"Fine Living" variation goes international!

Delighted to report that my entry to SAQA's upcoming show "Tranquility" has been accepted.

Come Sit with Me, Patrick Caulfield, Heather Dubreuil

Those of you with the keen eyes will recognize this piece as a new twist on my challenge response to "Fine Living" some years ago. Note the added book and coffee mug. I referenced the British artist Patrick Caulfield in the title because I can relate to his paintings of interiors and their strong black outlines.

It will be shown for the first time at the Houston International Quilt Festival, November 2016, and then will travel for two years to other locales. As I have never entered an international SAQA show before, I am very pleased.

The juror, Kate Lydon, Director of Exhibitions at the Society for Contemporary Craft (SCC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, writes: Artists throughout the ages have perceived the environment around them as both inspirations to act and as raw material to mold and remold. Selected for excellence in design, craftsmanship and use of material, the 50 artists featured in Tranquility and Turmoil are attempting to make sense of their physical, as well as social and cultural environments by creating art that shares narrative stories of memory, time, absence, location and representation.

Here is the list of those accepted to "Tranquility" and the titles of their work:

Frances Holliday Alford (Vermont, USA) - Flowers of the Vine
Linda Anderson (California, USA) - Morning Mist
Meghan Betts (Virginia, USA) - Infinite Possibility
Erika Carter (Washington, USA) - Ponderings IV
Maya Chaimovich (Israel) - A Window Into Spaces
Sandra Champion (Tasmania, Australia) - Buttongrass Creek: Winter Walk
Jette Clover (Belgium) - River View
Linda Colsh (Maryland, USA) - The Sentinel
Jennifer Day (New Mexico, USA) - Donald in Light
Donna Deaver (Idaho, USA) - Morning Walk
Heather Dubreuil (Quebec, Canada) - Come Sit with Me, Patrick Caulfield
Aileyn Renli Ecob (California, USA) - Succulents
Suzan Engler (Texas, USA) - Winter Silence
Sarah Entsminger (Virginia, USA) - Summer at the Waterfront
Sandy Gregg (Massachusetts,United States) - Entryway
Patricia Kennedy-Zafred (Pennsylvania, USA) - A Separate Reality
Judith Larzelere (Rhode Island, USA) - Translucency and Lavender
Michele Lea (Ohio, USA) - Tranquility the End
Lorna Morck (California, USA) - Trees: Contemplation
Wen Redmond (New Hampshire, USA) - Flown
Shoshi Rimer (Israel) - Blossom by the Lake 
Judith Roderick (New Mexico, USA) - Whooper Reflection
Gwyned Trefethen (Wisconsin, USA) - Adoration
Cynthia Wenslow (Illinois, USA) - April 22nd - Lake County Series
Tina Willams Brewer (Pennsylvania, USA) - Circle Back 
Kathy York (Texas, USA) - The Deep End

Making your work bigger video by Nicholas Wilton

This might be useful to some for our new series .                                                                  

Nicholas Wilton has produced a series of  3 free design videos to help artists make their work more powerful . An  additional video below has some examples of how to make your work bigger by expanding the lines outside of the edges of your design. Viewers  will then have more room to imagine the rest for themselves. It made sense to me. He mentors artists in groups online but is generous in sharing his knowledge with video. His website is called art2life.


https://art2life.leadpages.co/how-to-make-your-art-bigger/ 

Paul Klee at the Phillips Collection

Here I am in Washington DC at cherry blossom time. Today we walked more than 21 km. We visited the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Phillips Collection, where I saw this example of Paul Klee. Not one of his most inspiring pieces, but what intrigued me is that it was done on burlap.

Arab Song, Paul Klee, 1932
oil on burlap

detail

If I see other Klees during the next few days, I will share them here. Not a clue how I'm going to respond to our Klee challenge!

Completed banners

I went down to our local church yesterday to see the completed Easter banners.  I handed over the dyed fabric (hemmed at both ends) and then various community groups decorated them.  The only exception was the banner just consisting of the 'I am' sayings which I did myself.  The results were better than I expected, and certainly make an impact on the church interior.

Sorry about the bad lighting on the photos!

Open Arts acceptance

I've just learned that the piece I made for the grey challenge, suitably mounted, has been accepted for our Open Arts Exhibition starting next month.
I'm  more pleased about the fact that a textile piece has been accepted into a show that is predominantly paint and photography than anything else. Belonging to this group has sooo many benefits!

COMBINED CONGRATS ON THE YELLOW CHALLENGE

A very big apology for being so late in responding to the challenge but I had to have an unexpected op on the Monday of the big reveal.  I had not told Hilary so I had to keep it mum until she had been put in the picture.  All went swimmingly well and I am back functioning again.

The down side is that it is very difficult to add to the comments that have been made already so I am just going to say well done to everybody.  It has been great fun working thru these colours and being surprised by all the wonderful interpretations, techniques used and results, but, I must say I am very excited about the new challenge. 

I am not sure how I am going to approach this challenge however having said that I am delighted with Paul Klee. I do have a book on him and in my down time I have had a very good read and look at the colour plates etc.  Where do I start!  I could even use our 'dotty' tool Hilary!

Enjoy the journey.

Phil

This is rather timely!

3900 pages of Paul Klee's Personal Notebooks are now available online thanks to Zentrum Paul Klee. I speak no German but it's worth a browse just for the illustrations - http://www.kleegestaltungslehre.zpk.org/ee/ZPK/BF/2012/01/01/001/
 

Spike's Bonfire

I've just finished a piece for a challenge for our local CQ group.  The theme was poetry, size 15 x 20 inches.  Having been educated as a scientist my poetry knowledge is rather small, but I always loved the mad humour of Spike Milligan, and even knew a couple of his poems.  I rejected:

I must go down to the sea again,
To the lonely sea and the sky;
I left my shoes and socks there -
I wonder if they're dry?

though I am very tempted to use it again in the future.  Instead of which I went for a serious poem of his:

If I could write words
Like leaves on an autumn forest floor,
What a bonfire my letters would make.
If I could speak words of water,
you would drown when I said
'I love you'.

Hence my piece :- Spike's Bonfire

I really enjoyed this challenge - I hope our new series goes as well.

THE NEW CHALLENGE

DRUMROLL

Our new challenge is, as you are all awae and probably awaiting with bated breath is "The Artists Challenge".

The Artist I have chosen is:

PAUL KLEE

On going through his works they are so varied I am sure there will be something we can all choose that will appeal to our different styles and are open to any techniques we choose to use.

I am sure, and hope, we will have fun and already I can't wait to see what we all produce.