Wall of Art

Over the years, we’ve gathered a number of art prints that we particularly like as mementoes of our trips.  And I’ve done quite a number of cross-stitch pieces that have been framed for display.

Last fall I finished up a years-long cross-stitch project, and I finally took it along with a few other pieces we’d gathered up to our framer friend, and they’ve all finally come home to roost.

So we rearranged our display walls:

From the left:

• print of Glen Stanley inlaid wood art, purchased in McBride, BC
• 2 prints of Andrew Meredith paintings, purchased in Chetticamp, NS
• a print of an Andrew D. Roach painting, also purchased in Chetticamp, NS.  These first 4 are memories of our cross-country trip in 2012.
• 2 numbered prints of Marion Rose Keay paintings, the top one the Yellow Barn, the bottom the Apple Farm.  Marion was a local artist who did local folk-art paintings for a number of years.  In the early 2000’s she changed her style to more impressionist.  Sadly, we learned that she passed away in 2011.  The Apple Farm, we purchased already framed.  The Yellow Barn, we acquired on a visit to her studio in 2003 (it will be next to go for proper matting and framing).  These are both memories of places near to where we used to live in a community called Yarrow.
• lastly, a cross-stitch rendering of Marion’s painting of Kilby Farm, not far from where we now live.  On our visit to her studio, Marion gave me two photos of paintings for which she no longer had prints available, and permission to recreate them in whatever manner I chose.  Here’s a close-up of the Kilby Farm work:

On the back, I’ve outlined the work that went into this piece:

The original photo is on the left, and a print of the cross-stitch design is on the right, along with the ‘history’.  The history says, in part:

The original photo was converted to a cross-stitch chart on a grid 392x259, which eventually resulted in a canvas 25 1/2” x 16 1/2”.  The canvas contains 101,528 stitches.  Work on the canvas began in 2007 and was tracked by the actual months in which work was done…..a total of 32 months (about 128-130 weeks), at an average of 10 hours per week means about 1300 hours of stitching.  Framed by Willa Defouw at Country Color Framing in Chilliwack, BC.

The second wall has three art pieces currently:

From the left:

• a cross-stitch of New England, kit purchased in Massachusetts many years ago
• eagle and rainbow cross-stitch, done for Grizz a number of years ago
• another Marion Rose Keay print, this one Greendale, the area where we grew up

This wall needs some work – I just used existing hooks, so need to make a plan (and maybe add a few more pieces) so that I can cover any exposed holes.

Happy displaying!             Blessings, Peg