My work-in-progress with the not-so-green-grasses (last week’s post) took a new direction this week.

I have created all the parts and could finally pin them up on my easel for a look at the big picture. I had put together exactly what I planned and what I sketched, but it was lacking.  (Darn Hate it when that happens!) I decided to add some characters.

This piece is inspired by the abandoned warehouse used for years as a packing plant for orange growers. I had already iinserted some small historical photos into the windows and the grassy area.

But it just wasn’t enough to evoke the sense of time past that I had hoped for. So, I tried enlarging one of the figures from the historical photo and added an orange picker on a ladder based on more photos I have found from the era

(Just a note: I was happy to see on the historical sites I visited notes that these photos are all in the public domain. They date from the early twentieth century and have no photographer attribution. Very important to check before using photos in artwork.)

I used rough pencil sketches in PhotoShop to move the figures around and decide on a final placement.

I like the one on the right. Next, I sketched the figures on gessoed muslin. (I prep it for painting with exterior white house primer, applied with a wet natural sponge.) I want the look of a simplified linear figure. But, stenciling or painting that directly on my quilt surface could be way too tricky. The painted line on a surface that’s already stitched and not completely flat was likely to raise problems.

The black painted area will be applied in once piece, collaged into place and then machine stitched. The white areas will all be cut away. This morning I started the cutting.

This is a new method for me to depict figures in a fabric work. I’m pretty much making it up as I go. The idea is to have the elements of the historical memory – the dried grass and the deep red-and-oranges of the fruit – to actually be visible through the characters. I want them to be in the history. I think the simplified lines will define the figures, without making them portraits of particular people.

That’s what I hope will happen. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

If you’d like to see more… On the way to thinking through this method for depicting figures in a quilt, I revisited some of my other pieces that include a figure. In each case, I went about it in a different way. If you’d like to see more, you can check out these links on my website.

The Lord Giveth and the Interstate Taketh Away:
Transparent silhouette stenciled with acrylics over a photo transfer HERE

Neither Here Nor There
Drawing with oil pastels + acrylic wash, over and under sheer polyester HERE

Saying the Magic Words
Drawing with oil pastels on muslin, overpainted with matte medium HERE

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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