The Edges of Australia, Stitching in Queensland

A week in Australia on the wonderful Queensland  coast. I worked and played,  including  a motorbike ride along the coast near Rockhampton and some fabulous landscape. A chance to catch up with old friends and new. Great to meet with a former colleague from the UK in the days we both worked for Spiral Arts as community artists 
The journey started with a brief stopover in Singapore where I was able to see the amazing Garden in the Park lightshow.

 

Morning view from my digs with the lovely Peta and Bruce Lloyd near Rockhampton.

 This view was hard to leave, I sat one morning with an old friend from home.

 

I went to see Peta Lloyds wonderful Crocodile Series exhibition at the Rockhampton Art  Gallery.. You can find out more about her work in Conversations with the Makers by Glenys Mann of Fibre Arts Australia

The workshop hosted by the Capricornia Printmakers was a wonderful warm welcome to Australia. It was great to work in the studio and stitch our by the Fraser river in 'Winter

 

Peta and I had a studio day and made a drawings of cups and played with collages

Peta Cups

Cas Cups

 I am equally delighted to have her work included in Stitch Stories which is out on 6th August . Here she is looking at the advance copy.





Finally I leave with you with some fabulous views and local wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flaming June and memories of the Lot Valley

A little over a week ago I was over in France in blazing sunshine delivering workshops for Studio Preniac. It all seem so far away now in both time and warmth.The Lot  Valley lying a little to the south of the Dordogne is an inviting landscape of rolling hills and valleys, picturesque villages and towns.

 Safely tucked away in my attic bedroom after a wonderful supper by our generous hosts Billy and Liz. I awoke early to the gradual change of the morning from dawn blue blush which I tried to capture in my first captured sketch between workshops. This set me for a week of exploration of Shadows, Layer and Line in Cloth beginning with a sketching session in the nearby  village of Montuq for the Sunday market. Carrying our sketchbooks to snatch studies as we walked and bought materials for use in the workshop.

Getting ready to draw.

Jenny in the Studio

Laurence at work

Within walking distance of the studio there was plenty of inspirational resource available for drawing

Judith Shadow Drawing

We also had a chance to see the hidden gardens of Cahors and visit the nearby town of Saint Antonin Noble Val before flying back last week

Sue and Laurence in the Moroccan Garden Cahors

Hidden courtyard in Noble Val 

It was hard to say goodbye to this lovely view from the workshop, great companionship and food and come back to the cold grey of England..I am sure it will get better.Thank to the workshop participants for their wonderful cards which contained little snippets of those memories.

France had not quite left me, in the same week, my advance copy of the 'Stitch Stories' arrived brightening up a grey morning and a little bit of this lovely place is recorded in the book in the work of Ros Woodhead (above)

Thankyou Bill from Studio Preniac for the additional images and to all the workshop participants for permission to use photographs

Finally, breaking news, I am to be one of eight artists featured in the next issue of the wonderful John Hopper's Inspirational Magazine..yippee.

Dreaming Blue, Spring Skies at the Prague Patchwork Meeting

April brought a change in the weather and with it blue skies.  I was recently invited to exhibit at the Prague Patchwork Meeting with Anne Kelly as part of ResonantTextiles. An opportunity to experience the world of stitch from another perspective.

There were representations by internationally recognized artists.The glorious colour work in the textiles of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably were among the star attractions but equally,  the high standard textile work by the Czech contributors was to be greatly admired.  The quality of stitch was beautiful and I paused to reflect if this may be partly due to the fact that creating domestic items for the home and clothing for your family is still very much a part of Czech culture. 

The competitions, 'Grandmother's Garden', 'Czech Quilt' and 'Architecture' reflected this in stunning quilts of considered complexity.

View of Grandmothers Gardens with first prize (blue one on left in the recess) by Milena Kankrlíková and (third prize facing on right) by Marcela Bednářová

Architecture entry Jindřiška Katzerovan

První místo - Český quilt/ First place - Czech quilt
Jaroslava Grycová (Koruny stromů v podzimních barvách/ Treetops in autumn colours)

One of my favourite exhibitions, 'Blue is Good' project had contributions from all over the Czech Republic. It demonstrated the potential of simple theme to create a wall of colour which in clarity reflects the colours of the famous native blue glass. (The proceeds from an auction of the quilts later in the year will support PORTUS, a Czech charity seeking to sheltered housing for the mentally challenged.)

Jana Sterbova's stunning 'Red' exhibition equally exhibited the strength of one dominant colour in quilting

The international group exhibitions included 'Imagine' (first seen last year at the European Patchwork Meeting), 'International Threads' and 'Radiation' all reflected a response to themed work.There was also some lovely textile collages by French artist Martine Apaolaza.

Barbara Lange Right and Uta Lenk left International Threads

Imagine

Marie Curie by Gabi Fischer (two on Left) and Birgit Schrader, Radiation exhibition

A few shots of my gallery at the show.

Lace Windows

Stitching in my booth

Grass is Greener with a view across to Bridges collaboration with Anne Kelly (my piece is in the centre and Anne has one either side in this shot)

As part of the workshop programme  I offered a short taster session on the theme of 'Layers, Lines and Image' looking at shadows and patterns based on garden views through a window.The challenges I set were responded to warmly, with humour and a great deal of talent. Helena Geitel gives here own review of the course here  Thankyou also to Eva Brabcova for a fantastic job interpreting and her husband Vladimir for the wonderful images of the work below:

I had little opportunity to see Prague, however a special dinner event allowed me to observe the changing colours and shapes in the roofline as the sun went down over the city.