Friday, March 01, 2013

Kayaking Boulder Bay


Just love this challenge - Gave me a chance to quilt my photo (last pic) that I took during one of my daily kayaking sojourns.  I not only love to kayak for the exercise, but the photos I can get right down on the water are just unbelievable.  I can get into areas so shallow that my husband and I cannot do with our boat.  Here in Big Bear Lake, there are many beautiful sights, several bays, lots of animal life, and the most beautiful Southern California days of sunshine.

I used two batiks, one for the water, one for the cement wall supporting the Big Bear Boulevard/Route 18 overpass where, as you can see, is a "portal" leading to another small part of Boulder Bay.  (I love to paddle through this into the small sanctuary of birds, dragonflies, ducks and boulders.)  Then I used dry brush technique with acrylic paints to create some of the details, followed with a few million yards of thread for more details.
                                                    detail one
                                                    detail two
                                          Inspiration photograph

Looking forward to your critiques.  Thank you for a wonderful challenge.
Sandi

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I love, love, love this piece! Your choice of fabrics is spot on. Love the depth you were able to get in the water. Also, the variation on the bridge fabric adds lots of interest. Are the trees/bushes and foliage thread painted? What a beautiful piece.

ann said...

Stunning. Really provocative. I wish I could get in a kayak. My college room mate also loves to kayak. She also mentions how close one can get to wild life and how thrilling it is to be right next to a dolphin or big fish.

Cay Denise said...

Sandi, your batik selections were perfect for this challenge, and I'm glad to see the shadow of the tunnel wasn't lost in the translation from photo to fabric!

In your thread work, the stitch length looks very consistent. Were you pleased with it?

By the way, if you're goal was to replicate the source photo, in a future effort you might want to consider varying the size of the quilting of the water (to add more perspective).

Beyond that, I like your door/window choice and find the piece to have a quiet and restful feel to it.

Susan B said...

Well done. I see the portal. I like this interpretation of the challenge. It sounds like your kayak is also a portal to the unique observations on wildlife you can achieve from that perspective.

You have done a beautiful job with this without overworking it. The soft colors and excellent use of contrast is well thought out. The quilting looks great. The additional stitchwork to add details is really well done.

Meena said...

Wonderful translation of the photograph into the quilt. Love the threadwork, too.

Tobi said...

I agree that varying the ripple size in the quilting would have helped with perspective, but still, this is a very realistic scene. I would not have thought of going under a bridge in terms of a doorway, but having paddled under bridges in our canoe, I can see that aspect. Using paints to help create the reflection worked well.