Landscapes will always be a hot favorite for artists, no matter what their medium be. As such, the laws governing perspective would be the same, be it watercolor, or needlework.  Not that I ever learnt much, as all those lines leading here, there and out to infinity confused me no end when I used to pore over drawing books. Only gradually have I learnt to convey the feeling of distance in landscapes.
Long years back I did one landscape, taking ‘Sunrise’ by Claude Monet as the starting point on petit point over a watercolor wash. There, moving from down, through the sea with the little boat and the chimneys in the mid distance to the orange sun and sky was all done in tent stitch, sticking to a limited palette and repeating the same hues all over.

“Sunrise” by Sunrita

‘Landdunes’ is also done the same way, over watercolor on very fine net. The watercolor wash really helps a lot, because such minute stitches take long to do, and so one need not cover the entire net, but let the watercolor show through, particularly for the sky.

“Land Dunes” by Sunrita

Using lighter shades and shorter stitches is one way of suggesting distance. The sky portion of the landscape on tea-dyed cloth is white, with flecks of brown only, and richer tones and strokes in the foreground. In the fragment from another, the varied stitches used for the foreground give the impression of dense undergrowth and wild flowers.

“Landscape on Tea-Dyed Cloth” by Sunrita

“Fragment” by Sunrita

In ‘land and sky’, watercolor comes into full play, and needlework is left to a bare minimum. Not so visible are also a flock of birds going over the sky!

“Lemon-Green Landscape” by Sunrita

As in watercolor, so in needlework, the sky poses a major challenge and all that open sky and how to do it seems pretty daunting. However, once one gets the hang of it, it is possible to cover the entire swoop, either partially or fully, depending upon the stitch one is using. In this lemon-green landscape, the sky is done in buttonhole stitch. I used couching for the golden yellow landscape, working with two needles to get that peculiar stitch moving around.

“Land and Sky” by Sunrita

“Golden Yellow” by Sunrita

Lastly, the golden rule that takes care of all perspectives while making needlework landscapes is to keep at it!

Words and Artworks by Sunrita

@stitchysunrita