Today in Art

Today's the day.  I just posted my two latest completed pieces of art in the quilt gallery section of this blog.

 This one is Eastham Low Tide IV

This is Eastham Low Tide, Transfigured.

I use the word "transfigured" in the title of the second one because, in it, the sky is reflected on the sand, and thus the sand is transfigured as a reflection of heaven.

The media are Pebeo Setacolor watercolors and Derwent Inktense Pencils, both applied to pima cotton which is then layered with batting and backing, and finally quilted.  These are whole cloth quilts, which means that they are each made of one single piece of fabric, rather than many pieces sewn together.

I worked on these over the winter, last winter, and the act of creating them got me through those short bleak days.

As always, the natural beauty of Cape Cod is my living inspiration.  These two pieces both depict the patterns of the water and sand at low tide.  These are about the fourth and fifth such art quilts I've painted and quilted, and the beauty of the Cape is such that I'm nowhere near finished yet.

In fact, I'm at the Cape as I write this, just finishing up a two-week vacation. And as today started as a rainy day, not a good one for outdoor activities, Joe and I decided to do something we've never done before in all our Cape vacations:  visit the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis.  http://www.ccmoa.org/

It was an inspiring visit because I got to see how accomplished artists render the glorious landscapes of this place. Of course, I couldn't take photos of any of the works that so impressed me, but I could, and did, buy this book:

...and in it some images that I hope will inspire me as I digest the experiences of this vacation.  Here are a couple of them, and as you can see, I'm not the world's best photographer:

This is Autumn Reflections, oil on canvas by Tom Steinmann.

This is Glowing Red, oil on linen by Matthew Schulz

This is Province Lands, oil on canvas by Ann Packard

The contemplation of these landscapes has given me the boost I needed to continue work on this piece, which I brought here to the Cape with me so I could work on it.

It's an image of one of the Pamet trails, in the Truro part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.  It's already been needle felted and wet felted and now is being embellished with hand embroidery.  The materials are silk gauze, wool roving, and pearl cotton embroidery thread.   My inspiration comes from my many, many walks on this trail, which leads to a pristine isolated ocean beach.  In it, I try to convey a sense of mystery, even of the sublime.

I'm planning to hang this piece as part of Seeking a Path, my upcoming solo show at the Clare Gallery of St. Patrick  and St. Anthony Church in Hartford, scheduled for November 2015.