Summer Sunset

Summer Sunset

W 31 cm x H 22 cm

From our home on the hillside, we are fortunate to enjoy uninterrupted views stretching westwards towards the coast. On clear summer evenings the sky becomes an ever-changing theatre of colour, filling the horizon with glowing pinks, purples, golds and deepening blues before the sun finally disappears.

Summer Sunset is my response to one of those evenings. Rather than depicting a precise moment, I wanted to capture the warmth and contentment of sitting in the garden as the day slowly draws to a close. The rich green foreground suggests the abundance of summer, while the distant landscape quietly recedes beneath a sky alive with colour.

Layers of painted fabrics, delicate fibres, free-motion embroidery and hand embellishment create a surface that shimmers as the light changes. Tiny stitched and textured details catch the eye like the last sparkling rays of sunlight, giving the piece a gentle sense of movement and life. Although difficult to reproduce in a photograph, the embroidery has a subtle luminosity that changes depending on the light in which it is viewed.

This remains one of my favourite embroideries, reminding me of long summer evenings when the whole sky seemed to glow and time slowed down for just a little while. It captures not only the colours of a summer sunset, but also the feeling that accompanies it—a moment of warmth, peace and quiet appreciation of the landscape that surrounds our home.

Medium: Hand-painted fabrics, fibres, freestyle appliqué, free-motion machine embroidery and hand embellishment.