Monday, August 24, 2020

Reflection at Nehalem Bay - Part One

I took a picture of a fabulous reflection at Nehalem Bay State Park a few years ago.  It was just dumb luck of being at the right place at the right time and I snapped this photo with my Iphone.  The beach is one of those lovely wide, flat, sandy beaches and when the tide is going out or coming in, you get this thin layer of shimmering water, which is perfect for reflections.  At this state park, you do have to hike out to the end of the spit and then walk back on the beach (or visa versa) and sometimes you see campers riding horses, which is just fabulous.  My husband and I liked  the picture so much that we converted it to black and white and had it enlarged and framed; it is now hanging on one of our walls.




Since I have painted so many small pieces of flowers and bees on flowers, I wanted to challenge myself to paint a much larger piece.  So, this was the one that I selected.  I traced the picture as an    8-1/2" x 11" size.  Then I took it to my favorite blueprint shop, Rose City Blueprint and had it enlarged to 32" x 43".  I used the blueprint (which is actually not blue anymore but black lines on white paper) to trace the design onto prepared for dying (PFD) fabric.  This was mounted onto a large sheet of foam core board and taped securely around the edges.  Side note:  In order to get foam core in this size, you have to go to a store that carries the larger size, such as FedEx Printing.  My husband was able to find a piece that was 36" x 48", which I believe is used for marketing posters.

I mixed up a bunch of blue, white, and brown fabric paint and dived right into the painting.  It took 3 days to get the painting done and when it dried, it bowed up the foam core board.  Here's a picture of it after the paint was dry.



The foreground was way too vivid, as I suspected that it might be.  So, I mixed up a gray wash and went over the foreground.  Here it is after the gray wash.  It's much better, don't you think?  If you do painting like this, you must let the first layer dry.  The watery wash will stay where you put it then; otherwise it will wick and feather out into the adjoining areas.



I had success in a previous quilt using organza to give some shine and to further dull a foreground.  So, this one got a layer of a light gray organza to give it the watery effect.  Here is a picture after the organza was sewn to the watery bottom.  It's hard to see the shine in the picture, but seen in person, it definitely has some sheen.



I hope you like this piece so far. I'm off to get it quilted next.


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