Radiant Landscapes

December 3, 2012
Loughman tiles while others toil. Tiles, in geometric shapes cut from fabric, are to the quilter what tesserae are to mosaicists. The tiles add background and movement, color and light. Loughman echoes elements of impressionist and pointillist art by manipulating light on quilts as Cezanne and Seurat did with small brush strokes on canvas. “Tiling large areas of your quilts,” she writes, “allows you, in some ways, to follow in these master painters’ footsteps.” By playing with light and color, she designs additional dimensions to quilted landscapes, thereby creating smashing results. Her instruction book does not begin with the tiles, however: she starts with design; teaches color and value and hue; and considers fabric selection, including a chapter on customizing fabric through dyeing and painting. After explaining how to make, place, and stitch down the tiles, Loughman works through construction of four landscape projects. These projects are sophisticated, certainly more dramatic than her writing, which borders on the banal. Loughman’s book is made more beautiful to look at by her husband’s vacation photography.