Doughty Designs - Wood series

Sometimes the inspiration for art comes from an unexpected source. My father-in-law was cleaning out some of his books and gave me one entitled “Inside Wood”, by William M. Harlow. It is a slim book but dense reading (unless you are into wood technology). However it has some fascinating photographs of the microscopic design of wood. The patterns and shapes are amazing, and each species has its own characteristics.

This series shows several aspects of trees. First, I painted a background and leaves on white cotton cloth (and for the oak and pine, added acorns and pinecones). Then I drew the shape of the tree's crown with fabric pastels. I centered this cloth on a larger piece of cotton batting and a backing fabric, and quilted the cell patterns in various threads. Red paint was added in the circular cells on the ash, several paint colors on the Red Oak and Honeylocust, and bronze foil on the pine. Next I used acrylic paint to add the bark pattern as a border, painting directly on the cotton batting. The 'border' is unquilted. For the three “white” trees, a colored fabric was used for binding.