Drought and the Ninas

 Living in Australia, farmers are used to battling droughts, floods, bushfires and we somehow seem to manage to survive these extremes when they happen, whether you believe many of the current theories behind their causes or not. Weather is an important topic in our daily lives. This is evident from the number of private weather forecasters which have exploded on social media since the Australian BOM seems to have strayed from its main charter of predicting the weather. Last week the BOM had our area on flood watch, many days before the predicted rain event and again most desperate farmers were let down by the BOM when their predictions were wildly inaccurate for our region. Maybe they are trying too much to be accurate over a longer period before the predicted events, possibly concerned about legal ramifications if they are wrong ( as they always seem to be).

 What's this got to do with art you say? A lot because the weather affects your mood, affects your daily art practice and inspires you. A nice wet day promotes being indoors sewing instead of for me, outdoors working on restoring our house.  My next two artworks are a response to the weather. We hear so much in the media these days about the drivers for our weather, el Nino and La Nina. One meaning drought for us and one supposed to mean rain . I made  two pieces for my 2020 Wondai exhibit showing the weather extremes. I used copper foil in the focal area of the Drought piece to create a further inner frame. The landscape I used for inspiration is the view from our driveway as I returned home in late 2019. Even the ironbark and quinine trees were dying at that time.

When it does rain, the effects can be quite spectacular with the country turning green from fresh grass growth and trees responding. La Nina years seem to occur less than el Nino years so we try to drought proof the farms as much as possible by building dams and finding underground water to use.

This artwork was inspired by the many shades of green which delights the eye after a few decent falls of rain.

This is the view down Trentham Lane. A road leading to one of our paddocks which has a few gully crossings. Most of the time they are dry but occasionally they are like this.

This photo shows the colours of our soil, grass and trees when there is rain about providing inspiration for colour selection for more artwork.

Now the BOM are talking about polar vortexes, MJO oscillations as well,  being climate drivers, I will have to research more so I can find further inspiration in the weather.

Landscapes and Fiery Urban Remnants

 In 2017, I started making freestanding landscapes without the tracks movement. Wanting to create a focus area of the colour condensed into one point. I really liked the way my green landscape turned out. The fabric used for the blade colour was a darker blue black colour and this worked well with the greeens.

I wanted to try another using the grey fabric from some of the Tracks series and Yellow Landscape was created. Another Title for this could be "Fire Landscape".

 I then went on to try a second focal point of the condensed colours. This is actually the second make in these colours as the original didn't work out as I had hoped so I filled in where a focal point had been and this looks untidy.

In September 2018, Tangled Threads challenge was remnants and I wanted to create a second piece to possibly be included in the exhibition for 2019.  I liked the autumnal colours and came up with this. I called this one Fiery Urban Remnants as the news grabs of night skies during urban warfare showed flaming buildings lit up against the dark skies. This piece is mounted on canvas and has some vertical quilting in the 3 focus areas. Due to its size 18" H x 28 " wide I hand stitched it to a piece of felt, used diluted gel medium to glue the felt to the canvas leaving approx 2.5cms loose, then handstitched the piece to the canvas. Earlier pieces that have not been mounted this way, can sag a little away from the canvas when hung. This seems to prevent that from happening. I am still thinking that I may make another one similar but alter the size and placement of the middle focus area.   As with most of my artwork, they look better when hung on a wall and under good lighting.

I have been continuing working on my Incubator Program with Lisa Call, working on pieces for Tangled Threads, fitting in some house restoration projects ( back on the sander and paint brush). Our queenslander has 24 sets of veranda cornices which are attached to the posts and top beams on the veranda. Some I have finished repainting but 15 still need doing. The ravages of time were starting to show up on some of them so working on them is a priority now that the 10 french doors are finished. 

Here is a sample of timber ones available to use as new. Unfortunately our design is not amongst them so we would have to purchase 24 sets of them ready made or get them custom made so preservation is the next best thing.  The drought has still not finished, yes we have had some good rain but again, very little dam filling rain. I will show 2 pieces inspired by that topic next time.

Visibility

 "Visibility" - a word that has a few meanings, mostly to do with seeing, prominence etc.

In 2017 the Tangled Threads theme was set to a certain size 0.5m wide by 2.0m long. The person who set the theme envisaged long transparent pieces of fabric hanging in the centre of a room to be viewed from either side or transparent fabric covering a doorway.

To be honest, in the beginning I was a bit stunned to think somehow I had to try to merge my current work to this theme. The 2.0m length was certainly a challenge. This piece took me over 3 months of stitching to piece it and hours to quilt it. In my mind it is a drone's view of the streets in a town with the rows of houses and the intersections. Visibility is important when driving around the streets. The dotted line represents the road. I like the way from my fabric selection, the values drift in and out of visibility.

This piece glows with luminosity when it is hanging under lights. I find it difficult to get decent photos of it due to its length. It really does suit our high ceiling house so at this stage I am happy if it never finds its forever home but maybe one day it will. 

Inset 1 and Remnants

 I am thankful to be in a vibrant group of fellow textile artists called Tangled Threads here in the South Burnett. We are kept busy each year creating work for exhibitions in our area. Each year that I have been a member ( except for 2020) due to Sars-Cov-2 we have participated in the Winter Craft Festival in Kingaroy. We make new pieces each year for July then we exhibit at other places after that. In 2018 the theme was Inset and the challenge was to use metal in something. I had been trying out ideas for other focal points in my pieces other than the triangle peaks. I still wanted the shuttered view of a landscape. I came up with this, wanting bands of colour and an image within. This piece is called Inset 1- our Daily Landscape. I also wanted to frame within the focal point so I appliqued 1/4" wide copper foil ( used in guitars for sound reflection) that I sourced on ebay. This is definitely one of my family's favourite pieces. I actually discovered a photo of it ( from hanging in the Kingaroy Gallery) on Pinterest. Mind you they never acknowledged who made it, would have been good if they did.

In August each year, we set the theme and challenge for the next year. We came up with Remnants in 2018 for the 2019 year. For many years I have had fungi on a long list of possible things for inspiration. This piece came about because of the colours of fungi that I have seen on the decomposing wood in our paddocks. It looks a bit "drab" in this photo, but under the lights in a gallery and in our house it glows. I quilted the grey fabric with the colours of the strips and it is very effective. 

 I have been working on The Incubator and Mastermind Program with Lisa Call. This runs for 6 months as a project and I have been busy. Blogging, using Evernote to write about my art, using Excel for inventories is all part of the project. I have been managing to just keep up with it all. As well as doing extra shifts at my paid job, it has been a busy few weeks. On the plus side, I have been working on a couple of new pieces as well. On the home front, we are still waiting ( is getting very dry ) for some rain. Hope I have better news about that next week.

Reflections and Combinations

 The next two pieces I am featuring were both made in 2017, exploring the tracks series further. Both of these pieces were constructed to meet a theme. Reflections was originally made to be an entry in the Mt Perry Art Gallery acquisitive competition with the theme Reflections of Mt Perry. I was verbally told about it and when the brochure came out, it did not include textile art, so it could not be entered. This is an abstract view around Mingo Crossing at Paradise Dam between Gayndah and Mt Perry. I used to spend a few hours there kayaking on the water as the dam filled up after its construction. Sadly the government of the day has seen fit to lower the wall ( due to their concern about some safety aspects of the existing wall) so the levels seen at Mingo then, may not be repeated, so I probably will not be kayaking there again. The floods in 2013 went over the bridge at Mingo and we were told that would never happen, so who knows what the future can bring.

Technically speaking this is a 1 way flip with both sets close together to create movement.

I made Combinations prior to Reflections in 2017, for our Tangled Threads group exhibit in 2017. It had to be a specific measurement of 1.5m x 0.5m. Combinations was the theme selected and for once the theme did not make me have to draw a long string to it. I really like this piece, looks wonderful hanging in my house with the high ceilings.

Technically it is a 2 way flip, straight and close together to create the straight line of peaks.

Talking about Tracks

 I know that I have spoken about this series of quilts before and showed you some of them too. I need to reflect on them and why they have been a part of my life for a few years and the progress I have made following them. I am showing you some of them in the progression of the series. As most of you probably know I went off to Ballarat  Fibre Arts event in July 2016 for a 5 day workshop with Lisa Call called Working In a Series.  Feeling I knew very little about Art and thought I knew a bit about quilting, gave me the courage to sign up for this workshop. Imagine my trepidation on arrival to find out some of the other class members were some very well known Australian Quilting tutors, one of them commented that this was a class where the tutors go to learn from a well known international tutor and that was why she was there. I had started this work in October 2015 after I had signed up for the course, wanting to be prepared for it but not really understanding what I was doing. I had seen a project by Odile Texier in a book and I was fascinated by that, so I thought I could use that technique and make quilts full of personal meaning to me. By the time July came around I think I had made at least 4 of these as my potential series for the class. I think it was about day 2 of the class that I plucked up the courage to actually show Lisa  the quilts that I had with me, that I had made beforehand as the feelings of trepidation had lessened a bit by then.  In the class I was working on landscapes inspired by a photo of storm clouds over Longreach and we were working on adding movement to that photo. Mind you the small pieces I made then are still unquilted.

  

This is Tracks 1- New Zealand, I spent a week in NZ North Island with my husband and son ( as a 4 month old) in 1990. The colours just remind me of the place. In 2020, we went back ( not with the now 30 yr old son though) to the South Island and we were hoping to hop over the Tasman again last July to spend a weekend in the snow but Covid came along preventing us from travelling. Imagine us Queenslanders used to shorts/thongs and very little winter gear spending time in the snow!

Design wise, this has a 2 way curved flip ( I can't think of a better way to describe it) creating the horizon. The view is abstracted by the use of the contrasting colours as if you are viewing the world through a shuttered window.

This is Tracks 2- Africa. This is how I imagine the sunsets in Africa to be. Maybe one day I might be fortunate to travel there to see it for myself. I had always dreamed of going there to work for a few months helping out with malaria diagnoses but at present and firmly stuck in my job here in Australia.

Design wise- similar to tracks 1 but I quilted this one more heavily.

This is Tracks 3- Pt Vernon Beach. I spent quite a few childhood holidays ( actually the best time spent with cousins and grandparents ) at a tiny house in Long St, Pt Vernon, Hervey Bay. This was  where my grandmother taught me how to sew, mend clothes, crochet and also knit a bit. She made endless bed coverings from scraps from her gingham stuffed toys she made for all of us 14 grandchildren. It was her principles of making do that instilled in my sister and I a love for patchwork, quilting. Every day included a trip to the beach ( unless it was pouring rain) and I can remember sobbing in the back of the car when it was time to go home to go back to school.

Design wise- similar to 1 and 2 but I tried to create the horizon between the water and the sky.

This is Tracks 5- Mount Perry. Again this was a special place, I moved there when I got married and raised our 3 children there in the hilly country. I must admit it was also sometimes green but quite often was in drought.

Design wise- I have added sets of the flips to create an image of mountains.

This is Tracks 7- Mundubbera. My home town and growing up on a citrus orchard , a quilt about that had to be made. This time I used the colours, and the single straight row to represent the many straight rows of trees to be found in the Mundubbera area.

This is Tracks 12- Desert Skies. My first job as a Medical Scientist outside of the Brisbane area was as a country reliever. I was rapidly sent to Charleville  on Boxing Day 1980 as they had a staffing crisis. I spent 3 months out there and had a great time. The heat there was pretty fierce and I was still hours away from the Simpson Desert, just walking from the Laboratory across to the hospital was hot.

Design wise- I progressed to using 2 different colours for the "blades". 

This is Tracks 13- Sunrise over Vietnam.  A work colleague went off to Vietnam and posted a photo on FB. With his permission I made this quilt from his photo. I have since traveled to Indonesia to make batik fabrics and there are similar sunrises/sunsets there also. 

Design wise, I used straight lines above the horizon with only the tracks evident in the foreground.

This is Tracks 14- Wildflowers,  that is what it was meant to be , but I also think it could be a Canola paddock with the tractor tracks through it. When I think about it, I learnt to drive a tractor when I was 5 yrs old and spent many a day slashing, spraying, picking fruit in the orchard so maybe I should change the title to reflect my farming origins.

Design wise- this was a technologically challenging piece to make as the 2 way flips meet at a central line. 

This is Tracks 15- Artic, this was made as a test piece for a larger project called Visibility. I will do a separate post about it in this series of blogposts. Up to this piece most of the series were medium/dark values relying on the colour, form to create the meaning. This time I changed the values so the blades disappeared. I also did not use a border to create the sense of a never ending vista.

I hope now that I have told my story about theses few pieces you have gained a better understanding of some of them. 

I have spent the first part of the Incubator and Mastermind Course with Lisa Call documenting and making an inventory of my artwork so have been pretty busy but hope to keep this up to finally become a habit.

New Year, New Directions

 A New Year always seems to be full of new beginnings and hopes to change habits and directions. 2020 seemed to be a bad year for the world with this Sars-CoV 2 virus emerging from whatever source it came from. Being in rural Queensland, we haven't been greatly affected with lockdowns, limits on our personal freedoms. My work place has had major changes due to the pandemic with an increase in swab testing, new test procedures on our Genexpert for stat testing to determine whether full Covid isolation occurs for new inpatients and all of this without an increase in staff.

Farm wise, we have proceeded along with better prices for beef cattle due to the easing of the drought with some relief rain but still insufficient to fill all of the water storages in our area and Covid procedures have not greatly affected the farm.

I mentioned I was doing the  Finding Meaning/ Voice course  with Lisa Call from October to January 2021.This coincided with my first solo exhibition in Wondai Regional Art Gallery and I had organised time off from work to prepare for this. It also ended up being quite a stressful time family wise as 2 of our ageing parents had some major health issues in November. I sold 4 pieces at the Gallery during the 4 weeks so that was some good news. I managed to keep up with my assignments for the course and developed a deeper understanding of my art and maybe some new directions to follow. 

The New Year started with the passing of my Father In Law who had just turned 91 at the end of 2020. 

These are photos of 3 of my sold pieces. 

Desert Lace.

Purple Night.

Joyful

During September, along with my daughter I attended an alcohol inks workshop. She has gone onto to create quite a few more. With very limited art tutoring, this is one of my favourite pieces to date. I am thinking in time, maybe a joint exhibition if she continues using them.

The Finding Meaning/Voice course has come to a close, and I signed up for Lisa Call's 6 month Incubator and MasterMind Program. This is a self paced project with accountability check ins,coaching calls and online group support from the other 5 participants. I am really looking forward to working out my project. This mainly involves organising my body of work, finding other places to exhibit my work and making new work. I need to set realistic monthly goals and attempt to stick to them as much as I can. As part of the Finding Meaning course I needed to remake an existing piece with new meaning from the areas we studied which add meaning to your art. The original " Detritus" made as part of the Remnants theme.

This is the remake, still a work in progress, as my stitching time has been limited lately. I was trying to add more of my context into this piece, coming from within, I spend a lot of time peering down a microscope, hence the circular overlays. I am thinking there could be more of this in the future, along with a few more landscapes.

The final assignment was to make a Heart demonstrating your Voice. The Voice I want to try to follow is making art recognizable as your style. This is my  heart using Derwent Intense Blocks on paper. I find these more appealing in a sketchbook than coloured pencils.

The course involves writing, speaking about your art and this is where blogging about it comes in. One of my goals is to increase my blogging and instagram posts so I am thinking more short posts about a specific piece. Well, I can only try. Hope to keep it happening a bit more frequent than I have been. Time will show as always.