More inspiration, Oregon+

As promised in the last post, I have completed a piece inspired by the photograph of the flower seed fields taken near Silverton, Oregon.  I called it The Flower Seed Grower.  Below is the original photo in case you missed it in the previous post. The size of this piece is 12" by 12".  I find that this is a very saleable size to offer in galleries.  I did a little more thread painting than usual in the flower fields.

I also made another 12" by 12" piece at the same time.  Once again, I found inspiration in one of my photos from Ebey's Prairie on Whidbey Island in Washington State.  I added some Queen Anne's lace flowers to change things up a little bit.  Everyone seems to enjoy any of these scenes with the barbed wire in the foreground.  It must be the contrast of hard with soft, both in the colors and the organic background. I titled this one (what else?) Prairie V.

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I hope these little scenes bring you the sense of peace and timelessness that I feel when I am looking at inspiration photos and in the making of them.

Oregon Inspiration

 Spring is a beautiful time in Oregon. In addition to all the blooms in people's yards the farmlands come to life as well. A common sight here are fields full of plants being grown specifically for seed. Of course, in order to have seed there must be flowers. Sometimes there are huge swaths of color covering many acres. One of those seed crops is the mustard plant which looks somewhat like the color of processed mustard. It is hard to take your eyes off these fields when lit up by the sun. I had to make a  piece like this when a friend sent me a picture she took along the roadside a couple of years ago.  

This piece is only 8" by 11" and was made for a benefit auction at the SAQA conference in San Antonio in April. I'm happy to say that it raised $175 for this great organization.

Since the original was a little dark I tweaked it in Photoshop in order to get a truer look.  Here is the edited photo which became the quilted piece.

  

This Spring she sent me some new photos that could become an even more exciting piece.  We decided it is a field of California poppies in front of a field of erysimum, also known as wallflower.  Such a stunning combination!  I wonder if the farmer planned it that way?  I can't wait to make this one up. Hard to believe but I might even have fabric in these colors already in my stash!