Louise Smith

3 x 4 inches, hand embroidery and some ribbon work on hand-painted silk.

I poured on a wash of the sky color first, then painted the mysterious distant island (somewhere off the west coast of Canada) over the top of that.  The original source was a photo taken on a grim, cloudy day, but I manipulated the colors until it looked like a summer day with a heat haze.  I had some thread in hot blues I’d been itching to use.

The “far” lighthouse is made from semi-transparent pieces of ribbon, hand-painted and glued very carefully to the background.  This is like trying to glue down a bunch of snowflakes and not my idea of a fun way to spend an hour, I have to say.  Then the headland is hand-stitched in various shades of regular sewing thread and in a much better temper.

The “near” depth marker is made from normal-thickness ribbon, hand-painted and glued on.  There are a few stitches in there for details that were too fine to work in ribbon.  Then lots of hand-stitching in Sulky embroidery thread for the water.

I hope it makes you feel summery.

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