Australia Wide Five & Art Studio Re-organised!!

This week  I am celebrating some achievements ...... 

Firstly, the OzQuilt Network, Australia Wide Five Exhibition opened at the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries,  64 Wittenoom St Bunbury on Friday 23 September and runs to Sunday 6 November 2016 before continuing on tour.  The gallery is open daily from 10am to 4pm and entry is free.

My piece 'Forest Pansy' is part of this Exhibition.  Click here to see all of the fabulous work that will be on tour.

Secondly .....  its done!!  After the delivery disaster earlier in the month, I took the opportunity to revisit the plans for my studio and decided to 'keep it simple'!!!  

Feels so light and spacious now and there is room for all the important things ... including a spot for my devoted poodle!!!  Now I just have to deal with the chaos in the spare room!!!

So it's back to work ....   

Thanks for dropping by .....   CC

Translation to Fabric

Its the end of Term 3 of drawing class and I've been looking over the work we did.  

Two classes stand out because they lots of fun and because I am thinking the approaches used could translate into fabric and make very interesting backgrounds

The first involved an excursion to a local creek and walking track ....

.....  here we collected natural materials from around the site .... grasses, bark, twigs, stones and seedpods ..... whatever took our attention and these were laid on our paper ... to act as natural stencils.  We sprinkled them with graphite powder and then sprayed with acrylic inks and then left them to dry before drawing the landscape using just charcoal and sanguine.

This dual connection between the found materials and the landscape produced some lovely results.  Here is my effort .. doesn't look too much like the actual landscape!!! 

The second class that offered  translation potential involved 4 panels and 4 compositions made up of shapes and inspired by  foliage of our choice .

Each panel had to work as a composition as did the combined panels.  

Dark and light tones were added and then combinations of color to provide the mid tones.

This process produced some very interesting abstract compositions that seem to have the potential to translate easily into fabric.

I  chose Magnolia leaves for the foliage and was very pleased with the composition of shapes in the 4 panels.  Here is my work so far..... although not happy with the colors however I can see potential ....

I'm keen to try some more  combinations and variations of tone and color and over the break  will experiment with these ideas and see where it leads....... 

What's in a Name? .... and the SAQA Oceania Blog Hop

This is my donation to the 2016 SAQA Benefit Auction ....

What's in a name?  

'High Road'  was made a part of a series I have been working on over the last 12 months or so, called 'Stepping Stones'.  This series was inspired by some crazy paving in my garden and uses reverse applique, a technique I really enjoy.

After sending in my auction piece I received an email from Martha Sielman  ... she liked the effect  but wanted to know why I'd called it "High Road"?

So let me show you a couple of the other  pieces in the series ..... 

        ' Green Hills'  Stepping Stones #4

      'Winding Way'  Stepping Stones #3

For me,  this series is an opportunity to explore color combinations, design and horizon lines.   

When it came to the SAQA Benefit Auction piece I thought .....what if the top edge of the composition becomes the horizon line ... high horizon line ... "high road"  .... made perfect sense to me!! 

The process of making these pieces involves layering the 'road'  fabric beneath and then cutting away the top fabric as I applique the design. Once this step is complete, the hills/horizon line and sky are added and then lots of quilting.   In these small pieces the applique is done by hand. For lager pieces I use machine applique/reverse applique.  Most of the pieces in this series are mounted onto a painted or fabric covered stretched canvas.

More recently I have been exploring using different textures ... a painted background and using text ....

   ' Written Road'  Stepping Stones # 11

    'Painted Road'  Stepping Stones #10

The auction will kick-off at 2pm EDT on September 16 with Diamond Day bidding - and early bird opportunity to purchase any quilt for $1000.  The 12" x 12" Auction Quilts will be divided up into three sections for bidding purposes.  Each week, a different section of quilts will be available for bidding, starting at $750 and further reduced throughout the week.

'High Road'  will be included in Section 3  which is open for bidding from 3 -9 October.

If you've missed some of the earlier participants in this Blog Hop,  I can recommend having a look.  Here is the link to the  SAQA Oceania Blog Hop

We've saved the best till last ...  don't miss Lisa Walton's posting in this Blog Hop on 14 September 2016  at  www.firbreinspirations.blogspot.com

Studio Re-organisation ...... Not!

I was planning to show you my newly re-organised studio today .... however,  when the new desk I had ordered,  to make the best use of the space I have,  was being delivered last week, it slipped, dropped and broke in two!!!  so they took it back to the depot and I have nothing to show!!  The studio is feeling very spacious!!!

Instead, let me tell you about a new piece  I am starting to work on ....

I have always been fascinated by the Grevillea that grows in my garden, and it's in full bloom right now.  So I've been taking lots of photos .....

The challenge is to capture the wonderful color and form of this flower!  I've been sketching some layouts and have an idea of how I might be able to bring it together.   Thought I would start with a small piece 10"  x 12"  to see how it works in practice!  I tried printing with the Grevillea leaves during my latest printing session so I'm hoping that will work as the background to the piece.  Will let you know how it progresses .....  

Thanks for dropping by   CC