I can dream, can't I?

My escape reading

I started quilting many years ago to satisfy the powerful urge to play with color & pattern while making beautiful, useful items.  However, I've always wanted to eventually get back to my drawing and painting.  It hasn't happened yet.  Not for lack of time, space, materials or desire.  Blank page paralysis?  Maybe.  In the meantime, I read about it. 

These are two of my favorite periodicals and surprisingly, one artist, Moira Huntly, is profiled in each of their current issues.  A British painter, she has a wonderful color sense and I found myself closely scrutinizing several of her featured pastels. 

From Artists & Illustrators magazine, May 2006

A lightbulb moment.  Or, rather, a flash of memory.  Years ago, I taught a quilting class which focused on design & color.  To move students from the same tired color schemes, one exercise I had them work on involved developing a color palette based on a favorite painting, advertisement or wrapping paper.  The results were stunning and most students were quite surprised at the fabulous combinations they came up with using pictures and photos from their everyday lives as inspiration.  How could I have forgotten?  Off to the stash! 

Click

This was really fun and definitely shook me out of my May/June, green/blue Project Spectrum doldrums.  The same approach could absolutely be used with knitting as well as quilting.  Pay attention to color combinations that catch your eye outside the realm of cloth & yarn and take note.  I'll bet you come up with some exciting mixes that you never would have considered if starting from scratch.

So, what shall I do with this now?  Mulling that one.  I've come across some great quilts-in-progress recently...Kristin's green PS top, here & here, Jeanne's graphic pink & black and Brandy's fabulous scrap top.  I sewed 6 more blocks for my yellow/orange quilt this weekend but still have a dozen more to go (plus borders) and I'd like to get that top completed before I dive into another project.  Not much on the calendar this month though, so I'm expecting a lot of progress.  And some knitting!  Is painting too much to consider?   

Comments

[Norma]

Dream away, m'dear!

[Chris]

Pull out those art materials and go for it! Your eye is wonderful.

[Kate]

Wow! I need to keep this in mind when I shop-- my stash is too narrow. I am always impressed by your wide variety of colors and values. This is going to be a beauty!

[gray la gran]

thank you for the great idea. i get overwhelmed when trying to pick out colors, and it would really help to narrow the field down with a photograph from one of my walks ... of the different shades of greens and browns, and blue skies and puffy clouds.

[Cindra]

Wow! There are some beautiful quilts out there. And I love the artist. You are definitely broadening my horizons.

[weirdbunny]

You are just so clever. I'm going to pull all my fabric over the lounge flooe nowand match it up to a favourite picture. Oh the woodcutter will be so happy with me!

[Judy Cash]

I have the perfect picture!!

[Nancy]

I LOVE this! What a great inspiration piece. Looking forward to seeing your pattern.

[Lily]

Jan what a great idea. Oh I just love pastels. I had no idea how beautiful they could be until I went to the Musee D'Orsay in Paris (showing off, yes I know) and they have a couple of rooms lit very softly with the most stunning pastel masterpieces inside. My husband and I worked out why we'd never seen any before - they don't bring them on travelling exhibitions out to Australia - they'd be a nightmare to transport and insure! But they were just so amazing. I was in love with a whole different field of 'painting'. Awesome!

[joelle]

I love the orange in there, such a lovely bright note in the blues an greens!
Joelle

[mimi k]

beautiful colors- I love how the orange makes it pop! Whatever you do with them will be great :-)

[Loretta]

This is a fabulous teaching tool. Sometimes I pick a "parent" fabric, one that is probably too wild to use in the project, but I pull all the colors from it when I want a particular look. I never thought to do it from a painting.

And go for it with regards to the pastels, watercolors, etc. I started a few years ago and never thought I could make anything, and I've been pleasantly surprised.

[molly!]

As Lori would say, "dreamin!"

I like that selection of colors.

[samantha]

Thanks for sharing that great color inspiration idea! I was an art history major undergrad, and now I'll go home, pull out my old books, and use them to inspire some new projects. Oooh, I'm excited!

[Kristin]

Those fabrics are perfect. What does this say about the size of your stash, though! I can't wait to see what comes of this new project.

[Kay]

Wow that pastel IS a quilt. xox Kay

[Tonya R]

What a dreamy, warm, lovely, mediterranean day. Should be sitting in an outdoor cafe enjoying the breeze. Mmmmm.

[Jane]

Wonderful colours - you HAVE to make something with them. What a great idea.

[Jane]

I meant matching the art & fabric is a great idea. Making something with the fabrics isn't really the most original idea ever...

[Kathie]

Excellent idea. Any trick to expand the thinking palette-wise is a good thing. I'm going to file this one away for future reference.

[LNLisa]

I've often thought of doing this with fabrics: picking a theme print and building a quilt around it. That has its limitations though since I tend to get too matchy matchy.

I like the idea of using a painting or other artwork. I'm sure that there would be many more variations within the color scheme. Finding a workable color scheme with the right balance of lights and darks can be so difficult when all the bright colors constantly catch my eyes.

Thanks for the cool idea!

[Kelli]

Jan, I love the color scheme, especially the orange and dark blue. So pretty! That painting is quite nice. I can imagine that scene in Greece, or Spain.

[susan@artstream]

jan. of course you can.
just do it.
xo
susan

[Kristin La Flamme]

Oh those fabrics are wonderful. I really like the painting too. Myself, I would love to turn the painting into a quilt. Thanks for the inspiration :-)

[brooke]

Lovely fabrics. I've been leaving my watercolors out and working on one small painting over the course of a couple of days. I'd love to see some of your art work (painting).

[Scribbles & Bits]

That is a really excellent idea about looking at favorite items for new combos. And it couldn't have come at a better time since I've been struggling with that lately. Thank you!!!!

[Kay]

A beautiful color scheme. I use the painting way to pick a color scheme very often actually, and it has always worked. In fact, I have a bunch of postcards pinned on the wall waiting to be "copied" sometime.