“Night” is my theme, the one I had the pleasure of proposing to the group, so you might suppose that I would have had an idea of what I was going to make before I proposed the theme. I didn’t and I struggled to come up with a good idea. I started something and it just didn’t work, so it was back to the drawing board. Then I remembered an idea I had several years ago, but never executed. My plan was to create a scene of houses on a hillside, which I made, then duplicate the scene as a night scene. I made the daytime version, put it in a show and it sold, so I never got around to making the night version, but I still liked the idea.

When we were on our cross-country trip several years ago, which I talked about in relation to my “Road” piece, I took hundreds of photos, many right out the car window as we sped by.  I took this photo of an old house that sat alone way out in the country somewhere in Pennsylvania.

 I loved the lines of this house and made this quilt a couple years ago.

 It seemed like a good candidate for a nighttime conversion! The daytime version is much larger and the proportions a bit different, but it was a lot of fun trying to imagine a smaller rendition at night. The challenge is getting the colors and values such that they suggest nighttime. I dyed the sky as a starting point and worked from there. I dislike using a lot of black as it sometimes has a deadening effect on a composition, so I challenged myself to make it colorful, with no black, but still evocative of the night and its effect on colors. I imagined this house full of light and life like a beacon in the dark of the rural landscape. Night has fallen. The family has gathered at home. After a quiet day the house comes to life. The lights come on and the stars come out…

When the Lights Come On and the Stars Come Out…

15″ x 20″