Dated 1985
Pipe Creek, Texas
Ardis and Robert James Collection, 1997.007.1061

Pamela Studstill combines traditional piecing techniques with unique hand-painted fabrics to create abstract landscapes reminiscent of Impressionist paintings. Her quilt, Number 47, evokes a distant horizon through use of subtle gradations of color.

In her artist statement for the 1983 Quilt National competition Studstill wrote:

"I like to play with color gradations, using hand-dyed and commercial fabrics. The surface paint not only creates a random pattern but also helps ease the transition from color to color. I am inspired by landscape views and vistas, fields of anything, all the quilts I've ever seen, and looking at my boxes of colored material."

Studstill's remarkable body of work, of which six pivotal pieces are in the collection of the International Quilt Museum, establishes her as a member of a group of ground-breaking artists who broke the traditional bounds of quiltmaking and launched it into today's art world.