Seascapes in Needlework, Part I

Simple beach scene by J.J.

If you live in a land-locked area far from the sea, as we do, you may feel little inclination to try doing a seascape. However, no landscape is as changeable as the sea and few are as expressive of mood and emotion. I became familiar with both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans when we lived in Panama, where the two are just a few miles apart. J.J. travels to Florida frequently and takes many photographs as she walks along its beaches. J.D. is addicted to fishing programs on television and is currently following one on deep-sea sport fishing. I check the National Weather Service on my computer at least daily, where I frequently find film clips of marine action which I can watch over and over until I am familiar with a particular aspect of the ocean in motion.

"Northeaster" by Winslow Homer, 1895

You also have access to such information. Your first resource is your memory. If you have ever been on the ocean or at seaside, what do you remember about it? How did you feel about the experience? Jot down notes about your reactions. They don’t need to be complete sentences — just words and phrases. Do you have pictures from that time, or might a relative have some? Moving pictures from television or electronic devices are your second resource. Check the National Geographic Channel for programs about the Earth. Other sources are travel films, series devoted to animals, and the aforementioned fishing shows. Finally, there are still pictures, whether modern photographs or paintings by masters like Winslow Homer.

Apollo 17 Image Of Earth From Space

The oceans are vast. I recently heard an astronaut describe how much of an orbit is over water. Even large continents like South America and Africa, he said, take little time to observe and then you are over water again. The oceans contribute greatly to the fact that Earth becomes the “Blue Planet” (sometimes referred to as the “Big Blue Marble”) when viewed from space. The oceans are also deep, so deep that it is hard to imagine descending to the bottom of one. They are subject to enormous physical forces — the gravitational forces of the planet and its moon, the planet’s spin, the movement of the tectonic plates, tides, currents, tsunamis, storms, seasonal temperature changes. Therefore, they are constantly changing.

Beach sunset by J.J.

The time of day you choose is important. Sunsets and sunrises at low tide are especially interesting because the water reflects the colors of the sky. There will be little blue in the water unless it is reflected blue from the sky. This may be darkened to a degree by the marine blue of the water, but the overall effect will be that of the sky colors. The white of surf and spray also picks up color from the sky. The sun itself creates a prominent path in the water. It colors low clouds and reflects on the undersides of higher ones. Seaside buildings may show color in their planes and shadows, although they do not reflect with the same intensity as the surface of the water. The shadows below the crests of waves appear very dark and there is more violet in the blues. However, the shadows become paler and grayer the further they are from the shore and the waves themselves appear smaller. Wavelets striking the land may appear as distinct bands across the surface where the water is shallow.

Arrows show the four different 'gestures'

There are four lines of directional movement, often referred to as gestures, in a composition. These are horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and curvilinear. While it is desirable to get all four into the design, an eloquent picture can be made with fewer than that number. The panoramic photograph below shows three of the four plainly. The sea’s horizons are almost always strong horizontals, as they are here. This is counterbalanced by the vertical lines provided by the two figures and their shadows. Curvilinear lines of direction come from the gentle wave forms. It would be possible to add a diagonal line with a cloud or by a sailboat on the water, but I don’t believe it would improve the composition, which so beautifully shows the powerful influence of the ocean and the solitary presence of two people who appear to have the world to themselves.

"Two Against the Tide" by J.J.

Let me show you what I mean by directional “gestures’. First is what you see in the panorama above. There is the horizontal line for the horizon. Below that are the curved lines of the waves against the beach. Off to the left are two short vertical lines for the two people, which are doubled in length by their shadows. The various lines need not be of the same length or number to give unity and balance o a composition. Diagonal lines are found both in nature, as in the branching of trees, and in man-made forms like a sailboat, the roof of a building, a construction crane, etc.

Photo by J.J.

Sunrises usually have gentler colors — pink, apricot, aqua, pale blues. The water reflects less of these colors. Before the sun clears the horizon, structures both far and near may appear only as black silhouettes. This can make a striking picture if the objects that are silhouetted have varied and interesting shapes. The rising sun (small circle at the far right of the photograph) appears largely white, lacking the vivid yellows of the setting sun, and makes a white path of reflection on the water. Colors, diluted by this white glow, gradually appear along the sides and on the tops of the shadowed forms as they emerge out of the darkness. Distant forms may remain backlit longer than nearer ones facing the sun. The sunrise colors fade faster than sunset colors and the overhead sky turns a distinct blue before they entirely disappear. There are a number of diagonals in this picture.

Winslow Homer - "On a Lee Shore"

The open ocean is a deep blue-green. As it approaches land and grows shallower, it becomes duller and other colors are incorporated: the yellow-green of seaweed, browns and grays from underwater rocks and sand, the stark white of wave crests and the off-white of spray where surging water strikes as it meets the shore. Many painted seascapes that I have seen make the sea look almost uniformly dark blue. That is inaccurate and makes the picture less interesting. You can add color to your seascape by blending yellow, green, and brown strands of yarn or floss with the blue and turquoise ones you use for the sea. Try several browns because they create different effects. If you choose to do a sunlit scene. add occasional small stitches of pastel colors to spray, where bursting bubbles make tiny rainbow twinkles.

"Safe Harbor", Nordic stitch needlepoint

A seascape need not be a complicated project. This one is a color version of the logo of a Scandinavian company that attracted me many years ago and meant enough for me to save it. Although the sail has a more modern shape, the hull reminded me of the shallow-draft Viking coastal vessels like the ones both my husband’s and my Frisian ancestors sailed in, centuries ago. I made this color version for him, with the ship at safe harbor in a fjord as the sun is going down.

Sample of Nordic stitch in both directions

The stitch, called Nordic stitch, is a very simple one. It is made up of blocks of four horizontal or vertical stitches, each over four threads, so that they are of uniform size. This is useful for creating simple designs like these silhouettes and can easily be combined with other canvas stitches, such as upright gobelin or tent stitches. Since the individual blocks of stitches are square, Nordic stitch patterns can easily be converted to counted cross-stitch patterns. Or the squares could be larger squares cut from fabric and pieced together to form a patchwork panel, or tiles glued to a wood or Masonite background.

Blue wave bargello pillow top

In Landscapes, Part IV, we promised you another of my “Bargello Plus” pictures, which featured bargello patterns plus realistic elements done in tent stitch. This particular one began with a pattern that represented rolling ocean waves. This was a traditional bargello pattern that I lengthened and extended to make larger “waves”. I used the design to make the pillow top seen here.

I left a space above the waves to represent the sky, where I embroidered a seagull in tent stitch. Then I left a space between two of the big waves for a fish, also worked in tent stitch. The composition was entitled “Seafood Surprise”. I will leave it up to you to decide which creature gets the greater surprise.

"Seafood Surprise", Bargello Plus picture

Now it is time for you to design a simple seascape of your own,

Photo credits: Winslow Homer's "Northeaster" and "On a Lee Shore", and the Apollo 17 image of Earth are in the Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons. All other photos are copyright Annake's Garden.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.