In my last post I name my theme for the art quilt study group as England: a country I want to explore. Since I not able to hop a plane and explore in person, I used the Internet and found a wonderful site, that is sub titled "exploring England through pictures". Wow...the very same phrasing and I knew I was on the right track.
The first thing I decided to do was look for the places that the pen and ink sketches depicted. It was amazing to locate photos showing them. The Knaresborough Bridge has a lot of photos and we could actually figure out where his great uncle must have sat to draw the sketch we have. The ruins of Fountains Abbey was more difficult to decipher, but I think we found a photo of the view he sketched. St. Williams College in York is huge and we could not figure out which entry way he drew.
The first project deals with perspective (ugh!) using one or more of the principles from the second chapter. So this needs to be a fairly simple subject. After looking through some of the photos, I saw common themes emerge that say England. Stonework--walls, walks, fences, posts, gates, steep steps, streets. Arches--windows, doors, gates, buildings, signposts, roofs. Gates and fences--every cottage seems to have a small gate of some sort. Bright spots of color--flowers in pots, growing up the walls, tumbling over the gates, window boxes, wisteria over the doors. Narrow streets and lanes, unique thatched roofs, ancient ruins, lamp posts, hand painted signs......lots of things to focus on.
This is really tougher that I thought it would be. I am a quilter, not an artist or painter. But I have selected a couple of images to work from....not reproduce. I will use a controlled color palette for unity throughout this series. As for the first subject.....think ancient ruins.
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