Sun, Water and Paint

What sunny days! We took off for the North Shore to see Clara Wainwright's "Surrounded by Water" quilt show in Gloucester at the Cape Ann Museum, had lobster rolls at Captain Carlos', and picked up a cone and strolled, watching the children dip their toes in the ocean. I can't wait to try the sort of fabric portraits Clara made with the townspeople of Gloucester with my family and friends. Her other quilts were painterly, staggeringly beautiful, narratives with mystery, grand color and texture. Joe and I keep reflecting on the wonderful exhibition. If you go, watch the DVD of Clara in action.

The grandchildren spent the Saturday night with us and we survived today to drop in Open Studios again, to see good encaustic and portrait painting, and bump into old friends. Since I last wrote, I have sewed some canvas covers for needlepoint bookmarks, made some calling cards, and piled some filler and blanks for journal quilts. But I have no new art to show.

Always looking for a quick solution, I toyed with how people who don't paint could create a family portrait...one not modeled. The photo, filtered in Adobe Photoshop or Elements, projected to say to 4' x 5', or any size, would have to have hard edges, lines that could be filled in with paint. I came up with three filters (cutout, posterize and stamp) on Adobe. I think these have possibilities in the right setting and could be accomplished by anyone with time and patience. I am fond of the monochrome, but anything goes, if you are not prejudiced against "paint by numbers."