As I am preparing for our move to a new house, here are more houses from my past work.
Home means something different to each person – we all have different physical locations, memories, structures for our homes – and yet I think it is one of the most important concepts there is in our society. I know that my home, not just my house, but my home, means everything to me.
As I moved away from fabric work around 2000-2001, I took up collage work, and I did a few portraits in collage. But I eventually adopted the policy of not doing any commission work – I was busy enough with my own projects and could sell whatever I made, no longer needing the portrait work to keep me going. And to be honest, commission work is nerve-wracking. I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
The best-laid plans…
I did this house in paper collage. The buyer saw me at a show when I was still accepting assignments, we discussed the project, and nothing came of it until a year or so later when they contacted me, by which time I had decided no more…but. After some negotiation I agreed to do this one more house. It was a beach house in North Carolina.
Oh, guess what. My firm resolve to do no more commission work wobbled again. I made this portrait of a townhouse on Spruce Street in Philadelphia because the buyers had bought several other pieces from me and they were so nice about how they asked…Here it is. I really think this is the last one.
I believe you have seen most if not all of the commissioned portraits I’ve made over the years. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t done a lot of other pictures with houses as the subject. Here is a small selection of portraits in collage.
All of these are real places, if not exactly adhering to color scheme or setting.
They are all somebody’s home.
Thank you for going along with me on this journey. As you might guess, it’s brought up a lot of memories for me. I will take them with me to my new home.
As I am preparing for our move to a new house, here are more houses and buildings from my past work.
Home means something different to each person – we all have different physical locations, memories, structures for our homes – and yet I think it is one of the most important concepts there is in our society. I know that my home, not just my house, but my home, means everything to me.
Here are some miscellaneous portraits in fabric. If you want details of their construction, look here.
This portrait, of an ornate greenhouse that at the time was used by Robertson’s Florists in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA, was a sample I made for the gift shop from which I received commissions. I went all out on this one. It’s hand applique with hand embroidery, with the greenhouse made of (I think) taffeta over other fabrics. I pieced the border with floral fabrics and quilted it.
I don’t remember what happened to this hanging, I guess eventually I sold it.
I made this portrait of the Valley Green Inn, a local historic spot and restaurant, as a sample for the shop, which was located in the same neighborhood. It was sold from the shop.
A customer saw it and commissioned me to do a fall-themed version of it. The Inn was to be the site of her sister’s wedding reception and she wanted to give it to her as a gift. Here is that version. And if you say to yourself, well, they look kind of … the same…you would be right. I used the same pattern drawing to make both of them.
These two house portraits were made for a book. I chose local houses that would work well in showing a straight-on portrait and an angled view. I described the book production process in this post – take a look especially if you are interested in how a project like this gets turned into book material.
As I am preparing for our move to a new house, here are more houses from my past work.
Home means something different to each person – we all have different physical locations, memories, structures for our homes – and yet I think it is one of the most important concepts there is in our society. I know that my home, not just my house, but my home, means everything to me.
More house portraits in fabric. If you want details of their construction, look here.
This portrait is of a house in Wyoming. A friend commissioned me to do this picture, which was of her sister’s house. The white tree in front has a hand-embroidered trunk done with lines of thread, and hand-embroidered branches. I enjoyed working in a snow scene for a change. The yard swing was a detail requested by the commissioner.
I received the commission for this house in Nazareth, PA, at a show in Bethlehem, PA, I think. Other than that, I don’t know anything about the house at all, but I do remember how difficult it was to manage the details of what turned out to be a large hanging.
This house portrait was another commission, from what source, I don’t remember, but I believe it was made as a gift, and I do recall corresponding with the buyer about what details to include – the skis leaning on the house, the chimney with smoke rising from it, and the autumn colors. I found a fishing oriented fabric to use for the border to fit in with the outdoors theme of the picture. The house itself was in Vermont.
This house was in Elkins Park, PA. It was a pale stucco house set in a large yard. I was quite happy with the little dogwood tree and the shapes of the two large trees to each side.
I had more freedom to create an image by the time I made this one because of the sewing techniques I used. You may be able to see that this portrait was done by machine stitching using free motion raw-edge applique rather than the hand work I had been doing. I made only a few portraits in this method as I stopped doing them to spend more time on the other subjects I was increasingly selling at art shows and fairs. This example was not quilted but merely given a backing and hanging sleeve.
This picture shows the the last fabric house portrait I made, I believe. It was done for our next-door neighbors, so I had a personal connection. The real-life house was next door to the first house we lived in in Wyncote, PA, and was the pride and joy of its owners. Many pleasant memories come up for me as I look at the photo of the hanging. The owners displayed it in their front hall for some years until they sold the house and moved away, so I saw it often.
It was also done with machine applique techniques.
As I am preparing for our move to a new house, here are more houses from my past work.
Home means something different to each person – we all have different physical locations, memories, structures for our homes – and yet I think it is one of the most important concepts there is in our society. I know that my home, not just my house, but my home, means everything to me.
More house portraits in fabric. If you want details of their construction, look here.
This house was in Maryland. I believe the buyer got in touch with me via my website and supplied the photos for me to work from. The bordering fabric was a nice rose pattern in peachy pink, which he requested. The hanging was to be a gift for his wife, I think.
This house was in Elkins Park, PA. It’s very washed out this miserable photo; in real life the house was stucco tan on the upper levels and I used a batik-like gray for the stone work. The buyer saw me at a local art fair. I did enjoy depicting the beam structure in the upper level.
This house was in Jeffersonville, PA. I’m not sure where I got the commission, but the buyer supplied the photos and had a couple of requests – the flowering trees in the yard, and could I include their dog? Yes, I could. I wish I had taken close-ups of the dog and the cat in the window as it looks like I did a pretty good job with them. I enjoyed doing this happy little house especially because the owners were so proud of it – it was their first house.
This house was in Lansdale, PA. I received the commission at a local art fair. It’s hard to see but the roof is a plaid fabric – I was very happy with how that turned out. As I did with other frame houses (see the Maryland house above) I made the siding out of individual folded strips of fabric which gave dimensionality to the facade.
I bought most of my fabrics at Granny’s Sewing Den in Glenside, PA, a shop owned by a mother-daughter team. I became good friends with them and even taught classes at the shop. This portrait was commissioned by the mother for her daughter. I took especial care with this one because of the personal connection and, as you may imagine, because the two women were so skilled, I didn’t want to disappoint! The daughter was thrilled with the result and I think it is one of my best efforts.
I have some news: my husband and I are moving – after twenty years in our current house, thirty+ in our current town, and for my husband, his whole life in this immediate area – to a new home about fifty miles away and located in another state. We will be leaving our house in about ten days. We are really looking forward to the change and the new experiences we will have in our new home while reflecting on all the memories we have made here.
So, as you might imagine, my time for art activities has been cut to nothing right now. I figured I might fill in the gap a little bit with some home-themed art from my past. I’ll be doing a short series of posts on this topic.
As I looked over the images, some from quite some time ago, I am struck by how home means something different to each person – we all have different physical locations, memories, structures for our homes – and yet I think it is one of the most important concepts there is in our society. I know that my home, not just my house, but my home, means everything to me.
In my earliest years of doing art, I made a lot of house portraits in fabric. I wrote a general post on this topic about three years ago in which I focused on a couple of pieces I did for a book, including my role in the production process. Now I will give you more detail on individual portraits, as I remember them.
Almost all of them were done as commissions, either through a local shop or through my own booth at art fairs.
I worked from a photo supplied by the buyer or taken by me, and in the beginning I followed the construction methods you see in these: I would seam together “grass” and “sky”, and then, following the pattern I drew on gridded paper from the photo, I constructed the house with hand applique. I then added a border, quilted it, and applied a binding and a hanging sleeve.
Later on, I did a few using machine applique techniques – I’ll mention those as they come up.
Size-wise, I can’t tell you exactly, but the pieces are all around 18″ to 2 feet wide by say 15″ to 2 feet high. It depended on the house size and shape.
I apologize for the photo quality in so many cases – these pictures were done in the 1990’s before I had a digital camera. I wish I had taken photos of details, but – film photography was expensive and I felt lucky to get even these shots.
Let’s begin.
I did this portrait as a commission from my son’s kindergarten teacher – it was of her parents’ house and meant for an anniversary gift, I think. (As a note, my son is now 35 years old, so this was a long time ago!). I was quite proud of the porch awning and the small tree on the right, where I applied netting over cut-up fabrics to make the foliage.
This house was a large stone home in Lansdale, PA, commissioned by a couple. The husband liked it but I don’t think the wife was as pleased. I also think no matter what, she was always going to be disappointed. In the end they paid me. I took that as good enough.
I have recorded the address of this house as being on Claudia Way, Lower Gwynedd. I looked it up and yes, that is correct. I remember at the time enjoying the coincidence of Claudia depicting another Claudia.
This house was in Wyndmoor, PA. I remember that in real life, it had a mass of rhododendrons in front that almost obscured the facade. I knew I would need to do some yard work or the picture would be of a big green blob. I took the photos of this house myself, as it was a commission from the shop, and I remember working hard to get some idea of what was behind that mega-vegetation (in fact I think I might have gone right up to the house and squeezed behind the bushes).
I did this portrait as a commission from a friend who wanted to commemorate her friend’s wedding. I think she may have been a bridesmaid. Anyway, this house is in Georgia. Those pine trees in the back almost drove me crazy but in the end they sufficed. The border fabric was a home furnishing fabric; I could not find cotton fabrics with a pattern and colors that met the color and design specifications.
I live across the street from our local high school. There are some playing fields right in front of our house. I often go over and watch the sports. One day I sketched a lot of little figures from a field hockey game.
Some time later I cut them out and put them on artist trading cards.
Seemed like a good time to post them because it’s field hockey season again…
This lady looks like she is just about to say, “Stop running in the house!”, thinking that the lamp will be on the floor pretty soon, if things don’t calm down.
Clay tiles, @4″ x 4″, Velvet underglazes on handmade tile, fired at cone 06, January, 2018.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
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