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.

Deception Pass: Where Are We Headed?

Once again inspiration came from a previous visit to Whidbey Island just off the coast of Washington State. The only connection from the mainland to the island is to cross the Deception Pass bridge.  It is actually built as two spans and rises about 180 feet above the water. Above is an image of the bridge taken from Wikipedia and below is my art quilt.

I happened to be there on a sunny, but chilly, September day when the fog was wrapping around the bridge in a fascinating way as it moved inland from Puget Sound. 

Eventually, it did cover the bridge entirely making for an eerie atmosphere as cars and bridge walkers disappeared into the mist. It is the following picture that I have had in my head for some time as a possible design to explore.

 

When a call to artists went out for a regional SAQA show titled Bridge I knew I had my inspiration hanging in the back of my mind.  Deception Pass: Where Are We Headed? is the result.  I struggled with this one quite a while because the value changes had to be fairly strong in a short distance, in this case 32", but not make huge jumps or it wouldn't "flow". Here is a detail shot of the stitching.

And, just for fun, here's a look at it upside down!  I almost like it better this way but then it wouldn't be the Deception Pass bridge anymore! What do you think?

 

Continuing Ispiration

I know I have shown this picture of Ebey's prairie, located on Whidbey Island in the State of Washington, before but I am surprised by how many times I have come back to it for inspiration.  Mostly I have greatly simplified the image as in this 8 x 8 inch piece titled Prairie III.

Most recently, I decided to really delve into more of the details of the photo. I knew perspective would be critical so the angles of the field lines would be crucial.  I might tweak these a bit if I did it over again but this newest work seems to have captured the feeling of spaciousness that I get from looking at the original photo.  This is now my fourth piece that has come from just this one picture, Prairie IV.

 

Here is a detail image.  I have found that I really love stitching the foreground grasses with their grace and illusion of movement from the breeze.  One lucky break was the blue sky fabric. I had only one small piece left of this and it had lighter areas that ran vertical to way I needed to lay the piece.  Normally I would have wanted the light are to run horizontally but somehow this vertical "stripe" matched up perfectly with the open view to the distant ocean.  I had not enough fabric to move it right or left and still fit into my 12 x 12 inch space.  Sometimes there is inspiration and sometimes there is sheer luck!

New travel inspirations

I know there is plenty of artistic inspiration close to home but it seems that I have a harder time "seeing" until I leave my familiar surroundings.  My recent trip to Whidbey Island was full of wonderful eye, and camera, candy.  The Deception Pass Bridge was half enveloped in fog the day I was there.  I loved these two images that make it look like a "bridge to nowhere".

It was that time of year when the sun would be out in one place but then not only a few hundred yards away.  There was that sort of cloudy bright lighting that made everything look more dramatic.  I took a couple pictures of fields that seem like they could be good quilt inspiration some day. 

Of course, the madrone trees, which grow so well there, always add drama with their peeling bark and warm colors.