New WindingWay Landscape

This new piece has been reworked a few times .... I was pretty happy with the landscape background but struggled to find a fabric for the overlay.  In addition,  this piece at 16" x 16"  is larger than the previous works in this series so that added an extra challenge for the composition!!

                                 'Winding Way in Pink'  © CarolynCollinsArt 2017  16" x 16"

The larger size of this piece called for a rethink which resulted in the addition of some new elements ... a more complex landscape background and in this piece a digital image printed on organza which adds  a nice sense of depth.  

I thought it would be interesting to look at the development of this series to date ... starting with the first compositions at the bottom left   ......

The next step is to develop and refine  this larger design .......

Thanks for reading ...........  CC

Stepping Stones in Greens

Over the last year or so I have been working on my Stepping Stones series and have recently completed a couple more pieces.....

I love making these pieces because they let me try out all sorts of ideas on a small scale within the parameters of the series,  but I often wonder what others make of this work ..... 

When I was reading the Introduction in the David Hockney exhibition (see previous post)  I came across a description of his approach by Simon Maidment, Curator of Contemporary Art at the NGV    " [David Hockney] does things his own way and forges ahead in the direction he finds most interesting"  and this encourages me to keep going  .....  

Having made a total of 16 Stepping Stones pieces I thought it would be fabulous to see them all in one place ..... like the David Hockney portrait series at the National Gallery of Victoria !!!

The best I've been able to do is to create this gallery block.  Here are a collection of the green pieces   .....

   © CarolynCollinsArt  2017 'Green Stepping Stones'  Hand dyed & printed fabric, batik

It's got me thinking about a larger Stepping Stones design .....

Do you have a series you are working on??

Thanks for dropping by ...CC

'Green' Collection ....

The 'Green'  Exhibition opened this week at Jing Jo Cafe in Kangaroo Valley and I was thrilled that a number of my pieces were included ......

Here is my 'Green' collection............

.... a set of 4 Stepping Stones pieces - 'Winding Way' , 'Peaches & Cream' - Grevillea 3 and 'Down by the Bay' - Mangroves 2.

 Even more exciting,  my grevillea piece was chosen as the image for the show ..... Thank you Belinda for all your hard work bring this exhibition together!

If you are in the vicinity of Kangaroo Valley I highly recommend the exhibition. ... there is an excellent variety of work on show .... and the coffee and food at Jing Jo's is excellent.  Here is the link to their site if you need their address and opening times ....  http://www.jingjo.com.au

If you visit,   I'd love to know what you think???  CC

New Year, New Work and Exciting News for AW5!!

Happy New Year everyone   .... I hope 2017 is full of creative inspiration and lots of good things!!!

To start the year as I mean to continue ......

I have finished a new piece in the Stepping Stones series.   I have been experimenting with new backgrounds for my stepping stones designs.   In this piece I have used  painted fusible as the background  for the open road design .....

                                    'Misty Morning'  © Carolyn Collins 2017   12" x 12"  

I have painted the fusible with diluted acrylic paint.  I have tried to suggest a landscape ..  I tried various  strengths of paint  ....  the addition of some water helps to create an interesting patterning on the fusible and  gives the end result a painterly quality.  I fused the painted surface to a pale green hand dyed fabric.   For the next in the series I'm going to try a seascape!

The good news this week is that the Australia Wide Five Exhibition (including my Forest Pansy piece)  which is touring Australia will also tour in the US this year to the AQS Quilt Week shows in Grand Rapids, Mi chigan;  Fall Paducah, Kentucky and Des Moines, Iowa!!!  Congratulations to the OzQuilt Network organisers .... amazing to have our exhibition showcased in the US!!!

More Reverse Applique

This week I've been working on two new pieces for the Stepping Stones Series.  

I love stitching the reverse applique and with these new pieces I decided to put the horizon line behind the applique ... like a landscape within a landscape .....

Part way through the applique process,  I wondered what if I only reveal part of the landscape and left some of the stepping stones in the top fabric ... and stitched the stepping stones shapes but without revealing the landscape beneath .

Here is the finished result .....

                 Stepping Stones Series # 12  ' Open Road'  12"x12"   © CarolynCollinsArt 2016

Tried a reversal of the color combination for the second piece .......

      Stepping Stones Series #13  ' Over the Hills ....'   12" x 12"   © CarolynCollinsArt 2016

I'm off to stitch this second piece ....  Thanks for dropping by   CC

What's in a Name? .... and the SAQA Oceania Blog Hop

This is my donation to the 2016 SAQA Benefit Auction ....

What's in a name?  

'High Road'  was made a part of a series I have been working on over the last 12 months or so, called 'Stepping Stones'.  This series was inspired by some crazy paving in my garden and uses reverse applique, a technique I really enjoy.

After sending in my auction piece I received an email from Martha Sielman  ... she liked the effect  but wanted to know why I'd called it "High Road"?

So let me show you a couple of the other  pieces in the series ..... 

        ' Green Hills'  Stepping Stones #4

      'Winding Way'  Stepping Stones #3

For me,  this series is an opportunity to explore color combinations, design and horizon lines.   

When it came to the SAQA Benefit Auction piece I thought .....what if the top edge of the composition becomes the horizon line ... high horizon line ... "high road"  .... made perfect sense to me!! 

The process of making these pieces involves layering the 'road'  fabric beneath and then cutting away the top fabric as I applique the design. Once this step is complete, the hills/horizon line and sky are added and then lots of quilting.   In these small pieces the applique is done by hand. For lager pieces I use machine applique/reverse applique.  Most of the pieces in this series are mounted onto a painted or fabric covered stretched canvas.

More recently I have been exploring using different textures ... a painted background and using text ....

   ' Written Road'  Stepping Stones # 11

    'Painted Road'  Stepping Stones #10

The auction will kick-off at 2pm EDT on September 16 with Diamond Day bidding - and early bird opportunity to purchase any quilt for $1000.  The 12" x 12" Auction Quilts will be divided up into three sections for bidding purposes.  Each week, a different section of quilts will be available for bidding, starting at $750 and further reduced throughout the week.

'High Road'  will be included in Section 3  which is open for bidding from 3 -9 October.

If you've missed some of the earlier participants in this Blog Hop,  I can recommend having a look.  Here is the link to the  SAQA Oceania Blog Hop

We've saved the best till last ...  don't miss Lisa Walton's posting in this Blog Hop on 14 September 2016  at  www.firbreinspirations.blogspot.com

Inspired by History

After my experiments a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try using text to create the background for the next Stepping Stones piece.  My first efforts with my handwriting left a little to be desired and then I recalled some letters my mother had passed on to me, written to my Great Grandmother by her  "forbidden love"   (apparently not considered a suitable match!)  in 1865.  In those days in the colonies,  paper was in short supply and letters were written in a cross hatched form  (luckily the handwriting is very neat and they are quiet readable!! )  These letters were the inspiration for using the cross hatched format in my text background.

I used a pigma pen to write on the chosen hand dyed fabric and being in a philosophical frame of mind decided on the first couple of line of the poem 'Desiderata'  .... not that it is legible in the end!

This composition uses two merging roads and a narrow strip of contrasting fabric at the horizon.  Here's the result .......

        Stepping Stones # 11  Written Road   12" x 12"  © Carolyn Collins 2016

A New Challenge!

Most of my art work to date has used hand dyed and painted/printed fabrics together with batik fabrics.  Recently I have been thinking that I would really like to make or create all the fabric I use in my work. This week my coach asked me what would it take?  The answer was simple ... just decide!    So I have.  There are a few pieces in the pipeline using batiks,  but from here on the challenge is to create all the fabrics I use.  

The most recent piece in the Stepping Stones series just happens meets the challenge .... the background in this piece is 'painted' ... I used painted fusible webbing to create the fabric ......

Stepping Stones # 10  Painted Road                         © CarolynCollins 2016

So the challenge is ahead!  I'll keep you posted.....

Finished ... really finished!

These last couple of weeks I've been coming to terms with what it means to finish a piece of work .... happy with the composition,  quilting done, facing/binding completed ... it's finished?  

Well no not  really!! (I admit to having a stack of pieces at this stage!)  .... but I still need to sign and label, sort out the hanging mechanism, photograph and record, and hang or store the piece.  What I've learned is that all these steps take time!!  and I need to factor that in to my process of making art! 

This piece is from my Stepping Stone series  and is called 'High Road'. You can see more of the series in the Gallery.   It is my donation to the SAQA Benefit Auction 2016  and is on its way to  the USA!  

Good feeling to be able to say it's finished ! 

Thanks for visiting   .....

Stepping Stones # 8  ' High Road'

Labelled and Hanging Sleeve added