
2nd Quarter Challenge – Seascape
I have been thinking about what I would do for the Second Quarter Challenge since Lyn posted about it in April. We don’t have seascapes in Montana where I live and I usually base my artwork on the Montana landscapes. Then I found a book to help with my watercolor painting attempts and found a wonderful photo of a watercolor by Zoltan Szabo’s. The book is his “70 Favorite Watercolor Techniques“. I couldn’t find a photo online to share with you of the watercolor painting.
Here’s the wool layout. I used preyarn for the trees and needled felted it a bit in places to tack it down. I then wet felted the piece. I didn’t full it very hard as the plan was to add stitching and hang it on the wall.
Here it as after felting. Now to add some machine stitching.
I used a dark brown thread and free motion machine stitched the smaller branches. I also added some texture to the rest of the tree. I then needle felted the small flower bits for the fireweed in the foreground.
I then started adding stitching to complete the flowers. I used a variety of pink threads. In the center photo, you’ll see that I added dark pink stitching and then tried out some prefelt leaves. I then needle felted the leaves in place (right photo) so that I could stitch over top of the prefelt without it shifting around too much.
And here’s the completed piece. The center photo shows the backing I chose for the piece. It is off to the framers to get a black frame.
Thanks for the challenge Lyn and Annie! I enjoyed creating this seascape. Now to come up with a good name. Suggestions?
11 thoughts on “2nd Quarter Challenge – Seascape”
Your seascape is fabulous Ruth – it’s a wonderful combination of felting and stitching. The colour blending in the sea, sky and foreground is so good and the pink flowers are not only pretty but add to the depth of the seascape. Love the organic edge – will it be visible after framing?
Thanks Lyn! The organic edge will show when it’s framed. I attached it to the gray fabric and then lace the fabric to matte board so the edges show.
Good decision – the edge is so pretty!
Absolutely stunning piece Ruth! I can imagine myself standing by those flowers listening to the waves pounding against the rocks below and feeling the wind around me. It amazes me how the dark background piece makes everything pop. Magic!
“Moving On” cuz the sea will always ebb and flow and the flowers will continue to grow no matter where we are in our own lives!
Thanks Tesi! Moving On is a good name, thanks for the suggestion 🙂
Beautiful Ruth! You know me I love organic edges. The piece really has depth.
Thanks Marilyn! Most of my pieces keep the organic edges.
Ruth, I am there looking down on the sea crashing up against the rocks….very reminiscent of places near where I grew up.
Your needle felting and stitching have given such depth and detail to your work….lovely.
‘Looking over’, ‘high above’, ‘standing on high’, ‘just watching’, ‘beyond the edge’….possible names?
Thanks Antje! Those are good ideas for names too. Now to decide which I like best.
Lovely piece Ruth. It has great depth and the right amount of detail. I am not good at names.
Thanks Ann, names for pieces are hard to think of, aren’t they?