Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Desert Brown



1. "Leaving Egypt" 2.  "Morning Oasis"  3. "Nightfall"

These three fabric pieces speak (in brown) of my desert series. Each one has a digital photo on fabric. I've never been to any part of the Middle East but I didn't let that slow down my desert dream. I prefer using my own photos so lets just say it was a challenge! The little one "Leaving Egypt" has a photo of the wetlands outside of San Francisco (my take on the muddy waters of the Red Sea) I added loose threads to express grasses and reeds. The leather X's are from an old purse. The "Morning Oasis" cloth photo is of a special oasis in the Southern California desert region. I've been there but couldn't use my photographs ... next best was to use a photo from an Internet site. The "Nightfall" dark palm studded oasis was a photo I took while watching the PBS documentary "Walking the Bible". I was surprised it came out at all as I've never photographed something on the TV. I'm not generally a big fan of brown but using all the tones and variations of brown helped set the desert mood.
It's always so much fun seeing other artists share their take on a color. Go to Jennifer Coyne Qudeen for a list of sites of "Brown" ... the continued search for Roy G Biv !

17 comments:

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    1. Sue, Thank you ... I'm surprised by how much I have enjoyed working with fabric.

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  2. Oh, Mary Anne, I LOVE all three of these! they totally capture the desert essence, whether you've been to the middle east or not. Beautiful texture and design, and I love the "wheel" symbols...

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    1. Sharmon, Your words are music to me ... thank you. I think these are some of my favorite desert efforts!

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    1. Maya, Thank you ... composition is not so easy with fabric ... cutting here and sewing there. I've enjoyed the challenge.

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  4. Hi Mary Ann- Wonderful work...and so ingenious to "find" your desert inspirations in your own photos of more local locales.

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    1. Thank you! I'm trying to use what I have in several plastic tubs ... 'making it work' and it's kind of exciting to see the results!

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  5. Lovely warm shades. The first piece speaks to me, feel save and homey.

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    1. Thank you Jill, the first one seems to be a big favorite and actually out of the three, it's mine too!

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  6. They are all spectacular, but that first one really speaks to me, the colors, the combination of textures, and I have never been to Italy, but that never stops me either!!

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    1. Caterina, Thank you for choosing the word spectacular ... makes me happy! So you and I must travel in our dreams!

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  7. Fabulous pieces, Mary Ann! I love digital imagery on fabric!

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    1. Connie Rose, Glad you like these and I'm with you on the digital imagery ... my printer has an extra ink for photographs and I love the images on organza!

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  8. These are just lovely, Mary Ann! I'm really impressed by the moods you have evoked with every one of these. And the difficulties inherent in working this way with the fabric are not at all noticeable!

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    1. Ah Arzigogolare, I wrote a few lines about the morning and evening oasis in my Night Writing book featured in a full preview in the sidebar ... check it out and thank you for stopping by!

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  9. I love these brown pieces ... The first especially. Deserts seem to be flavour of the month!

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