What caught our eyes!

The annual Festival of Quilts was hosted at the NEC near Birmingham last weekend.  Dia, Cath & Bernice visited the show separately.

And here's what caught our eyes!

Dia's first choice is 'Global Harming'. She found it to be sad but powerful. It was made by Susan Sami who won the Novice Quilter category. The quilt is inspired by wars and conflict around the world and the increasing number of refugees fleeing the perils of war.

This quilt is by Latvian quilter Aina Muze (1943-2017) and is entitled 'Nocturne'.  It was exhibited in the EQA:Diversity gallery.

'Homage to Kandinsky' by Eleanor Marsden appealed to Dia because of the composition.

And lastly from Dia, 'Fractured', which represented an industrial dockside reflected in the sea.  However Dia saw a broken mirror and reflections within in it.  That is the great thing about art - it is not just about the idea of the artist but the reaction of the viewer.

Sorry there's no attribution.

Bernice left her phone at home but after a short bout of anxiety convinced herself that she could cope.  After all, before the invention of mobile phones we all managed to have a good day out.  Fortunately Dia and Cath managed to take photos of the two pieces that Bernice really liked.

Firstly the 3rd prize winner in the Art Quilts section, 'Metropolis' by Lesley Brankin.  Bernice loved the combination of traditional quilting with the painterly effect of the skyline.

Bernice also loved Susan Hotchkis' quilt 'Alderney'.  Susan had been inspired by the corroding metal embedded in the harbour wall and pier in Alderney.  Bernice's first reaction was that it was an embroidery rather than a quilt.  It is indeed free machined but also incorporates trapunto quilting.

Bernice also enjoyed the galleries set up by Unfold and Art Textiles: Made in Britain.

It could have been predicted that Cath would be drawn to the bright colours in the work of Louise Mabbs on her colourful stand and Alexandra Kingswell in her gallery exhibition, ‘More than the Sum’. The mathematical inspiration behind the work of both artists was also very interesting, giving it an extra dimension.

Cath particularly liked Louise’s fabric origami techniques, which create various tessellations, beautifully enhanced by Louise's signature use of these wonderful colours!

The mathematical inspiration behind Alexandra’s work was also intriguing, as she has based much of it on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, which occurs widely throughout the natural world and has influenced the work of many artists over time. Cath has always been interested in number patterns and add the vibrant colours into the mix and she was hooked!

L - Hope  Top R - Let the waters teem!  Bottom R - Blue Planet

Cath found the work of Janice Gunner deeply affecting, inspired as it was by the artist's experience of recovering from a critical illness that affected the brain. The 'Pathways' pieces reflect the confused nightmares and hallucinations as well as the healing comfort of family visits. Images were manipulated and printed digitally onto fabric, before machine quilting to produce these beautiful pieces.

  A sudden rush of blood to the head  Her eyes are closed, she's sleeping

I never slept a wink

There is nothing predictable about Cath’s last choice, as it is a complete departure from her favoured ways of working and it surprised her. Although she has enjoyed the demos Bernice has given to the group, Cath has only rarely applied paint to cloth in her work. However, she was completely fascinated by Committed to Cloth’s demonstration of breakdown printing in the Creative Textiles area ...

Breakdown Print - work in progress by Elaine Griffiths

... and also Nancy Crow’s huge mono-prints in her gallery exhibition, ‘Self Portrait: Focus’, which were breathtaking.

Cath has taken the inspiration away with her and is planning to investigate ways to incorporate these printing techniques into her future work - she had a great day.

Bernice and Cath

Challenge

I have been a member of a local Embroiderers’ Guild for several years now and have very much appreciated the friendship, skill-sharing and inspiration I’ve found there – not to mention the many bargains to be found on the sales tables! Members have always been very supportive of my work and have publicised Traverse’s exhibitions at the NEC and Uttoxeter on their social media pages, for which I’ve been very grateful.

My concentration on work for those exhibitions  has sometimes made it difficult to find the time to take part fully in the Guild’s activities but recently I was rather taken with the idea of their summer challenge, which involved a very large piece of white card. We were challenged to use some or all of it in any way we wished, as long as there was some stitch on it.

I felt challenged but also not particularly full of creative inspiration, so I took a very easy option and decided to use it for a weaving. I cut the card in two – making the largest squares I could.

I knew I had to have colour, so searched out some of my hand made printing blocks from my Journey work. Remembering the recent Patrick Heron exhibition at St Ives (see my blog 'Looking' below) and elements of his work I'd noticed, I tried placing some of the symbols, near the edges or in the corners, which I wouldn't normally do (and I wasn't sure whether it worked). Then, I coloured the background with some spent dye.

I cut the card into wavy strips and wondered about how to cover the stitch element of the challenge. (I didn't notice that one of the edge strips was missing in the photo below - I did find it again!)

Apart from the fact it was a requirement, I needed to think carefully what else I wanted from the stitch - texture, contrast, decoration?  I decided to use some matching variegated threads to machine a simple line of stitching down each side of the strips; it would provide some texture and a little decoration but no contrast, as there was plenty already with the complementary colours in the warp and weft and I wanted the painted pattern to remain visible - and let’s face it, hand stitching into that thick card would have been hard work. I didn’t want that much of a challenge!

To keep the pieces in the right order, I kept them joined together, as I machined along the edges. It did prove a bit more of a challenge to stop them twisting and tangling, when I then machined up the other side of each strip, still keeping them joined together.

All that complication did mean it was easier to make a square again afterwards though, without too much effort.

I coloured along the white edges with a matching Sharpie to hide them, but forgot to take an 'after' photo to go with the 'before' one below.

I repeated the whole process with the blue square but didn’t photograph every stage – you get the idea by now!

The final challenge of the whole process was weaving the strips together and in some ways that proved the most difficult. I had forgotten to allow for the fact that the thickness of the card, together with all the stitching, would mean that the woven strips wouldn’t fit snugly together, as woven paper or fabric strips would. I had to do a lot of fiddling and a bit of creative placement of the four edge strips to make it work and I think it just about did.

I had planned to cut out a circle and rotate it slightly, as I had done with this earlier investigative piece in my portfolio …

… but despite very helpful suggestions from Becca, I was worried the stitching might unravel (see close-up of stitching below) and I didn’t want to take the risk as other projects were calling me and the deadline was approaching.

I still find myself wondering if it would have worked. Who knows – I might challenge myself to try that later!

Cath

Looking at Colour

“Colour can be a lifetime of study, the more you learn, the more you realise you don’t know!”   

 Julia Triston

Last week Dia and Bernice joined me on one of my organised workshops with Guest Artist Julia Triston. The workshop is held at a local community centre in Yate (near Bristol), my home town and the centre has been part of the community since 1840 first as a Union Workhouse, then a War Hospital, a Care Home and then finally handed to the community to be used as a centre with preschool, nursery, dance school, physiotherapy, conference centre along with rooms for hire. It is a fascinating place full of history and stories (including ghosts!) and I fall a bit more in love with the place every time I visit! This time was no different, look at the gorgeous lavender leading up to the entrance!

Julia was teaching a design skills workshop on “Analysing Colour” and it was a way for us to spend a bit of time re-investigating colour and looking at ways to use colour in our sketchbooks and in our own work. We started off with a discussion on colour – what is colour?; How is it used?; What words describe colour? And finally, what words describe shades of green – wow so many!

We each painted six 4” squares with a specific shade of green (Jade, Mint, Emerald, Olive, Lime, Parrot) from memory and once dry, Julia laid the squares in colour lines first without labels and then with:

My 6 squares of green

Labelled green squares

Dia painting her green squares

It was fascinating to see how we each perceive colour and in fact, how very close we were from memory!

Moving on, we looked at the colour wheel, learning how to create primary colours and then using these created colours to create secondary and shades of complementary colours. We’d all made our own colour wheels before but using purchased primary colours so learning how to create our own was new to us and I can certainly see myself using this technique for my own work in future.

Making a primary red using Koh-i-nor watercolour paint

Making primary colours and secondary colours

Shades of complementary colours

Using magazines to provide colours, we created two collages, one of warm colours and one of cool colours. We extended the collages by matching each colour with paint chart chips. I had a bit of extra time first thing on the second day and had a go at matching the colours with thread.

Bernice has her right hand in a support cast while her hand heals.
It was a struggle but she managed to create her warm collage.

Warm colours

Cool colours

Dia's warm collage and paint chips

Dia's cool collage and paint chips

On the second day we started to look at how we could use the techniques from day one within our own work starting from gaining inspiration for a new theme.

Like many artists, when I start a new theme, I gather sources of inspiration and create a scrapbook of images that fit the theme or make me go “oh” in relation to how I am intending to work. I use a sketchbook, keep a folder of images on my laptop or on Pinterest and I look at the colours but I don’t tend to study the exact shades or the proportions of each colour etc. This is what Julia asked us to do using a source of inspiration we had each bought with us.

Isolating a section of our images, we each worked out what the colours were and in what proportion. Using matching coloured threads on a piece of card, we created a thread chart in the exact proportions that was determined. I found it difficult to match my threads accurately so chose to have a go using paint chart chips, which was surprisingly accurate!

Inspiration Photo and Colour Proportions

Inspiration Photo with thread and paint chip charts

Bernice's inspiration photo, paint chart chips and colour proportion list

As on day one, we used magazines as a source of colour and this time chose colours that matched the image colours as close as possible and created a collage using the same colour proportions. My image is of graffiti on a brick wall so I chose to make my collage more landscape like as I felt the colours worked really well for that type of picture. Once we had completed our collages, we took the exercise into fabric, creating a fabric collage using the as similar colours as possible. Stitch could be added to complete the collage further and I do plan to do this if I have time.

Collage using Colours from the inspiration photo

My inspiration photo, paint chip and thread colour charts, collage and fabric collage

Bernice's inspiration photo, paint chip chart and collage

Finally we moved on to the last exercise which looked at creating new designs from a collage. Using my warm collage, I isolated a small square and made 6 copies of the square by just following and simplifying some of the lines. Using 3 colours in light, medium and dark shades, I was able to create new designs by crossing the boundaries of the lines I had drawn. It is a very simple exercise but very effective. Julia also suggested ideas of how to extend this exercise further and I plan to have a go at these in the next few weeks.

Creating new designs

It was a packed two days and we came away feeling we had learned something new and with more confidence in using colour in our work. I’m keen now to get going with looking at colour more!

Becca 

Hello!

Hi, it's Becca here, I thought I would pop in and say hello as I've only been part of Traverse since May! After finishing the Experimental Textiles course with the rest of the Traverse members, I went on to do a mentor led course at the Windsor School of Textile Art and used my time to start working towards the new theme "Revealed".

My chosen concept (for "Revealed") is "Making the Invisible Visible" in relation to invisible disabilities and health conditions. I wanted to use my art to get the message across about how these hidden conditions affect you, whether physically or emotionally. It's not an easy concept to show I have to say! 

One of the hidden disabilities I have chosen is deafness - I am deaf, not that you would know if you met me, yet ... I am profoundly deaf. It is an invisible disability that affects 1 in 6 people, it is a disability that isn't understood even by those who know and it is one that creates frustration, irritation and loneliness for everyone with hearing loss whether mild or profound. My own and other people's experience of deafness is what inspired me to explore ways of making the invisible visible and as a result I'm currently exploring the hidden layers beneath the facade, showing the frustration and irritation that lies beneath.

Experimenting with wire and tape.

This past weekend has been my first full weekend at a Traverse group meet up and it has been fascinating to see what everyone has been up to!

 Deb is working away, shaping and adding stitch to her embellished felt.

Dia is looking at Stained Glass Windows and experimenting with ideas.

Cath has been exploring different ways to finish off her vessel. 

Bernice currently has one hand in plaster as her fingers heal after a nasty fall. Nevertheless, she had a go at working left handed on these Khadi paper zig zag books - pretty amazing result I have to say!

I've been using paper modelling to explore new ideas.

Becca x

Looking

Looking at something – anything – is more interesting than doing anything else, ever…

                                                                                                                   Patrick Heron

I wasn’t sure about this quote when I first read it last week at Tate St Ives – my love of music means listening is also very interesting for me – but, in relation to my textile art, many of Patrick Heron's  words aptly describe my own impetus and inspiration. His approach to painting came from direct visual responses to the world and his belief that all painting is abstract to some extent also resonates with my own inclinations. I love the way he manipulated flatness, space, colour and line when depicting what he saw when ‘looking at something’.

(N.B. - all images are my own photographs from the exhibition, as photography was allowed. However, some are not quite straight due to external factors. All italics are Patrick Heron's words)

Window for Tate Gallery St Ives : 1992-93 – one of the largest unleaded coloured glass windows in the world

The picture is not the vehicle of meaning: the picture is the meaning …

For someone who struggles sometimes with the concept-based approach to art, trying desperately to decide what my work ‘means’ (if anything) I loved this quote. I could really relate to his belief that the impact of the work on the viewer does not depend on it describing the world outside and that any meaning comes from the balance between the different forms, shapes, light and colour within it. 

And what colour there was - everywhere - I revelled in it!

… the reason why the stripes sufficed as the formal vehicle of the colour, was precisely that they were so very uncomplicated as shapes … With stripes one was free to deal only with the interaction between varying quantities of varied colours…

                                                                                                                

Green and Mauve Horizontals : 1958

The organisation of the exhibition highlighted several recurring features of composition in Patrick Heron's work. I found the following few most interesting:

Each colour-shape or area, however large or small, is as important as any other.

Orange and Lemon with Small Violet : 1977

Balance is often created by bunching forms along an edge and by the inter-relation of different sized shapes.

Square Green with Orange, Violet and Lemon : 1969

I was fascinated by the significance given to the edges in a painting and the way he managed to achieve a sense of balance through asymmetry.

Dark Purple and Ceruleum : 1965

Painting should resolve asymmetric, unequal, disparate formal ingredients into a state of architectonic harmony which, while remaining asymmetrical, nevertheless constitutes a perfect state of balance or equilibrium …

                                                                                                 

Big Complex Diagonal with Emerald and Reds : March 1972 - September 1974

I noticed that the painting above took him over two years to complete and then was amazed to read this quote beside the following huge, glorious canvas and I understood why …

My fifteen-foot canvases, involving sixty or more square feet of a single colour, were painted (in oil paint) from end to end with small Japanese water-colour brushes. But one doesn’t hand-paint for the sake of the ‘hand-done’; one merely knows that the surfaces worked in this way can – in fact they must – register a different nuance of spatial evocation and movement in every single square millimetre.

Cadmium with Violet. Scarlet, Emerald, Lemon and Venetian : 1969

Patrick Heron's work is much more varied than it appears here but I’ve concentrated particularly on these large colour canvases as they are the works which speak with the most power to me - colour is certainly the most significant feature for me in my own work. However, the various composition features identified above also gave me much thought – and continue to do so now we’ve returned home and I begin to think of my own work again.

I did find myself looking a little more carefully as we wandered around St Ives later – specifically at rust in all its glory. I needed some photos as inspiration for a workshop later this year – more on that later.

Watch this space and keep looking ...

Cath