APWQ pt 3

Flicker by Sonia Grasvik

Sonia says "We feed the birds. Frequently a feather will be left behind for us to discover. A flicker left this one. It begged to be on a quilt."

Sonia has done a magnificent job with the detail of this feather. Look at the texture in the second image. I loved the narrow bands of cloth giving this a striped effect and the color choices were perfect. Simply stunning.

APWQ, pt 2

Diversity by Deborah Babin

This was a delightful quilt. The composition is so balanced. The colors so compelling  and the quilting exquisite. The quilting tells the story and includes people, houses and quotes. I found this to be one i could look at a very long time. It pulled me in.

Pacific West Quilt Show 2013

One of the first exhibits we visited was From Away, which is a maritime expression meaning "not from around here". The exhibit was put on by the Fiber Art Network, a western Canadian group. Each artist interpreted the theme in her own unique way. On of my favorites was this delightful piece by Valerie Wilson, named Reaching the Target. It was vibrant, artfully executed and just pure joy.

The La Conner Quilt Museum shared a selection of quilts from their permanent collection. I am always amazed at the skill and artistic sensibility of the women who, using what they had on hand, still gave keen awareness to the placement of cloth to enhance a design.

Another favorite of mine was in the category Art - Non Representational. Made by Mary Kay Price of Lake Oswego, OR, it's named Coloring Outside the Lines. I've included a close up so that you can see the detail.The colorways work so well together and she repeated the varied orientations of quilting lines in the tonal border. Much of the quilting was done by hand. It was stunning.

There was also a exhibit of past category and show winners. While they are all outstanding in their class, one I didn't recall seeing before made me look for a very long time. Made by Louise Harris and Sedroy Woolley, it was called Choices, Seeing My Way Through. Sorry for the blurry image. I left my camera in the car and my I-phone is less than stellar in low light conditions.

And a couple of closeups...

I love how the artist has moved the value from dark to light across the quilt. It is a nice use of stripes.

Come back in a few days and I will share some more.

On Target

A girl can only have so many quilts. But what to do when you love to make them? Over the years, I have made quilts for my sister and sister-in-laws. This one belongs to Chris. I like to choose the colors they like and this is all about Chris. She is fun and funny, has a great sense of humor, sees the light side, is generous with all. She's also a great puzzler and the geometric design of these blocks fits her Sudoku and other gamesmanship loves. This quilt pattern is named Bouillabaisse. I call it On Target.

It's scrappy which might lead one to believe that it should be simple, an anything goes type of quilt. Not so. Making the strip sets required thought and then forming the blocks required color wheel considerations. And finally combining the large blocks to spread the color required a sense of the overall quilt top. The layout was more tedious than it seems.

But that is the fun for me.

Friends with Benefits

A number of years ago, 10 women decided to make pin wheel quilts with polk-a-dot fabrics. The group gathered with everyone bringing their stash of dots. Ten unique dots were selected for each participant. We were to make 10 pinwheels from each fabric with the same ecru background. On sharing day, each gal handed off a packet of 10 pinwheels to the other gals in the group. We each then had 100 dotted pinwheels. Mine sat on the shelf for a few years until the time was right. That was 2013.

I played with the squares until I found something I liked. This is the result.

I rather like it and aptly named it Friends with Benefits.

Toys: Kuler by Adobe

Have you seen this? It's Adobe's color wheel. You can manipulate the rays in the circle to change the colors in the bars beneath. On the left you can choose between Analogous - Monochromatic - Triad - Complementary - Compound - Shades - or a Custom view. It is very addictive to just play with color.

Find it here and try for yourself.
https://kuler.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/

Imagine how you can use this in art for choosing colors. Here is one of my favs from this mornings go at it.

There is also an App you can download for your I-phone. It has a really cool feature in that it uses the phone camera and adjusts the colors in the bars based on what it seen through the lens. Oh technology...I gotta love you.

Locally Grown: the FUM Fiber Art show

This show opens at a luncheon where the quilts will be introduce by their makers. The story of the quilt, that is, it's inspiration, it's intent, it's techniques, will be presented. It is the 11th annual quilt show in this venue. Many have been inspired by a book. In this case, Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is the jumping off point.

Here is your invitation to attend.

My quilt is fourth from the left. I will show it to you after the show opens.

What's Next: March

The exhibit at the Architectural heritage Center continued in March with new work. I chose to continue the Wind Turbine theme but use a different technique.

This work was created in Photoshop with images that I have taken.They were combined in many ways. The background was created using many layers of color and PS tools, blended until it captured the mood I was trying to create. The work was separated in part and printed by Spoonflower.

I reassembled these, quilted them and then used chalks to highlight areas as needed.
It is a process that I really enjoy and have other works that I will share on this blog in later posts.

All Together in One Place

The exhibit: What Comes Next?

Five artists, each with differing styles, presented new work in this exhibit at the Architectural Heritage Center in Portland, OR during the month of February.

This is a view of my work hanging in the gallery. The gallery is housed in the oldest building in Portland. It has been renovated to preserve the feel of the original building. It was a lovely setting.

This exhibit will be changed out in March and new work by these same artists will be hung. My work continues the turbine theme but has been done digitally. Come back for a visit to see what that means.

Breaking Dawn

This is the fifth in the series:

Once again, turbines posed against the sky but morning approaching. I love blues and oranges juxtaposed together. It is probably my favorite color combination. I added hand stitching to this piece in the panel just right of center. The stitch resembles the turbine form and is layered in varying colors of blues and rusts.

Breaking Dawn

 

Awakened too early

It still feels like night.

Standing silhouetted

against the approaching light.

Twilight

This is the fourth in the series.

If you get up close to photograph turbines, their size imposes a backdrop of sky. This is the blue of the sky and it's approaching darkness.  

Twilight

In the golden hour

as night time pushes out the day 

these giants 

gather up the suns reflection.

Line dancing

This is the third in the series.

I love watching the turbines. When they are all traveling exactly the same, I love that rhythm. But sure enough, one or two get themselves out of sequence and then the fun begins.

Line Dancing

Watching the group perform, 

resembling a country western dance, 

mostly in unison, 

always a few who don’t know their right from their left.

Sun Salutation

This is the second in the five piece series.

Sun Salutation

Bold turbines, 

set among the hills and rocky areas of New Zealand, 

 add yoga to their repertoire,

 raising their arms in worship of the sun.

WindSong

This is the first of five pieces I created for this show. I call it WindSong. I was interested in making complex backgrounds with stylized turbines.

Turbines make for perfect art forms or is it art farms (haha). There are three blades forming a perfect hexagonal shape. They generally exist in clusters, providing unity, proximity and rhythm. They are big and bold, existing in mountains, green fields and oceans which provide splendid backdrops. To me they are reminiscent of Jean Claude and Christo's major art installations around the world. Yet they also provide energy. What's not to like about that.

WindSong

Viewed against a background of mountains 

in the California desert, 

wind turbines spin together 

when the Santa Ana winds blow.

Five Working in Fiber

I was invited to participate in a Fiber Art show with four other very talented artists. We have been planning as a group and working as individual artists for over a year now. The first show opens on February 1 at the Architectural Heritage Center in downtown Portland. You are cordially invited to attend the show and/or artist's reception.  If you are in the vicinity, do stop by.  We would love to see you. Here are the details: