Sabi Westoby |
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The private view of my show on 26 April was really well attended with over 60 visitors, and I don't think the samosas and wine were the only draw! It was great to see so many familiar faces and many new ones. Here are some photographs of the afternoon:
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As my show reaches its last two days I thought it was time to post pictures of the works on display. Click on an image to see a larger picture and title of the work.
I made a lot of samples when developing the work for this exhibition. At first I thought I could get away without doing so but days of painstakingly unpicking heavy machine quilting convinced me otherwise....
For a couple of the samples I replicated the techniques on scrap fabrics, made quilt sandwiches and then auditioned stitches and threads. For other samples I did something which might be considered extravagant - I took a photograph of a work in progress and printed it out on ready printable fabric. This was a direct way of testing stitches and thread with the added benefit of creating a good collection of samples, all of which are now in my sketchbook, a permanent reminder of the works. Some of the samples are shown below; click on each image to see a larger picture. My third solo show opens on 22 April at Artisan Gallery. The work was inspired by a single poppy image and is a development of the research carried out for the World War 1 quilts. Those four quilts will be displayed, so that the visitor can see the progression, but it is not a Great War show.
When planning a new body of work, I have to have a new sketchbook. I chose an A3 book in landscape format from L. Cornelissen, one of my favourite art shops. The clean blank pages can be a deterrent to mark making so I gave them colour washes, not always being neat and tidy, letting the paint drip, run and smudge. The edges were also painted, dripping into the pages and sometimes sticking them together! But that gave extra texture and marks - lovely. I put everything in the sketchbook - ideas, quotations, pictures for inspiration, stitched samples, notes to myself for further development, stencils, discarded backing papers, scraps of fabric. Some ideas became finished pieces, others were binned. I restricted myself to using only materials that I had in my studio and, consequently, nothing new was bought to create the hangings. And as the theme of the show was to be the life cycle of the poppy, I felt that recycling was more than appropriate. So, an old duvet cover, washing rags, old hand dyed fabrics and a Freemason's robe rescued from a skip form the basis for a lot of the work. Here are some of the pages from my sketchbook to give an idea of the development behind the work - the completed pieces will be posted when the show has ended. The biennial exhibition of work by members of London Quilters shows the diversity of the group, from traditional pieces worked by hand over paper to art wall hangings. Here is a selection of some of the quilts. All the exhibits can be seen with this link - www.londonquilters.org.uk/coming-home-2014 As well as the exhibited quilts, members made items for sale, ideal for unique, handmade Christmas presents. These included quilts, cushions, books with textile covers, my textile bowls, table mats and decorations.
And a couple of pictures to show part of the gallery space: Using 'everyday' Lego bricks, the sort that could be in the toybox or attic, the artist, Nathan Sawaya, has created artworks that are imaginative and fun. Some pieces are interpretations of classical pieces (David, Venus de Milo, The Thinker) and others are his own creations, witty and thought-provoking. The show is well curated with each piece individually lit and the shadows cast are as interesting as the works themselves, adding another dimension to the display.
Photography was allowed, much to my surprise and delight. Here are a few I was able to take before the battery packed up. Memo to self - check that your camera battery is charged before going out to take pictures!! My work over the last five years or so has concentrated on mixed media and experiments with techniques far removed from traditional quiltmaking so it might be interesting to read how I came to be invited to contribute traditional quilt projects to the latest book from Dorling Kindersley. As you might have seen in my 'About Me' page, I came to patchwork and quilting about 15 years ago. When I find something I enjoy doing it, I'm afraid it takes over my life! This meant that I was making pieced quilts well into the early hours of the morning as I was completely hooked on the processes. Many were given to family, friends and Project Linus but a huge number are all over the house - on beds, stuffed in cupboards and in numerous bags in the attic. Naomi Harrison of Artisan 80, the gallery where my last solo show was held in February 2013, runs a Christmas pop-up show and last year some of my quilts were for sale. One was bought by the editor at Dorling Kindersley, who then came to see some of my other creations. The staff on the project were keen to feature seven of the quilts for which I provided the instructions to make them. This was an interesting process - most of my quilts are just made as I go along so I had to analyse each and, working backwards, write out the instructions and draw the accompanying diagrams, sometimes making a sample block to check dimensions, then make an estimate of the yardage needed. The quilts were photographed professionally - a flat shot to see the quilt clearly and to help potential makers visualise it finished and pictures showing the quilts in a lovely setting. With kind permission from Dorling Kindersley, those pictures are shown in this post. The group to which I belong, London Quilters, will be having its biennial exhibition from 17 November 2014 to 4 January 2015. The show is called 'Coming Home', inspired largely by the blue and white group quilt featuring houses. Part of the show will include small quilts (12"x12"/30x30cm) about World War 1, interpreted in a free style by the makers. I wanted to use an image of a poppy as the constant element in my quilts and found one in my photograph archive, a picture taken in Regents Park in the summer of 2013. This beauty formed the basis of my work: I used the image in different ways for each of the quilts. For the top left quilt, I enlarged the image in Photoshop Elements, and printed it on fabric treated for printing, in this case EQ Printables. The names of the towns and cities were printed on with fabric paint, using an antique typeface set. For the second quilt, top right, I traced the poppy image onto calico and free machine stitched it in red thread, together with the leaves. The battlefield names were again printed with fabric paints using a modern set of letters. I felt the piece was out of balance and painting the image with liquid acrylic paint improved it. The bottom left quilt incorporates a 1900 map of France and the same poppy image, both printed on fabric. I cut out a stencil of poppy seedheads and used Markal paintstiks to create the images on the quilt. The last quilt uses the same map of France, this time in monochrome. The image of the soldier was painted on fabric. The poppy image was manipulated in Photoshop Elements to give a sense of perspective and printed onto ExtravOrganza, silk organza prepared for printing. The poppies were highlighted with a fine black Sharpie and cut out before being machine stitched onto the background. The barbed wire and posts were inked in using the same Sharpie, the posts also being machine stitched for accent. Our holiday this year in the north included Scarborough, Ravenstonedale and Campbeltown, with our destination being the Isle of Mull. I had not been to Scotland for 27 years and the experience then was damp and cold with unexciting food.
This year it could not have been more different - warm and clear weather, not a drop of rain and exceptionally good food. We found the Isle of Mull Weavers in Ardalanish where we spent a couple of hours being given a tour of the looms and detailed explnations of the processes involved in designing a fabric, setting up the warp threads and the weaving itself. The looms are Victorian, beautiful works of engineering. These are some of the photographs taken, with permission of the weavers: In all my time visiting galleries and exhibitions, I had never seen Matisse's cut-outs so the exhibition at Tate Modern was a revelation.
The colours and scale of the works were breathtaking. Each sheet of paper was painted in gouache and then cut out, seemingly freehand but in a film clip showing the artist at work the image was faintly discernible. Each image was pinned up onto a wall or door that had been covered in large sheets of paper to finalise the layout. Matisse had several rather beautiful young women helping in his studio, perhaps the equivalent of today's intern, although I would like to think that they had been paid for their work. A large picture of the Madonna and Child was drawn in charcoal, which was fixed to a stick about six feet long with Matisse sometimes standing on a box to reach the surface. I find it hard to draw in this medium, let alone using a long stick. The drawing is vibrant and energetic in its line but nonetheless serene. What came as a complete surprise to me was the sheer size of many of the works. They envelop the viewer in bright colour and energy. Mima, aged 3, liked picking out elements in the works - fishes, birds, flowers - and was particularly taken with the mock-up stained glass window, as was I. Just beautiful. All the pieces could be the inspiration of a large body of textile work, as long as they don't turn out as 'wanna-be Matisses'.... |
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