The beauty of America’s National Parks has inspired artist of all kinds (think of photographer Ansel Adams’ classic pictures of Yosemite). It can also inspire you and your needlepoint. Today I’ll point you to some delightful sites with great ideas for needlepoint.
The WPA (Works Progess Administration) was an organization during The Depression that allowed artists to work on all kinds of projects. The classic styles of many of these works is still appreciated today. National Geographic’s site has a small display of some of these posters. The poster pictured above is one of the collection of eight. Click on the arrows to see the whole collection.
I live on a island in the San Francisco Bay which has taken the first step to becoming a national park. Our local national park, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, encompasses many different places, from the redwoods of Muir Woods to the urban beaches of San Francisco. During the mid-1990′s the iconic pictures shown above, were designed to honor the different parts of GGNRA. They hearken back to WPA designs and are wonderfully suited to needlepoint.
You’ll have to poke around a bit to find them on-line, but here’s a great starting point. The style is so resonant that National Parks in the East use a similar set of designs for their shopping bags.
I used one of these as an inspiration for a design several years ago and am planning some more based on the shopping bag I have.
The simple colors and relatively flat areas of these designs are the basis of successful needlepoint. The shading and texture of many of the posters could be rendered nicely with stitches and threads. This could be the start of a mini needlepoint vacation!
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You live WHERE?!!! OMG, how wonderful. For six years, I lived in a large state park, on top of a (flat-topped) mountain, jutting up alone out of a river valley. I became a part of my environment, and vice versa, as has never been possible anywhere else I’ve lived. Your post gave me a bit of envy but also some lovely flashbacks. Thank you!
I agree these would be spectacular done as needlepoint, but I don’t want to violate copyright laws…advice please?
I found a cross stitch pattern of these posters on ebay and I think they are still listed. The pattern was great and it turned out very nice.
Laurie
Thanks Denise. I live on Mare Island, a large island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay. Until the 1990′s it was the oldest naval shipyard on the West Coast, when it was decommissioned. Now it’s mostly derelict, with some restored old mansions, some business, and some new housing. There is also a college here (Touro University) and Mythbusters films here sometimes. If you’ve seen either the duct tape bridge or the parachutist and the see-saw you’ve seen our dry docks.
In the late 1800′s the commandant here asked ships coming in for repair or maintenance to bring him trees, so the middle part of the island has tons of exotic trees.
But the island is mostly (about 40%) uninhabitable tidal and non-tidal salt marsh. We’re a major flyover for migrating waterfowl, have our own packs of coyotes, a resident herd of goats (owned by the master developer) and very forward wildlife of all kinds.
It’s a very quirky place.
Keep Stitching,
Janet
I believe that if you are adapting these only for your own use and not selling either patterns or finished work derived from them you do not need permission to use.
But this isn’t my area of expertise. Can anyone else weigh in on this question?
Keep Stitching,
Janet