Landscape/seascape

I spent yesterday morning cleaning house and the sewing room--with the intention of having the afternoon to do the second lesson of landscapes.  Of course, life interfered in the afternoon and I only got about an hour to work on this lesson.  So I tried last night to create the seascape.  Ugh!

For this lesson, I needed 7 strips of blue for the water/ocean, sky and sand. Six of strips for the water  were to have a curved side on one long edge that was pressed under 1/4".  The darkest strip had a  straight edge turned under for the horizon line.  Then the strips are  layered one on the other to blend the water from distant to near.   Sounds easy....here we go.

I took the seven layers for the water apart about three times.  The scene looked very flat and off.  Finally in frustration, I put it aside.  And with a fresh effort this morning, I put it together in a couple of hours.  I realized that to get the perspective right that the strips of water closer to the shore needed to be thin and tiny.  That meant that the strips of water in the distance were wider.  Re-read that.....it is the reverse of what I had been trying to do.  Usually, the nearer the object the larger it is and smaller objects appear farther away.   A couple of my strips were short pieces so I decided to add trees and a few rocks on the right side to make it work.  These I fused on top of everything and then stitched down. 

Here it is top-stitched, and a bit of thread painting--water around the rocks,  and trees in the distance.  This ended up 9" by 11" before I border it.  I may add a few larger boulders to overlap into the border at the shoreline....something to bring the eye to the foreground. 

Insight:  Creating perspective and distance in a seascape for  water is not easy.  Smaller layers of fabric create nearness in water.

Insight:  Fabrics for landscape are very diverse.  The fabrics I thought would work, were the worse. More depth is created by varying the texture of the fabric---batiks, printed designs and patterns. 

Lesson three in Accidental Landscapes is on seasons.  Hope it is easier that the seascape!
Anyone else working on this type of stuff?  Let me know.....

Happy Stitching....Debbie