Dreaming in Color - A Change of Scenery with Jean Wells
It always amazes me what happens if I take a different route on a walk, or travel to a new place. At the end of May, John and I left for the beach, which is three hours away, in a rainstorm. As we climbed the mountain at Tombstone Pass on the way to Corvallis, a spring snowstorm hit and we had very little visibility. Then, as we found our way down the mountain, the sun came out and the landscape was that beautiful “spring green” that I love. It felt fresh and new after the long winter. At a rest stop I opened the door to a field of “lawn daisies”, wonderful tiny flowers you see during the spring in a lawn. They make me smile! A change in seasons, and scenery, can always bring inspiration to us creatives.
We arrived at Little Creek Cove at Agate Beach near Newport, Oregon and the sun was shining! On my first walk, I discovered a wildflower that was new to me. Usually, these little gems are pure yellow in color, so the yellow and white ones caught my eye. There is something magical about seeing intense colors in fields of green. They come across brighter. Now there is an idea for a color palette. The wild beach roses were just starting to bloom. They are a magical rich pink color. Take a look at the leaf pattern in the rose photo. These kinds of patterns translate well in quilting.
A walk into town brought more inspiration. The more I experience a new place, the more I start seeing. I think this has to do with being out of town too, and being more relaxed and open to your new surroundings. Color drew me in first, especially the high contrast flowers against the variety of greens. Texture and patterning became more apparent on the walk. I am always looking for line work and patterns that I can adapt to background quilting. The lines you see in nature are more organic which appeals to me. I almost missed the rusted fire hydrant as I was so seduced by the plants, but what a great group of colors, blue, rust, cream, and grey. I will print this one out to put in my journal. I hope you have developed a system of some kind to keep track of images you are attracted to. I love my scrapbook style journal with 8” x 10” pages.
One of our field trips took us to Manzanita. I love the small little park that has been developed right as you start down the main street. So much magic to take in on a small little city lot.
Clay sculpture where you can see the experience the artist is having in the development of a piece is so inspiring to me, and I find new ideas abound.
The next day, we traveled south to Seal Rock State Site. It was an ebb tide and so much of the stone was exposed. I had never gotten so close to the large rocks and tide pools. I felt dwarfed next to Seal Rock and it was a magical feeling. The more I looked, the more I discovered. The inspiration on this beach has stayed with me since I returned home and I just know something is going to show up in my work from this experience. Having these kinds of creative moments is what feeds my soul.
I would like to end with an assignment for you. On your next outing do not forget to look up, down, and all around. Take time to think about not only color, but pattern, line, and texture. There is inspiration everywhere if you take the time to really look and see!
I hope my short trip to the Oregon Coast has been an inspiration for you. Please send me photos of work that you are inspired to do jean at stitchinpost.com
Our pencil packs this month are from one of my favorite “basics collections” from Art Gallery Fabrics. You will see all of the Color Vocabulary words that I preach, value, intensity, temperature…..they are keywords for creating contrast in your work.
