Untitled

I began this piece in late March when the challenge was first issued. It was the end of winter and it seemed as if spring would never arrive. This quilt reflects my state of mind at the time, but became a bit hard to finish once the wisteria started to bloom. The March challenge was two-fold: to use bright colors in contrast to dull, grayed colors in order to achieve the effect of luminosity and secondly, to convey the idea of masses and planes.

I drew a small sketch of a scene that I remembered from seeing part of a remake of the movie, Dr. Zhivago. I decided to try some two-point perspective on this piece in order to best work with the masses and planes component of the challenge.



I finally finished this last night (05/06/09) with the addition of the quilting and the shadows, which are made with layers of tulle. I have had a hard time with a title for this one, so it remains untitled.

I welcome any comments on the piece.

Small One - The Magical Elephant (Dragon)

Here is the latest dragon. The ideas for this one also brought a very fun story which was a joy to discover. It is over on my blog.

At first I wondered how I could do this saturated/planes thing with a dragon. I might have gone with him being in an ancient ruin as I have all sorts of photos I have taken of that type of scene. But because I am also going with the 6x12 size of the Contemporary Quilt Group, I wasn't sure I could do it without being so small it would be hard to read. And somehow, thoughts led to other thoughts and he ended up being adopted by the elephants.

Yes, I know. My brain is a bit different than most people's.

I thought I better look up exactly what elephant legs look like, and there was a photo taken of an elephants legs through the bushes. So, I thought I would adapt that concept to create the planes and masses part, and then use the dragon and bright surrounding to do the saturated part. The bushes behind him aren't as anchored as I'd like, but they will do.

Let me know what you think.

I finally found a day I could work on this months challange. Sometimes life just gets in the way of having fun. I guess better late than never so here I am very very late. This 20x 13 inch piece is a picture from the Nature Conservancy calander. I felt it had everything for this challange. I had a great time threadpainting the trees and layering the sheers to create the sunset sky. There is a minimum of quilting in the sky because I felt it would break it up too much and it needed the unbroken expanse. This is only the second landscape I have ever attempted so it is an amazing challange to me. I love all comments and any suggestions you may have. Thank you so much for a great challange.

Pat Havey

Crocus

My quilt isn't finished as this was a harried week. It has yet to go the sewing machine! It was WonderUndered to the background. I used (partially) the same method as I used last month--with some refinements. It is something I'd like to explore in larger size. However--it is very time consuming. But--my quilts usually are. I once had a photographer tell me that my quilts are very intricate.

I believe this quilt fits the challenge. There are some highly saturated colors combined with tones. There is also light and shadow--both in the two flowers and in the ground (bark, dirt, dead leaves, etc.). Size is approximately 9.5" x 14".

Wupatki

Only a day late....

Last weekend, I was up at Wupatki National Monument (http://www.nps.gov/wupa/) with some friends. Its one of those wonderful attractions that we only see when we have out of towners around! The ruins date back over 800 years and have been carefully restored. With this challenge in mind, I took lots of pix!

My inspiration was the doors of the ruins:

And the quilt:

It's about 9 x 12" with lots of little pieces fused to the background, heavily stitched. What I like: the shadows worked great, the colors are pleasing. What I don't like: I should have done the floor with longer skinnier pieces or larger interlocking pieces (altho its really sandy there). But overall, I'm pleased. Comments of course, are welcome!

Chili

This is not what I originally intended to make for this challenge. In fact I pulled the fabric today for an entirely different piece, but this has been calling to me and calling to me and wouldn't shut up or let me work on anything else until it was done!
Not sure if I met the challenge with it and I am almost embarrassed to put it on here with all the wonderful pieces that are posted already, but I actually like it more than I thought I would...lol. I still plan on doing the other piece now that this one has gotten what it wanted, though it isn't quilted yet. I can do both at the same time when I finish the next one.
It is as you can see, done in reds, with pale pink as the *shine*, the shadow was done using a black fabric crayon. Size is 12x20.
Comments, as always, are welcome :-)

Walking The Dog on A Parisian Windy Day

Here it is, late and still not finished. I need to do a bit more stitching and bind it. It is measures 24x30.

Continuing with my women theme I have a lovely gal taking her dog for a walk. The inspiration for the background buildings came from a painting by Edouard Toudoze. I love the buildings and thought I could portray the planes, the strollers in the distance have shadows and I've used many muted colors and saturated colors in the flowers and foliage. I should mention that I used oil pastels for shadows, bricks etc. and it worked very well. I let them cure overnight and than heat set them.
I didn't start with a sketch for as I usually do, but used Pamela Allan's scissor cutting for it, which was fun and challenging too. I worked hard to incorporate the woman into the scene, and tried many things before she found her spot.
I'm trying to think of a name for my style and guess you could call it embroidery applique, there are a lot of embroidery stitches in it.
Susan I hope I've met this challenge, and it was a great challenge. I enjoyed every aspect of it albeit my fingers are sore.
I look forward to critique from my peers.

Rice Fields by Cynthia Ann Morgan

My piece for Challenge 31 is based on a photograph of terraced rice fields in Asia. Lots of muted, shaded and toned colors with bits of pure hue. I didn't get quite the effect I was going for...oh well!

Comments welcome

Cynthia

Mother Earth 11.5"x19"

I guess this one is pretty self explanatory. I've been hoarding some Cherrywood fabrics for a while now, and it seems about time to use a tiny bit! I've actually been meaning to make a quilt along these lines for some time now. This piece is all fused, and machine quilted with "invisible" thread. I apologize that the photo doesn't really show the quilting well, as I just took this shot in less than ideal conditions, but I actually really like the way the quilting came out. The little spirals are some little wire thingies I picked up somewhere. I'm not sure I was successful with the "planes/masses" part of the challenge, but I really enjoyed making this little piece.

Brenda Jennings, fairly close to the deadline, and aching to get back out West

"Cistern I" (16" x 18")

I feel I succeeded on the composition part of the challenge calling for planes and masses. The cylinder takes form with soft shadows. The cast shadow of the roof called for a hard-edged shadow. However, I have fallen short on the color concept - achieving luminosity with saturated and toned colors. Thank you Susan for a great challenge and the helpful references. The image is drawn from a water tower located in Old Town, Temecula, CA - I did this in drawing class on Tuesday. This is a whole cloth quilt. The base silk fabric was stitched then dyed with Procion dyes. Inks were used to define the tower. Comments welcome.

"Wall Ruins, Visby, Gotland Sweden" 20"x30"
This is a composite photoshopped to merge two photos that I took 15 years ago in Visby, Gotland, which is an island off the coast of Sweden. One photo had the house framed in the arch, and the other had the double arches. I have been meaning to paint this view for a long time...now I have...with fabric :-)

I haven't finished the edges yet, but I think it will be faced.

Comments and suggestions are welcome as always...
Cherie

Approaching Storm

I finished Challenge #31 tonight and decided to post it since it won't get quilted for awhile yet. It's not quite as I'd hoped but acceptable. I even managed to stick with my theme of birds albeit a very small one. I decided to depict an approaching storm with the dark clouds forming but with the sun somewhere above making some of the clouds very bright and other parts not receiving the sun's direct light dark. It seems that when this happens the Swallows are always soaring high above catching the last remaining insects before the storm's fury strikes and drives them to cover.

Sign of Spring

As soon as I heard this challenge announced, I knew just what I wanted to do. Even though it meant going in a whole new direction for me and even though I had to wait until I could drive the hour to town to buy some daffodils at the local grocery. Then, in this part of the world that receives an average of 350 days of sunshine a year, we had three days in a row of overcast skies. So I eventually broke down and created my own shadow with a table lamp. This 12" x 17" piece is a painted wholecloth. It is finished other than the binding which I am anticipating being a blue like the "cloth" on the table.

My saturated colors are the vase and the daffodil. The tones are in the table cloth and the shadows. The planes are in the folds of the cloth and the shape of the flower.

I really enjoyed this process and expect to do more along the same lines.

Dawn FFFC-31

I learned a lot from this challenge. My intent was to create luminosity by contrasting a light background showing through layers of trees. The problem came with the background I chose being too grey. Forgotten was the main concept that this luminosity was to be achieved by using color saturation. Scrambling to make this work I added some pure yellow by thread painting a glow behind one of the trees. It salvaged the piece but really didn’t fully accomplish the intent of this challenge. If time permits I am hoping to do a second piece that really glows. I did learn to keep working through my mistakes to get a finished work, and believe me when I tell you that there were a lot of mistakes on this one. If you don’t make some mistakes you never learn.

Thanks Susan, this was an excellent challenge! Comments are welcome.

Reworked piece:

I added the highlights along the tree trunks and branched, and this is the result "New Dawn". I'm sorry that the color is not quite true.

While cropping my photo I decided to play with the hue and the saturation and the next photo is what I should have made... I am calling it "New Dawn on Steroids"... It really demonstrates the effect of saturated color and luminosity. What fun.

Sunset

I'm not sure that this meets the challenge. I know there are saturated colors and tones, but I don't quite understand the "planes" part of the challenge. I tried to get the feeling of a photograph that I took, and added Inuksuk to continue the series. I think he's waving at the geese...or maybe the sandhill cranes returning to the Platte River at sunset as they fatten up on corn for their long trip north. The size of the piece is 10" x 8".

Challenge 31 - Double Arch

I don't have an art background, so hope I interpreted Challenge 31 right, with my Double Arch. This is from a photo taken in Utah's canyonlands. The sky is hand painted and is my highly saturated or pure color. The other fabrics are purchased batiks, the muddy-green being the shadow, and the others showing light falling on the arches.
It was fun making this, and brought back memoires of trips there when the kids were little. I welcome comments, and learn from them. Thanks, LindaMac in Wyo
P.S. This is not on the web site yet, as I didn't find a folder for Challenge 31.

Challenge 31 - Planes/Masses with Saturated/Muted colors

Challenge #31 - Friday, March 27 , 2009 Hostess - Susan Brittingham

Working in Series: Continue in your series, start a new series, or whatever makes you feel comfortable

Color Concept: Highly Saturated colors combined with diluted or muted colors (TONES)
(high intensity color and muted color)

Color is always seen in relationship to the other colors surrounding it. When we place a highly saturated color next to a muted color, the saturated color tends to look even more vibrant than it would next to other pure colors. This interaction creates the illusion of luminosity.

We think of saturated colors as “pure” colors at their most intense concentrations. Highly saturated colors are undiluted by white, black or gray. They are vibrant.

Diluted or muted colors are neither pure nor intense but are grayed or toned. Tones are diluted by the addition of a combination of black and white (gray). These less saturated colors are closer to neutrals. Shades and tints are also less saturated than pure hues.

It is easy to use colors of similar intensity together, more challenging to mix low intensity colors with high intensity colors. http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu/c-saturate.html
http://www.pomona.edu/academics/courserelated/classprojects/Visual-lit/saturation/saturation.html

JMW Turner is a master of Luminosity ttp://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/turner/index.shtm
My favorite example of luminosity in a quilt is Jenny Bowker’s “Hearthstones” http://www.jennybowker.com/hearthstones.htm

Composition Concept: Planes & Masses (Light & Shadow)
We can add dimension to our pieces by working with light and shadow to create the illusion of planes and masses. A plane is a flat surface. Flat planes adjacent to each other can form the illusion of mass when we use value changes to define them.

Edges softly rendered create the illusion of curvature, while those that are sharply defined by high contrast suggest hard edges. http://www.psychologie.tu-dresden.de/i1/kaw/diverses%20Material/www.illusionworks.com/html/illusion_in_art.html

Artist Julian Beever and other street painters create amazing 3-D sidewalk art using the mastery of planes and masses to produce a sense of space and dimension. http://www.moillusions.com/2007/12/julian-beevers-new-3d-sidewalk.html

Certainly many artists make use of light and shadow to create depth. One such artist is Giorgio de Chirico. There are countless images of his work on the web. Here are just a few:
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Giorgio_de_Chirico_IVAM.html

In his work Piazza d’Italia and several other of his works, Chirico uses both the same color concept and composition concept as in this month’s challenge.

Andrew Wyeth is another master of light and shadow to depict planes and masses. Wyeth tends to work in a toned color palette, with occasional burst of purer color.
http://www.delart.org/exhibitions/something_waits.html

A number of examples of planes and masses expressed in quilts can be found here, in the gallery of Sue Holdaway-Heys, particularly in her architectural pieces. http://www.sueholdaway-heys.com/

This example has both the luminosity of greyed tones and pure bright color, plus the depth we get from the skillful use of light and shadow. http://www.sueholdaway-heys.com/GalleryStable.html

Esterita Austin is another quilter with a fantastic grasp of planes and masses. Visit her gallery here: http://www.esteritaaustin.com/gallerymain.htm and be sure to see “Ruins I”