Sunday, February 17, 2013

En Plein Air Quilting

My artist niece, Coleen (Claire Bleu), as we call her accompanied me home from sewing retreat in SC. I was so glad for her company for the 9 hr. drive home. She had a hankering to do some en plein air (French for in the open air) painting, and in this case fiber art painting. I was eager to learn from her with fabric so we worked together on separate “paintings.”
First she sorted my fused fabric scraps and snippets by color. IMG_1476
She drew her outlines onto her fabric canvas and I photocopied my picture to get templates for my picture.IMG_0012
This was supposed to be a 3 hour project, but it ended up being more like 3 days of fun, not work!IMG_0007
Claire’s picture depicts our farm including the hog barns, shop & pump house, and grain bins. Somehow she made it beautiful, just beautiful!IMG_0014
I’m anxious to see her project with the thread painted on it and all finished up.IMG_0016
During the day, Claire Bleu painted on this portrait until 5:00 when it got too dark to see good. She worked on the fabric painting in the evenings and at night.IMG_1478
All too soon it was time for her to go home. Her brother Gabriel was going to GA for the weekend, so she went home with him.IMG_0018
Be sure you check out her website Coleen Barnhart. I think you will like her paintings.

7 comments:

JuneFlory said...

Both fabric paintings are beautiful. I am amazed how just little snippets of frabic have turned into works of art. Looking forward to seeing how the thread painting will complete them.

Katie said...

thoes are beautiful

Coleen B said...

And I loved being there! I'm sorry we couldn't actually do the three hour outdoors idea because I still think that would be fun (if it wasn't cold and raining), but I don't regret having a more detailed picture or the time I spent working in your studio with you at all!

Emily H said...

Ladies, if you're not careful you will have a waiting list of commissions to do. This is fabulous.
-aunt em

sandra said...

Those pictures are stunning!!

Fullfilling my Dreams said...

What can I say, the two of you are amazingly talented. Such beauty!

QuiltinGal said...

I am wanting Clair Blue to come to my home and give me lessons.

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