Grassland in Spring

The past few months I have chosen some unfinished projects to work on. Usually a piece is unfinished because it is not turning out the way I wanted.  It is always a challenge to figure out what needs to be changed and a lot of satisfaction when I can achieve this.

Several days ago, I was able to complete one of these pieces. It was quite small. So I decided to mount it on a cloth covered 8" x 8" frame. In the past I have used a few different frames.

The first frames I used I needed to make from stretcher bars because I couldn't find canvas wrapped frames in this size.  I assembled 4 - 8" pieces similar to the ones pictured above. The problem with these is that there was not much support behind my pieces, even when covered with cloth.  Then, I made some art pieces that would fit on 8" x 10" canvas wrapped frames. This is a common size and easy to buy. I liked working with these a lot.

But then I found this birch frame with a gesso coated top in an 8" x 8" size. I thought I would give it a try.  I covered it with cotton batting and then my piece. I really liked working with it. On a recent blog, Mary Stori shows how she covered a very similar frame.

This is my completed piece I named "Grassland in Spring". The changes needed were relatively simple. I painted the light green area green. It was previously a gray blue color. Then I added the hand dyed green cheesecloth and thread painted the light green area. Lastly, the sky was the wrong shade of blue and I painted some silk organza a pale gray, applied it over the sky and quilted it.  "Grassland in Spring" is available in my Gallery Shop.