Poppy Field

I have been inspired!!  Inspired by joining the other studio artists at Artful Dimensions Gallery, inspired by the other member artists, inspired by the wonderful space and the need for art of fill that space , and inspired by all of you who read my little blog and encourage me with your wonderful comments!!!

After visiting with several of my new artist friends at Artful Dimensions, a plan was hatched for our First Friday Opening in February.  For those of you who are not local residents, First Friday is an artistic event that occurs on the First Friday evening of each and every month here in  Fredericksburg, VA.  All of the art galleries in town are open late and have Opening Receptions for new exhibits.  This is a wonderful opportunity for the public to come out and meet local artists and see new art work.  The entire event is free and open to the public  and we all look forward to these evenings.  Here at Artful Dimensions, we have added something new for the public.  We now have "Make And Take Art Happenings" to encourage our visitors to get involved in art work, themselves.  Tonight we will have a Fused glass workshop with a Valentines theme (with a small fee to cover glass and firing costs) and a completely FREE Artists Trading Card Workshop.  At the ATC table we will introduce the public to ATC's and they will be encouraged to make several and to return to make more.   then later is the year we will host ATC Swaps , again free to the public.

We came up with a plan to work towards a RED Wall for our February First Friday Opening.

 Christine Lush-Rodriguez had already begun working on some poppy wall hangings.

 She had no idea that I have always been in love with poppies and have tried to grow the actual flower in my clay soil and never had much luck. Despite my cultivation failures, I  always turn to the poppy pages of all of my gardening catalogs and Dream!!  I have made several poppy themed pieces of art (that you an read about here) and have wanted to create more- So now seemed to be the perfect time.
So off I went to my studio and this is what emerged!



I created the blossom using silk gauze, vintage hand dyed lace, wool roving, silk roving, angelina fibers, sari silk ribbons, silk velvet, seed beads, my embellishing machine and wet felting techniques.  I was thrilled witht he results and terrified to proceed!! I was worried that as this portion had turned out so well, the following steps could not possibly work out as well!  So I hemmed and hawed and procrastinated and delayed.......  as First Friday approached I forced my self to get out my green fabrics to create a background.  I was still very scared and not happy with my fabric selection for the background.  I kept digging through my stash and found a spill wipe up cloth that I had created during a Soy Wax Batik Workshop.  This wipe ups cloth became the perfect background and gave me the title for my quilt- Poppy Field.  (Always pick a piece of good fabric for wiping up those dye spills- you never know when it might become the PERFECT piece for an important project!!!)

I used vintage green velvet that had been a gift from my good friend Anna Branner, to create the textured leaves.  I used my embellishing machine to felt it to a wool roving background and then wet felted each leaf to get that wonderful crinkly texture effect.  The grassy field was created using pieces of my hand dyed linen fabrics, some purchased batiks and some of my large sun printed pieces.

the finished Textile Collage Poppy Fields, 24" b 56", the largest art quilt that I have created to date!  I told you that I had been inspired!!!

               The Poppy Red Wall at Artful Dimensions Gallery, First Friday February 3, 2012.

Christine Lush-Rodriguez amazing Red Poppies- the color is so intense that they almost vibrate with energy!

Detail shots of the wonderful glaze work on these intricate blossoms.

If you are ever in the neighborhood of Fredericksburg VA, you MUST make Artful Dimensions Gallery a destination.  If you do come, be sure to let me know and I will gladly help you plan your trip!!
There is plenty of artistic inspiration to go around at this wonderful space!!!