Landscapes and Quilts

Landscape paintings never spoke to me as a child. The colours always seemed to be a sea of murky, dull, green rolling hills and troubled skies. They never seemed bright and vivid as the real world around me. The paintings seemed to be of far off places, places that in my mind, never really existed in the world I lived in.

I live in Yorkshire now and the sky is often white with clouds, lacking in any colour. I often find it too bright, sometimes it even hurts my eyes. I'm grateful for sunny days when colour returns to the sky. It is then I appreciate what is around me.

I have to admit, I spend a lot of time on the Internet, watching documentaries. I'm fascinated by the idea of crafts being passed down from one generation to the next. On one of my searches, that is where I found the documentary, “Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend”. To me, these quilts are landscapes, rich with an assortment of colours and patterns.

The quilts are not perfect, far from it. They were made by woman who utilised what they had around them. That is what makes them beautiful and unique. But what is more interesting is what the stories behind the quilts. You can watch the video here and tell me what you think.