“Trumpets in the City”, my new art creation!
Several years ago I was visiting my kids in the San Francisco area. They surprised me with tickets to the Oakland A’s versus the Anaheim Angels baseball game. The Angels have always been our family team and I was thrilled. On the way to the game we decided to go to Balompie’s a Salvadorian restaurant in the mission district of San Francisco. I had been there quite a few times when my daughter was going to San Francisco state. It is one of my favorite places to eat in the bay area.
Of course in the city, you have to park a few blocks away and walk to the eatery. And that is when I saw the Trumpet flower tree growing out of a little 24″ x 24″ square cut out of the cement sidewalk.
It was amazing that in all of this sea of concrete, buildings, and cars that it was thriving. As you can see by this picture this was the only living green thing in sight. Literally living in the concrete jungle. I took lots of picture at the time and here is what I found on the camera when I got home.
Of course, those flowers were stunning but it was the blue sky that was peaking through the leaves that fascinated me.
I then converted the original picture to black and white and then printed it out using “Easy Poster Printer” program that I had downloaded for free from the internet. I love that you can put in your finished size and it prints the pages in perfect proportion to each other. I outlined each element with a black felt tip pen and quickly realized there was a lot to keep track of in the design. I marked the blue sky pieces with a “B” to make sure they stayed blue in all the green.
Painting the blue sky first, helped with the background colors later. Taking extra care to make sure the lights stayed in the flower, I layered paint across the flower to help create the shape of the petals. My next step was to make those flowers pop out of the art piece.
Making the flowers pop took a very dark blue green color flowing out from the edge of those flowers. The blue line dividing the two flowers came about by using a blue watercolor pencil. It was then sealed with textile medium and water solution. Adding more depth to the picture was tricky because I didn’t want all the greens to dominate the art design. Remembering to create dark, medium and light in the background helped with this by using a collage of blue, green and yellow and then very dark blue for the darkest section.
I like how this picture documents my artistic progress in creating this art piece.
I used “Glide” thread for the free motion quilting part because it has a glimmer effect. Lime green for the leaves and then pink and coral for the flowers. I considered using black thread to outline the flowers but in the end, I liked the black ink designs around the edges as I drew them. Trying several border options made me realize I wanted this art piece to be more like a canvas. Facing it to the back created that clean canvas edge.
I love this piece! The different elements that make up this art quilt created a depth that I am always working towards. I hope you are inspired by this new art piece.
WOW! That is Awesome! Love the process.
I have been thinking about doing this piece for 7 yrs. It is hanging above my computer.
That is Beautiful Karen.
Thanks Vickie, I love looking at it!
This is a very remarkable Picture. It is very striking and I really appreciate the explanations as to how you created it. Thank you for sharing. Kathleen
Thanks
Beautiful. I am currently working out how to do the humming bird vine in my backyard. Can I borrow your techniques?
Of course
Love it. I like seeing your process.
Thanks!
Love the trumpet flower, and your story. Thank you..
I love this piece and reading about your process. It is stunning.
KAREN, You are very talented. I didn’t even know what some of the items and techniques you were using were. (How do you like my double (“were”)😀
Thanks, Dorothy for joining in! I love your double were. Makes me feel better about being english deficit sometimes.
Love the flower, reminds me of my daughter Amber who used to have one this color!
She might get this for her birthday, we will see.
I also like the blue colors coming through the flower.
Fabulous work & so meaningful!!
It is one of my favorite flower art work.
Wow, I love this. Sometimes our creations have to simmer for time, sometimes a longer time. 🙂