Week in Review 2021 – 06/18

Connecting with Color

Our dining room table faces northeast. At this time of year, coupled with my propensity for rising early, we are frequently treated to magnificent sunrises during breakfast. Some are brilliant in color. Others are are more subtle. This morning’s was the later. So, what was I thinking as I took it in? Now that would be a perfect gradation of colors for a dying session. Welcome to my mind and how everything seems to link back to art. 🙂

The truth is I have learned so much from studying the world around me. It is amazing how many greens can be found amongst the leaves of a single tree or garden.

A mix of annuals and perennials greet you when you enter our home.

Take a close look at the greens in our garden. Some border on yellow. I confess I am partial to pops of chartreuse in my artwork. At the other end of the spectrum is a deep forest green, nearly, but not quite black. This is one of the reasons a mantra of mine is, why use one green (or other color of your choosing) when many will do.

Connecting with Line

Normally, I square up and crop images of my work in progress. One of the joys of creating work, such as Sunrise Over the Atlantic, is transforming it so that the cropped image actually looks like finished piece. Not there yet. This is what my work looks like when it is in the quilting phase. To give you a sense of scale it is currently 46″ H x 65″ W and will be cropped closer to 42″ H x 60″ W.

Have you ever stared with fascination as colors merge, expand and swirl behind your eyeballs? If you have followed my blog for any length of time you know I am practitioner of yoga. Each session ends with savasana. It is a resting pose, on your back with eyes closed. Since one of the goals is to empty your mind, I attempt to do this by studying the colors I see behind my eyeballs. I have been contemplating how to quilt Sunrise Over the Atlantic. My usual free motion motifs weren’t calling to me. I figured I would try doodling. But then, BAM! I got the answer during savasana just before I was going to head into my studio.

I am varying the colors of thread, but not obsessively in different areas of the quilt.

Welcome to my mind. Perhaps, this might be stated welcome to my muse. Out of the blue, or in this case the yellows and oranges of a sunrise behind my eyeballs, the answer came. I could sense very fine horizontal lines across the colors. I’ve never noticed this phenomena before. I knew it was the solution I had been searching for.

I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.

By Gwyned Trefethen

I am an artist who uses fabric, thread and miscellany to create designs gifted to me by my imagination.

2 comments

  1. I often get my best ideas in the middle of the night. Your quilting solution looks just right! Have you ever tried Superior Rainbow thread for quilting? It changes color every inch and I have used it on many a quilt. It comes in a lots of colors.

    1. Depending on your perspective, Norma, my best ideas come in the middle of the night, since my morning is the equivalent of most people’s middle of the night. Isn’t it a thrill when those great ideas percolate up to the surface?

      I’m a Superior gal, not to be confused with a superior gal. I fell in love with Superior Threads when I first discovered their King Tut line. It was the first variegated thread I bought in numerous color ways, just because. Next I became obsessed by Bottom Line. However, I didn’t start using the Rainbow line until recently. I’ve been using Marathon threads for polyester and nylon threads. However, they don’t have the depth or creativity of color ways that Superior’s Rainbow line has. So, I can see a thread order in my future.

      Thanks for stopping by, Norma. Always good to hear from you.

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