Parker’s Cove

 

Parker’s Cove is a small fishing village on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada.  I was in the area in the spring of 2021, just for a fun time to get away.  A friend drove us up to the Annapolis Valley and down the length of it to Annapolis Royal.  Annapolis Royal is an historic community that hosts tourists from around the world.  

But we did not stop there.  Instead we headed north, over the Parker Mountain Road, and down to the Bay of Fundy.  There is a certain point, coming off the mountain, where you get a view of the Bay…and Parker’s Cove wharf.

When I saw the wharf I exclaimed with amazement!  It exuded pure joy!  The unique characteristics of the shacks just screamed at me to hook them.  So I did!

I ended up on the wharf taking photos of the brightly coloured fishing shacks for over an hour. The colours represented here are fairly accurate to the actual colours of the shacks.  The combinations of different colours suggested to me there was an artist’s hand at work.  I later found out a local artist had indeed been involved in the efforts to paint the shacks.  What fascinated me was the variety of colours and shapes.  

I originally started this series in an online design class by fibre artist Susan Feller.  I was trying to figure out how to tie the photos I took of the shacks into a cohesive series.  I decided to create a series with seagulls and the ocean with the shacks.  However, after I finished the first piece it appeared too busy to me. The ocean took away from the shacks, so I decided to not include it.  

I also wondered just how minimalist I could go and still get the joy and aliveness exuded by the shacks.  The idea of two separate, but parallel series was born - one realistic series and one minimalist series.  

That meant hooking twice as many wall hangings. My friend told me later that I hadn’t taken photos of all of them!  In the spring of 2022 we went up again and took more photos. 

This series of hooked wall hangings started as an idea in the spring of 2021 and culminated in 35 finished pieces in the spring of 2023. 

The wall hangings can be hung individually or in groups. They look especially good grouped by colour.  The wall hangings are all:

  • hand hooked,
  • on primitive linen backing,
  • lined with either 100% wool or 100% quilting cotton,
  • labelled,
  • finished with a hand whipped edge of 100% wool
  • complete with a hanging sleeve.