Lucy in Gold

From the moment we decided to use artists as our inspiration, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I have done several Klimt-inspired pet portraits in the past and it was Lucy the pug's turn, so this was my opportunity. Lucy was painted and stitched and I had tremendous fun beading and adding some glitz, including an authentic Indian bindi on her forehead. The gold background fabric is shiny satin that I found in my collection, and the patterned fabric on the left, with applique enhancement is a piece of a Balenciaga scarf given to me by a friend. Every minute spent working on this piece was a joy.
Here is a detail shot.

These are my other Klimt-inspired pieces.

Daisy a la Klimt, my first one.

Darth a la Klimt, my second.

Chloe a la Klimt, my third.

THE GOLD LADY - Klimt

Some of you heard I broke my wrist  three weeks ago, however as it was quite badly I needed surgery which sounds funny for me to say but it turned out to be a blessing as they inserted a plate, wrapped my arm up for 10 days, removed everything and said get on with it, use and exercise you arm. So from thinking it was going to be my turn to be late, voila, all done and dusted.

Last year visiting Hilary we took a drive south and one of our visits was to the Lost Gardens of Heligan which is where I have taken part of my inspiration from .....

She was called ' the mud lady'.

My colour palette I have taken from this piece of Klimt .....

Combining the two this is my piece ......

The background and tree fabrics were all from our local supplier, Amafu, which I had in my stash. The forest floor was my starting point.  I used thermofax screens to add details on the tree bark and the lower path fabric.  The lady was painted and appliqued onto the background.  Her hair is moulding paste, added right at the end, and painted.  I have no idea whether this will be permanent. Time will tell but it gave me what I wanted. Machine and hand quilted.  

GUSTAV KLIMT
To choose one painting of Klimts to interpret was impossible for me . I love so much of his work and so decided instead to look at the patterning and shapes which he used often in his paintings such as the square ,triangle and scrolls . He was also a prolific and popular portrait painter so how could I not include at least part of a woman's face showing a typical hairstyle and fashion of his day? Her face was painted with acrylic paint.Then thinking of his work, and because I am definitely drawn to his use of gold , I added in details painted with metallic paint. So here is my 'Woman in gold'!

                                             

                                 

My Klimt is postponed..

Despite "best laid plans", my world has been turned upside down at the moment because of the historic rains from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey that has affected so many people and homes in the Houston area. As I shared earlier, my daughter and her husband and her in-laws suffered flood damage. We have moved them all in with us and are actively helping them get their lives and homes back on track. My Klimt piece is 60% completed and I can see that I should be able to finish it within the next week...but at the moment my energies are directed to helping them.

I can't wait to see all the creations and I will announce our next artist on Friday, Sept. 1.

The person to select the next artist, a big piece of news, and Uta's quilt in my possession

Drum roll please, the next person to select an artist is: VENETTA! So get your thinking cap on.
Hopefully everyone is nearly finished their Klimt pieces in preparation for the big reveal day next Thursday. Mine is finished! Has been for a while....

My big news is that I found out yesterday that Black Crow Blues

(75" x 55") has been selected for a very prestigious US show called Quilts=Art=Quilts at the Schweinforth Art Center in Auburn NY this fall. I am very very pleased.

And last, here is the piece by Uta called Tie a Yellow Ribbon, 2010, (12" x 12") that I bought on the SAQA annual auction in 2010.

This year's auction begins September 15 and the info is all here http://www.saqa.com/auction. My piece is in Section 1. It is always fun to check out the artwork and see how the bidding goes.

Another Klimt teaser

August is a busy month here in bilsblog land so I too have been working on my Klimt challenge, though this hasn't been a struggle. Once I'd decided on the direction I wanted to take, this piece has virtually made itself. I must admit to not having considered the quilting as much as I should have before I began so I'm still auditioning different options to be able complete the piece by my self-imposed deadline! I give you my scraps -

"Look Mum - no gold!!!"

Klimt teaser

I can't believe it - I have finished my piece - me, the queen of the last minute!!!  Anyway, I thought I'd give you a teaser of the fun I have been having.

Some of the fun bits and pieces I have been using

Of course there is gold and, and, and...

Hilary

Self-introduction: Uta

My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was about five or six years old, and I have been involved with textiles ever since. Patchwork came into my life when I was an exchange student in High School in the US and saw the first patchwork pillows. After a period of self-taught traditional patterns (before the age of internet etc.) I turned to contemporary design in 1994: My mother’s cure for my then newly broken heart was an enrollment in a patchwork class. I started teaching patchwork classes and hand-dyeing my own fabrics a few years later, which has led to a small business with hand-dyed fabrics and a bi-monthly fabric club. I studied with Nancy Crow and other international teachers and am a member of SAQA, SDA, the German Patchwork Guild (currently the International Officer for the Guild) and QGBI. I write an English blog and a German blog (and I try to keep them different in topics).

When my son started drawing at the age of 2 ½ I soon realized that his drawings - completely standard for his development, nothing extraordinary - could be turned into inspiration for my work, and I began using his drawings as a starting point for my quilt designs. This led to a series “Play of Lines” which kept me busy for several years; two large quilts of mine from this series were exhibited in the “Color Improvisations” show curated by Nancy Crow.

Play of Lines X

Play of Lines VIII -
this quilt is now on its way to be traveling
with "Abstract and Geometric".

Other series of mine are called Shapes, and, most recently, text messages. Shapes began because I had an exhibition in a UNESCO World Heritage with two other quilters which was the first building designed and built by Walter Gropius, later founder of the famous Bauhaus Art School. So we had decided to use the basic geometric shapes, which figured prominently in Bauhaus teaching, as inspiration for the quilts that should be on display there.

Shapes 10

text messages turned into a series when SAQA issued a call for entries under that title. I had an idea right away, and then realized that I had already been working with text before. And it adds on to my former academic life, when I was a linguist. 

Promised Land 2015? (text messages 9)

I have had several solo exhibitions at international venues and been included in a number of juried traveling international exhibitions.

For the past three years it has been slightly harder to find enough and ample time for quilting as I got involved with voluntary work helping refugees in Germany, and for this past year I have been teaching German as a foreign language to a refugee class as well. This is a very important aspect of my life right now, that has also begun to enter my work. It will be interesting to see how it develops here - apart from how the refugee situation in Germany and Europe will develop in general.

Thank you for the invitation!

Hello everybody. Thank you very much for inviting me to become a member of this group. As I was taking my time to decide whether I was up to the challenge I had to figure out whether my hesitations were because of 'starting with Klimt', or other reasons. He's not my favorite artist - but one grows with the challenge. And I have decided to use the only picture of a painting by him that I could find in one of my art books, so I am all set in terms of inspiration.
I will come back and introduce myself within the next few days and am looking forward to being part of this group!

A new member!

I would like to welcome Uta Lenk from Germany to the group.  She is our new member.  Uta will stay with us even after Linda F has finished her new house and returns to the group.  We will then have a 'Baker's Dozen' which is 13.  Baker's Dozen

You can read all about Uta on her website  where you can see many of her beautiful quilts.  Her CV is very impressive.  Colleen - a fellow long arm quilter to keep you company!

I  am personally excited to have her on board and she will join us starting with Klimt.

Welcome, Uta.  I hope you enjoy your time with us as we travel through series 3 and the challenge of being inspired by artists chosen by our members.

Hilary

Farewell

My life has just taken an interesting turn, and I am going to give up most, if not all, of my quilting connections for the next couple of years.  Basically, Mick and I agreed last night to buy a house in Castle Donington, and to sell our two current houses.  We had been looking for a suitable property since February, but could barely dream we would get this one.  It's an old house, with some modern additions, and a huge garden, all within easy walking distance of the village centre.  It's the one house in the village that I've said I would love for the past 20 years, and this is the first time it's been available in 64 years!!

On the down side, there's lots of work to be done, both before and after the move, and I won't have neither any time nor a studio for quite some time, so I'm very sadly bidding farewell to this group.  I have loved being a member since it's start, and I'm particularly sad to be leaving just before you tackle Klimt.  I shall continue to follow the group, and I will soon have more spare bedrooms available should any of you need to place to stay in this area of the UK.

Totem Tree a la Janvier

Sorry folks, little people and life  - what can I say?

I found this challenge difficult to come up with something that wasn't a close copy of his work.  I thought about marbling (well done Colleen), I also wondered about dribbling paint/thickened dye!  But I kept coming back to the wonderful Haida style of depicting animals, long admired.

Instead of a totem pole I have a totem tree with the inspiration coming from this Janvier painting.  It seems to have struck a cord with others as well.

Janvier: Fort McMurray Series

In my Totem Tree the animals are digitized and embroidered by machine.  The were chosen to represent the sky, the earth and water.  The rest is fused applique and free machining.  I will add more twiddly bits when I have a moment.  You have no idea how much unpicking I had to do - nothing like being in a hurry and it being nearly midnight to put a spoke in the wheel!  I decided to put it aside and apologise for being late.  I'm not that happy with the end result - perhaps a bit more work on it will help...

Totem Tree

Hilary