Lake Erie Retreat by Anita McIntyre

Every spring and fall I go on a retreat to Holy Family Retreat House in Oxley, Ontario. It is on the shores of Lake Erie. One year they cut down all of the underbrush which allowed the Golden Rod and other wild flowers to go wild. The hillside was covered with flowers. What a treat.

I decided to do an oil painting of the scene possibly to be developed into needlework. One of the things I wanted to stitch was the Golden Rod. Try as I might I could not get the oil paints to show me what the needlework would look like so I took a large crewel needle and put some bullion stitches on the oil painting. I liked it so much I kept stitching. I liked the way the oil painting receded and the stitching was emphasized. It somehow brought out the peace of the scene.

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