The quilt I’ve been working on this past week is a good fit with my summertime longings.
There is a section depicting a young girl, dipping her toe into water, the water functioning as a respite, or a place of dreaming.
In the I-can’t-believe-it’s-this-hot-and-we’re-still-alive days of Florida summer, by most mid-afternoons I am dreaming of water. The wonderful cool springs about ten minutes from my home beckon me for a cool swim.
Here’s a detail of the water in the quilt as it exists so far:
Both halves of this water scene are transfers of photos onto fabric. The lower section is a photo I took near the edge of a small lake nearby. It captures the quality of water to reflect light. And I love the contrast created by the bits of plant life.
The top section — bubbles, specs of light, fantasy — are also a photo transfer. But I did not photograph actual water. This is a close-up shot of the surface of one of my plywood painting boards, which had absorbed splashes and spatters and spills over time. I just love it.
Water is varied. Water is all about light.
Water is all about contrasts in lights and dark.
Water is all about movement.
Water is about unpredictability.
Just as I was about to sit down and write this weekend, I was moving a few things around in my studio. I snapped a few images of water created in other ways.
This is also a photo transfer. I remember going out in a canoe with the specific purpose of finding water patterns to photograph. I took a lot of images. Then, bringing the canoe up to the beach, in a bit of water barely six inches deep I discovered this wonderful water and threw in some pebbles to create ripples. Perfect!
It’s also an enjoyable challenge to create the sense of water without a photographic start. This is a section of a quilt I created for an above-below composition, The Ways of Sunlight. This panel depicts the sunlight and shadows below the water.
This composition was created by building up layers of stencil-painted images with acrylic paints on fabric. In this panel I see the things that interest me about water: light, contrasts, movement, variety., unpredictability.
Back to my first photo, now cropped to reveal the girl next to the water;
I hope you want to feel the water with your toes too. And to dream dreams.
For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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