Sandra Scott’s Quilts

At Good News Cafe Gallery

WOODBURY — “Nature Impressions,” an exhibition of Monroe quiltmaker Sandra Scott’s multi-hued artistic works capturing the rich beauties of the natural world in fabric, will be on display through April 12 at The Good News Café & Gallery, 694 Main Street South.

Ms Scott, who first took up quiltmaking nearly two decades ago, has earned the acclaim of art critics and a growing following among quilt collectors nationwide for her uncommon eye for harmonious and complex color combinations and her extraordinary skills in the fabric designs of her works.

“She has the most sophisticated color sense I’ve ever seen,” observed Pam Vogel, owner of The Gilded Nest in Barrington, Ill., in an interview with The Chicago Tribune. “If she can’t find the absolute perfect piece of fabric, she’ll hand-paint a one-inch square to match – she’s that much of a perfectionist. I’ve looked at quilters for dozens of years at exhibits all over, and she just stands above the rest.”

Ms Scott’s creative process in quiltmaking begins with cutting dozens of small pieces of fabric in a dazzling diversity of colors and experimenting with placements on a large white felt backing on her workroom wall. As she conceives the design of the work and begins to flesh out its details, she seeks to achieve a subtle blending of colors that art critics have compared to the palate of an Impressionist painter. She sews pieces either by hand or by machine.

“I try to picture the beauty of the Earth in my quilts,” Ms Scott says. “I have color wheels and charts and books about balancing the right number of darks with lights. But you have to draw most upon what is inside of you and what you see around you.”

Her artistic vision at times leads her to return to the same theme, searching for new variations and fresh interpretations until she exhausts its possibilities.

“You do a piece and, when it’s all finished, you look at it and think, ‘I can do that a little better.’ You try harder in your next piece, and it keeps on going. Look at Monet: Why did he paint so many water lilies? You get hooked on a concept and just go, go, go until the ideas run out.”

Ms Scott has staged previous solo exhibitions of her works at Yale Art Place in New Haven, arts centers in Rolling Meadows and Barrington, Ill., and other cultural, community, retail and corporate venues nationwide. She has also exhibited at art shows in Connecticut, New York, Illinois, Florida and North Carolina, garnering recognition at a number of juried shows over the past 16 years.

Good News Café is open Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 11:30 am to 10 pm, and Sunday from noon to 10 pm. Call 203-266-4663 for additional information.