!

Maggi said...

The shapes and colours are fantastic. There is such depth to the piece

Unknown said...

A very goiod example of desgn variation. Not t be critical but to comment - Although generally I lik ethe quits a lot especially the irregular edge the transparancy of the right hand building jars a little for me - although on second glance it is on top it looked at first like the buildings were intertwined. Of course there is no right or wrong choice here but i am curious if you auditioned the placement of the buildings and chose to make that one transparent for a reason?

Brenda said...

I'm so glad that someone did a cityscape and in such an interesting, original way. The hand stitching is exquisite.

Jeanne Turner McBrayer said...

Lovely! The pastel colors, variety of shapes and fabrics, hand and machine-stitching, painting,all add to the beauty of this piece.