Lakes Created At the Gallery

I had a good time creating three pieces for the Lake Series during the Gallery Stroll at Good Goods in Saugatuck, Michigan. It was fun having an audience and being influenced by them.

Pulling batting apart to make clouds.

This one was inspired by a visitor's memorable day of the lake. It was a brilliant blue day with high winds. The lake was extremely rough, so much so that a kite surfing competition was cancelled.

Lake #47

Here it is before the machine quilting was done.
Winter was another visitor's favorite time of the lake. This one was a bit of a challenge for me. I know the lake with ice and cold from living near it in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for thirty-plus years.

Lake #48

However, that is not the lake I love and to which I have an emotional attachment ... it's the summertime lake from the shores of Michigan. The Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan is quite different. There are many rocky and clay cliffs on the west side of the lake as opposed to the sand dune shoreline on the east. Also, the water is most usually cold because the predominantly westerly winds push the warm surface water to the Michigan side.

Here's the icy, winter lake under construction. I added oil stick pastels and white paint to make it even frostier than you see here.
Many visitors responded to the large lake piece with a bit of a sunset. I was determined not to make obvious sunsets in this series ... or at least not yet. However, I kept pulling a piece of hand painted fabric (actually a clean-up cloth from another project) from that bag of scraps. Soooooo ... I relented and made this one.

Lake #49

The finished piece has black tulle netting laid over the surface making it darker than you see when it was being constructed ... indicating the sun has already set below the horizon.

Post Script Oct.20: I see a couple of kite surfers on the webcam that takes a picture every 30 seconds of Lake Michigan at the Holland channel.