Monday, August 27, 2018

An abstract moment!

No! your five year old could not have painted that abstract picture!!!
 Abstract painting  is actually quite sophisticated even when apparently simple...

In a way all painting is abstraction - if you think about it.....


 

Even a fairly literal painting like the one above has many abstract qualities...I've abstracted the colors of the new spring leaves...and then massed the shapes into large soft areas...I've played with the push pull of the dark versus the light..I've created a basic vertical structure but added dynamism with the diagonal lines...some going upwards, others grounding.... and the diagonals balance out so we don't have a sense of falling...

I find I get SO many quilt ideas from looking at abstract paintings.  From some you can "steal" the structure, from others, the color palette, from others a detail will suggest a motif.














It's so much fun!!! If you're interested in learning more....then I'm starting an Abstract Art for Quiltmakers class this Friday with academyofquilting.com

I often begin my abstract work by looking at art...then I'll play piano a bit, or go swimming and see what aspect of the art stayed in my mind.....and then do some sketches, or value studies...to see how things will work out.

Life is good, right??? when the creative juices are flowing.......
if you have been, thanks for reading!   Elizabeth




Monday, August 6, 2018

Hanging a show...let your artwork breathe!



St Ives, Pond in Winter, Rainy Rainy Night


I've been lucky enough to have quite a few shows, solo or two people ...but never before have I actually hung the show myself....and that's what I did this morning with the help of two lovely guys.
(Forgive the quality of the photos, by the way...quilts look better in fairly low light I think.)
It was so much fun and we laughed the whole time...and the crazy thing was I had been dreading it.   But in the  right place, with the right kind of help, everything went so smoothly and happily.
And it was so much better being able to choose for myself just which way the quilts and paintings (watercolors) would interact instead of having a curator (who hadn't sweated over the work) do it.



Emerald City  and 3 small watercolors

One thing we noticed was just how much better the quilts look spaced out beautifully on a gallery wall, than they do draped on a bed in a spare room (which is probably where many of us keep our quilts).  This show is going to be up for a year, I doubt there's much possibility of sales...but the quilts are breathing, and being seen and giving life to this gallery space.   When we create art we want it to be enjoyed, not rolled up in a closet!




Another artist (not fiber, a sculptor) turned down the chance of showing his work with me for he felt the gallery was not prestigious enough!!  But surely with our art we want to reach the people?  We want to convey our vision of the world?  They can agree or disagree but it will (hopefully!) open their eyes to all the beauty that is around us,  even in these very challenging times.


Heavy Metal, Swimmer, The Last Glow


So ...let your art work hang out in all possible places....and it's so much fun arranging and rearranging the pieces so they work together just right....when I was a teenager I was always rearranging my bedroom furniture - all 3 pieces of it!!  This morning I had the fun of doing just that with 30 pieces and, moreover,  without the heavy duty hammer, drill and ladder work!!! (Thank you so much to J and L for helping.)

For those in NE Georgia...this show is at Athens Academy, in the Harrison Art Center, (3rd entrance off Spartan Lane)  and will be up throughout the school year.  Opening reception Nov 4th...sometime in the afternoon - I think!!

If you have been, thanks for reading!  Elizabeth










Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Mod meets Improv! a class.....







D'you like Modern quilts?  The best are very attractive.
And of course, like any other "style" of quilting, there's good , very good, okay, ho hum and downright poor!!!

However, I think the Modern Quilt movement is very encouraging...the work is often very refreshing and reminds me of the blankets, and similar strong fiber works, that we see from Peru..made hundreds of years ago.  There's an elegant simplicity to them, an economy of style that really celebrates fibre.   

However, one thing is happening in the modern quilt world that isn't so good.   And that is that lots of "easy" "modern" quilt patterns are being published....the quilting companies are commercializing things yet again.....I remember one time I was teaching at a place where there were other teachers...and, at lunch, I asked a student in another class about her class: "how is it going?"...and she said fine, she liked the teacher...but she had had to buy a whole lot of extra equipment to make the particular patterns and it  was all getting a bit tedious and expensive.

That's sad!  I see all quilting, but especially a new young type of quilting, as a way to help people realise their own creativity...while it's often good to start with a simple pattern to get your feet wet... after that you really don't need to be printing out complex templates - or worse yet buying expensive ones - when you could be designing your own quilts and using your brains to work out how to put them together!

so....I thought...well I want to write a class that addresses that!
The class is aimed at anyone who is interesting in modern quilting...what is it? how is it defined?  how can I learn to make one?
AND, most importantly, how can I learn to design my own modern quilt? 

Furthermore, how can I use improv techniques to make this quilt?


 Well... do check out my class...it covers all those topics. and more!!...it starts this Friday...but doesn't matter if you're a bit late starting....
it's at the Academy of Quilting - online of course...very convenient!   
It's called Mod Meets Improv....because not only does it cover modern quilting and its design, but also it introduces you to Improv methods - no templates!! Freedom!

Happy to answer any questions about it....(email link on side bar)....and would love to have your comments:  do you like Modern Quilts?  What do you think about the movement?
What d'you feel about commercial patterns being pushed so hard?

as ever, if you have been - thanks for reading!!!  Elizabeth