I started both quilts in November during an online class with artist Pamela Allen called Four Quilts. In Lesson One, we chose a painting and tried to reproduce the palette or color scheme in fabric. I chose this lovely painting by American Impressionist Mary Cassatt.
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| Portrait of Mlle. C. Lydia Cassatt, Mary Cassatt, 1880 |
Usually, this color study is a quick mock-up to see if the fabrics we select really work. In other words, are the colors in the same values? The fabrics are cut free-hand with scissors and glue-basted to batting.
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| Miss Lydia, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2012 |
It was fairly easy to cut all the rather loose blobby shapes except for the face. It took about four tries to cut a head that was the right size and had a pleasing profile. In fact, I liked my color study so well that I decided to hand-embroider the raw-edge shapes, and then quilt it. I also added gold and other colors of Shiva Paint Sticks to try to replicate the light and reflections of the painting. I quilted it with a variegated orange-yellow-green thread, a pear green, and black.
The other project is my original composition using the same palette. My chosen subject for the class was landscapes. I worked from a photo of a barn in the North Carolina mountains. It is actually a horse stable that we pass every time we descend from the top of "our" mountain on our Gator rides.
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| Glen's Barn in Autumn, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2012 |
In the late afternoon, the sun is rapidly blocked by the mountain. The last rays of the sun really light up the goldenrod and the beautiful autumn foliage. Usually, our dog Kasey is running ahead of us, so I thought about putting her in the picture with her golden glowing coat. Maybe next time!
2 comments:
I hope you bring them for show & tell!
Both are just lovely. Good job.
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