For me the winter in the Northwest exemplifies gray. I had some photos of my son and his wife, Jayme, taken during the winter at the Oregon Garden.
I love the shape of the bare trees and the bleak landscape with the golden grass. I created sketches of these photos in Photoshop to use in this piece.
The solo tree on the bottom was used to make a thermofax screen and the trees were screened on to silk organza. I have some more photos on my blog. The top photo was first printed on Jacquard's Extravorganza, but the gray color I got was not working with my other elements.
I was using some gray silk organza shibori for the background. I took a piece of that and backed it with a full page self stick label and ran it through my Epson printer to print the photo and loved the result. I decided to add the smaller photo as another element. I like how you see a far away view and then a close up.
I decided to add a bit of color in the grasses as a nod to the grass in the original photos. Here is a detail shot.
One thing I learned after doing this challenge — there are many shades of gray!!
This whole quilt says Portland to me Gerrie. All the different grays with that little bit of yellow is perfect.
ReplyDeleteOh, Gerrie, this is lovely. I really love how you've got the trees in three different ways -- the scale and tones work so beautifully. Now that i've read your description I see the figures under the tree but at first I thought it was two birds on a line or branch which fit, too. This really does feel like a soft gray morning.
ReplyDeleteThe trees are gorgeous and the figures are lovely and a little mysterious. Having seen this yesterday, I will say that the variety of textures is a wonderful part of the piece that are more apparent in person!
ReplyDeleteGrey comes in all different hues -- warm, cool, light, and dark. I like that you've embraced part of that spectrum. The softness of the organza and the hand stitching emphasize that blurry quality of a grey Northwestern day. I like it very much!
ReplyDeleteThe others have said it all! I can only add that I really, REALLY like this one!
ReplyDeleteI like how you repeated the trees over the piece and your hand embroidery adds so much interest and texture.
ReplyDeleteThis is so lovely. Winter is in full swing here, so I know how grey it feels, but I remember how beautiful it is, looking at this
ReplyDeleteMy favorite bit of this wonderful little quilt are all the interesting lines of hand stitching and how they literally connect all the different elements. The print of the images on the silk is beautiful! Sometimes artists try to incorporate photos in their work and it just looks clunky; as if they have forgotten that we use fabric for a reason. You have achieved a lovely balance of imagery and material!
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