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The Quilted Landscape
June 2004
With the Great Catskill Mountain Quilt Show coming up at the July 10 and 11 Mountain Culture Festival in Hunter, NY, it is time for our quilt show preview portfolio again.
We have chosen images from quilts included in this summer’s show that to our eyes portray something of nature, although our cover photograph is somewhat abstract. The central form could be an arrow, but we decided it looked like a tree. To be sure, it is a tree with autumn rather than spring colors, but we think the design is outstanding. We can even imagine (or stretch our imagination to think) that the triangles above are portrayals of the leaves of the tree. The patterns in those triangles are in themselves delightful, and while there are a few repetitions the variety is impressive.
The next image in our portfolio shows a red barn in a field. We see three cows in front, with their heads poking through a fence, three trees in the distance with different patterns of leaves, details of windows and doors on the face of the barn, and a road in front. There is a silo on the side and a cloudy sky above. The whole scene is framed beautifully. The next scene is of a white barn, and this time there is a house on the side and a pond in front with ducks enjoying themselves. Here we have flowers on the side of the pond, and the sky is cloudy again, somehow speckled with dots. Our third barn has vertical stripes on its front that make for a striking pattern. There is a windmill in the distance, and three horses in front, one of which is happily enjoying eating the grass. We see a tree on one side and mountains in the distance. Here, again, the sky seems covered with clouds.
Opposite, we see a realistic image of a man plowing a field, with two horses pulling the plow, a colorful sky above (which we imagine to be dawn on the assumption that the farmer has gotten an early start) and a red barn lit by the sun in the distance.
The next spread is of flowers. On the left there is a lovely blue vase with colorful sunflowers. Each of the dark green leaves has a different pattern. Clusters of red berries are shown in between. The background is appropriately made of a pattern of white leaves against a soft brown background. On the opposite page, there is a woman with long eyelashes, red lips, golden hair, a big red hat, and three lovely flowers surrounding her.
We end with a pattern that we may consider realistic with a little stretch of the imagination. There are, to be sure, leaves in the brown frames of the rectangles. The triangles within those rectangles are placed in lovely patterns that could represent trees looked at vertically or arrows looked at horizontally. In any case we like both the pattern and the colors, all of which seem very cheerful.
We always enjoy the creative spirit of the artists who create original quilts, and are pleased that we have such an excellent selection for this month’s portfolio. I’m sure the upcoming Great Catskill Mountain Quilt Show and the overall Mountain Culture Festival will be wonderful, and urge you all to include it in your plans.
--David Finn
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