I came across this quote the other day and have been holding it in my mind as I contemplate the night time forest.

“Color! What a deep and mysterious language,
the language of dreams”
– Paul Gauguin

It feels great to have gotten back to work painting the back of my ‘Forest of Dreams’ headboard quilt.  I always feel like a ‘real’ artist when I paint, although I don’t really know what I’m doing half the time.

I’m using an assortment of fabric paints.  I managed to get some colour and tonal gradations with my brushes, then I got out my wooden stamps to put some texture onto the surface of the ground and between the trees.  First, I blocked off the tree trunks by pinning paper to the quilt.

Then I stamped the fabric.

Really pleased with the result!

Once I finished painting in the background, I took it off of my studio wall and into the kitchen.  Partly because I thought I was going to do some screenprinting onto the surface (which I decided not to) and partly because I started painting my studio yesterday and ran out of workspace!

I’ve given some thought to what a dreamer might require when she enters the forest at night.  Entities to light her way, but not to illuminate too much the mysterious darkness, for this is where she will find what she seeks.

I’ve been filling in some of the details, like the luminous primrose flowers,

gently glowing fireflies,

some more background foliage,

and the sweet surprise of the beautiful crescent of a new moon, glimpsed from behind the tree trunks and leaves.  Here, I’ve ‘auditioned’ the moon in paper before painting it in a silvery-white.

Next, I’ll put the quilt onto the headboard so that I can determine where to place a hand lettered poem I wrote for the back of it.

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