Looking to add unusual animals to your Art Quilt?
Nature themes lend themselves to including unusual animals in art quilts. I often add dragonflies, fish, and jellies to my seascapes or landscapes. My preferred technique for landscape fabric collage is the fabric layering technique. I create a fiber scene on a table and quilt all of the layers together to make a piece of wall art.
A Dragonfly is an Insect.
A local gallery recently had a call for entry for insects. Of course, small creeping animals were my first thought. I would normally not choose to include bugs in my art .But I continued pondering and I remembered that dragonflies and butterflies are also insects. I choose to try my hand at dragonflies since they are a local favorite. Butterflies are beautiful but overdone in my view as small creatures in art quilts.
Sea Dragons
Sea dragons are a facinating cousin to a sea horse. My first thought when I saw one was, was it an animal or was it a plant? I was totally fooled. I love the impressionistic feel that it brings to my art. Each viewer can choose what they wish to envision. Sea horses and seadragons are smaller creatures than expected.Sometimes the differently colored seadragons blend in with their surroundings.
Some of the small animals in my work stand out and some don’t.
I created these seadragons using thread painting. Sheer fabric fish create a layered look to the seascape.
Jellies
Jellies add a fun, whimsical feel to my art. Don’t say jellyfish because they are not fish!Decorative threads for the tentacles add a bit of whimsy and recreate a swaying movement of the water.
In conclusion, these small creatures, fish, seadragons, jellies and dragonflies occur often in my art quilts. They are my favorites to create. I like using sheer fabrics to add dimension. Decorative threads are fun and add interest. Impressionistic scenes allow the viewer to become involved and form their own conclusions about what is there.
Learning more about the actual animals.
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/
Learn more about the fabric layering technique.
https://www.annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/03/fabric-layering-technique-another-look/
Many of my seascapes and landscapea are available at my etsy shop.