Sunrise Over Lake Michigan No. 1, November, 2018.
These past weeks I have been wrapping my 25 day series around 24” square canvases. As I was rooting around in my stretched canvas frame inventory, I found some frames I bought just as a lark. They are 6” square frames with a width of 1.5”. This means they can stand on their own, like on a shelf. However, I did not know that at the time. I figured this out just when I had committed to try them out with some new artwork and opened the package. The possibilities are intriguing.
Following up on last week’s article about how I love the artwork you see on the edge of the wrapped canvas, this is a supersized edge that really stands out even on a smaller 6” square frame.
Sunrise Over Lake Michigan Nos. 1 & 2, November, 2018.
For my design, I still wanted to play more with the idea I started in the Skyline series back in 2017. This time I wanted a color palette to reflect the Sunrise over Lake Michigan. Hence, the name of the series. I researched images online of sunrises over water. I love the contrast of the warm colors in the horizon atop the darker blue for the lake and slightly lighter sky above the horizon. I used my technique I wrote about over the past few weeks discussing the Four Seasons series. I layout the fabric pieces on my cutting mat to fill in the design and then sew them into bigger blocks and finally sew all those blocks together to make the final piece. After I decided the blues for water and sky, I turned to the warm hues for the sunrise along the horizon. I went into my deep stash of small scraps of fabric. Some may think it is weird to keep small scraps 1-3” big. But I get loads of inspiration from playing around with these small shapes and building them up into a more interesting whole.
I have two more in the series planned out but may continue. I have more of these funky frames and more ideas to follow.