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Monday, 31 December 2018

Shamsia Hassani as inspiration

Thanks Claire for introducing us to the work of Shamsia Hassani. I was unnerved when I read that she is a graffiti artist but there is so much more to her work than the unwanted tags with which I'm familiar.  (And yes, there is an online tag generator - http://postergen.com/graffiti-creator!)

I've been thinking about what I can take from her work for our next challenge and find myself re-visiting this piece by John Maltby, a sculptor whose work always makes me smile ......



As you puzzle over the connection may I wish you all a healthy, happy and creative 2019.


Monday, 24 December 2018

Merry Christmas and a Fabulous New Year

Dear all,
Wherever you may be, I hope you have a lovely Christmas. I wish you a good end to the year and I hope 2019 brings you good health and much happiness.

Lots of love
Claire
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Monday, 17 December 2018

Hi everyone.  I am sending this on Rosemary's computer as I can't get into my blog here in New Zealand.  I had an uneventful trip and arrived safely together with all your pieces of work.  Rosemary was thrilled to receive them and her mini-exhibition is going to be very professional looking at her presentation so far.  So glad I could help out in bringing these over here.  Trusting you all have a blessed Christmas with lots of creativity in the New Year.  Patricia

Friday, 14 December 2018

Jean Lurcat

Once again I'm really out of date with what the group has been doing, so started on a mass catch-up this morning. 

I've just browsed through all the Jean Lurcat pieces, and was fascinated.  As some of you know, Mick and I have owned a 'maison secondaire' in France for many years, and it is not so far away from the Chateau Saint Laurent les Tours, the home of the workshop and museum of Jean Lurcat.  So many of you said that maybe it would be different if you had been able to see his pieces 'in the flesh', and I can assure you that it is.  Even though it was many years ago that we visited the chateau I can still remember how absolutely blown away I was by his work, and the immense scale of it.  Coincidently, I was visiting the Mumm champagne cellars earlier this year as part of a car club trip, and there on the stairs was a compelling tapestry which I immediately recognised as a piece by Jean Lurcat.

I love the pieces you've done, though I'm not going to try and comment on them all individually, and wish that I had been able to participate in this challenge.  On a personal note, we have began the building works we need to do on our new home, and I have a feeling the sewing machines may be able to get out of their boxes fairly soon.  I am beginning to feel the need to stitch again, though that might be partially because it's winter and harder to get out into the garden to do all the work necessary there.

Good luck/inspiration with your next artist, and Happy Christmas/Seasons Greetings to you all.

Linda

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

SAQA exhibition acceptances

Congratulations to Uta and Claire on having work selected for SAQA's "Forced to Flee" exhibition -http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?cat=8&ec=2&ex=94 .
Dianne,  would you be kind enough to be the next person to choose our artist once we have finished with Shamsia Hassani?

Thanks 😘
Claire
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Monday, 3 December 2018

Lurcat response

I've come late to viewing people's response to Jean Lucat so find that at times there has been nothing to add to specific comments but what a great result overall. It seems that in selecting an artist that some of us found difficult to relate to we've been prompted to work even harder to honour the work of the original artist.   Thanks Jinnie.

Saturday, 1 December 2018

The next artist is.............................


Hi everyone.

I hope you won’t mind the change of tone with the artist I have chosen !

I particularly like graphic art and portraiture, both of which feature heavily in street art. I have a few favourite street artists and I thought it would give us something different to look at.

 My first thought was to choose the artist known as Swoon. I love her work but I thought it might be too limiting as she most often creates black and white portraits. Next I thought of Alby Guillaume – there would be loads to inspire everyone from his work. But in the end I have settled on Shamsia Hassani – a graffiti artist, (amongst other things) from Kabul. I love that she is a strong and independent woman,  her reasons for making the art she does and the stories she wants to tell the world about women in Afghanistan. There is a short video you can watch to learn a bit more about her work here:

Hope you enjoy finding out about her and her work.


Claire
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