Challenge #5 ~ Cropped Still Life

Challenge # 5 – Friday, 26 January 2007

Challenge # 5 Hostess – Linda Cline

Theme – Cropped Still Life

Design Element – Form (adding the illusion of dimension to flat shapes)

--- Design and complete a small work based on a still life. Subject matter is your choice. You may work very straightforwardly and realistically, or you may interpret your still life in a more abstract manner. Don’t forget to pay attention to form if you choose to work more abstractly.

--- Crop your composition so at least three sides of your still life extend to the border or edge of your quilt. You may count cropping a shadow as one of the sides that have been cropped (shadows are part of your composition).

--- Give attention to light and shadow, so you can make the objects in your still life look dimensional. Shade objects and create cast shadows using whatever method you would like.

Discussion - The following is included for informational purposes only:

You may create a typical still life of fruit or flowers. Or you may create something with less traditional objects. Gather up anything you have lying about. Or “find” a still life (a pile of books, the dishes in your cupboard, abandoned flower pots. . .). Objects depicted in quilts are often very flat looking. This challenge will help us put the illusion of dimension into our quilts. I'm sure we will come up with a wonderful variety of ways to accomplish this. You could construct each object from multiple shades of a similar color fabric. Or you could cut each object from one fabric, and use paint or other surface design technique to shade your objects. Don’t forget cast shadows. They will “ground” your objects so they don’t appear to float. Make your shadows as interesting as the rest of your composition.

Cropping our still lifes will force us to think about the best placement of objects in our quilt. I like what Pamela Allen expressed about cropping in her November 1st email to this group: “. . . exactly what I urge students to do instead of trying to confine the image inside the rectangle. There's life OUTSIDE too and the viewer's eyes go there! . . .” Preliminary sketches or digital photos will let you experiment with various compositions before beginning.

Some suggestions for setting up a still life: http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/howtoindex/ht/still_life.htm

A discussion of cast shadows and form shadows: http://painting.about.com/cs/paintingknowhow/a/shadows.htm

An article about finding form:
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/finding-form.asp

More than a few examples of quilt artists who create still lifes, but each artist approaches the subject her own unique way. Take whatever inspiration you want from any of these examples:

Lisabeth Gutierrez:
http://www.lisabethgutierrez.com/StillLife.htm
Lisabeth outlines objects in her quilts with dark fabric. I’m sure I have read somewhere that outlining things will make them appear flat. But Lisabeth seems to have outlines and dimension at the same time.

Terry Grant:
http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/ (blog)
http://the-portfolio.blogspot.com/ (portfolio)
Terry is another artist who uses outlines with success. She has a tutorial on her blog that shows how she uses colored pencil to add dimension to her shapes. http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2006/04/my-fusing-method.html

Ellen Lindner:
http://www.adventurequilts.com
Ellen has still lifes in her “Pictorial” gallery. Be sure to look at how she made her apple quilt on this page http://www.adventurequilts.com/making_of_apple_still_life.htm.

Velda Newman:
http://www.veldanewman.com/gallery.html
Now these quilts are really “HUGE” but the same look could translate well small also. She has shown detail shots in her thumbnails that are wonderful compositions in themselves, and are good examples of cropping. But her designs go all the way to the edge even on the large quilts.

Alice Beasley
http://www.alicebeasley.com/stilllifes.html
These look good enough to eat.

Barbara Barrick McKie
http://mckieart.com/Pages/thumnail_pgs/Still_Life_Series.html
Silk painting and disperse dyed polyester.

Dominie Nash
http://www.dominienash.com/stills.html
Much looser style than the other examples, but just as wonderful. Some are very abstract.

Due - Saturday, Noon EST, 3 February 2007