slide press, slide press our daily dance

An artistic response to the act of texting and the role it has played for two people who work odd shifts. Our screens the dance floor and our thumbs make the moves. Slide press, slide press, back and forth our daily dance igniting a kaleidoscope of feelings and memories.

My piece "Best Friend" is currently exhibiting at Gallery 159 as part of the SOTA14 (State of the Art Quilt). A collaborative exhibition featuring 20 artworks from members of 2QAQ.

Exhibition Details

 SOTA14 - "Showcase Unlimited"

at Gallery 159

159 Payne Road, The Gap QLD Australia

5th, 6th, 12th & 13th April 2014

open 11am - 4pm on the above dates

Day Trip - Enjoying the Moreton Bay Region

 

We headed north yesterday and had an enjoyable time visiting galleries and lunch by the sea. 

Our first stop was the Pine Rivers Art Gallery to see the State of the Art - Retrospective (which I have a piece in) and the Baltic Miniatures exhibitions. So much talent - very inspiring. 

We then went across to the Redcliffe City Art Gallery to see a collection of works by the Reddy Art Textile Group. The exhibition is called 3 Piece Suite and features textile and mixed media artworks by the following artist: Jill Burgess, Donna Davis, Sue Duffy, Diane Flint, Helen Forrest, Susan Pietsch, Judith McKinlay and Brenda Wood. Each artists collection includes 3 pieces of related work in three different forms. An amazing collection of works - wonderful. The exhibition continues until Saturday 25th August.

 It was then time for lunch and we stumbled across a wonderful little espresso bar that also serves food. 

We got ours as takeaway and popped across the road and sat beside the waters edge. 

Perfect coffee and the food was fresh and very very yummy.

a beautiful sunny day

as well as relaxing and inspiring

State of the Art Quilt at Pine Rivers Art Gallery

The State of the Art Quilt 12 (SOTA12) collection is currently being exhibited at Pine Rivers Art Gallery 

The Gallery is open Monday to Saturday 10am-4pm

unit 7/199 Gympie Road, Strathpine QLD

Gallery admission is free

The SOTA 12 collection features art quilts by the following artist:

Elaine Campbell, Linda Robertus, Sue Dennis, Rosemary McCall, Ros Ward, Tricia Smout, Kathryn Iliff, Felicity Clarke, Lynne Williams, Helen Kidd, Kate Osko, Julie Tasker, Alison George and myself.

Also being exhibited at the gallery - The Australian Forum for Textile Arts (TAFTA) presents 

'Baltic Miniatures' - an international collection of miniature textiles. 

The gallery is also co-ordinating a series of artist talks and workshops throughout these exhibitions

For further information regarding the artist talks and workshop bookings contact the gallery directly

Pine Rivers Art Gallery

email: PineRivers.Gallery@moretonbay.qld.gov.au

Premiere Showing of the SOTA12 collection

Today was the launch of the premiere showing of the State of the Art Quit 2012 a juror-ed collection of art quilts by 14 artist - Elaine Campbell, Linda Robertus, Sue Dennis, Rosemary McCall, Ros Ward, Tricia Smout, Kathryn Iliff, Felicity Clarke, Lynne Williams, Helen Kidd, Kate Osko, Julie Tasker, Alison George and myself.

The exhibition is at Gallery 159, 159 Payne road, The Gap, Brisbane until Sunday 29th April 2012.
Gallery hours: Saturdays & Sundays 11am to 4pm
Entry is free

come along and enjoy the collection

getting up close

enjoying the new macro lens

a new perspective to the weed that has gone to seed

can even appreciate a normally unwanted pest

Very excited to have received an email during the week to let me know that my piece "Platforms #2" has been selected into 'State of the Art (SOTA) 12' which is an annual juror-ed exhibition. This years juror was the talented Sharon Hall. The exhibition will have it's premiere showing at Gallery 159, 14th - 23rd April 2012. The collection will then tour for about 12 months. I've now added an exhibitions page to my blog listing current and upcoming exhibitions/displays which I've had work selected for.  The page will be up-dated from time to time as new opportunities evolve. As the next tour spots are announced for the SOTA exhibition I'll also add these to the page.  

Also here's a link to the very talented calligraphy, lettering and textile artist Tricia Smout. I so enjoyed exhibiting with Tricia last year with our 'Undercurrents' exhibition. And Tricia has been successful with her application for a 12 month Artist-in-Residence at Brisbane's Botanic Gardens - Mt Coot-tha. 

Tricia has started a blog to document her journey throughout the residency and also to keep people informed of upcoming workshops etc. I've also got a link to Tricia's blog in my blog list.

meet the artists

I was so excited when both my entries were accepted into the State of the Art Quilt Juried Exhibition.

The collection also features pieces by artists: Ankie King, Jan McPike, Ros Ward, Margie Creek, Sue Dennis, Linda Robertus, Julie Tasker, Alison George, Felicity Clarke, Helen Kidd, Sue Duffy & Tricia Smout.

The collection has been on tour throughout the year and will be on display at

Gallery 159 opening at 330pm on Saturday 12th November 2011

the exhibition will continue at Gallery 159 until the 26th November 2011

open weekends 11am to 4pm and weekdays by appointment

Gallery 159 is located at 159 Payne Road, The Gap, QLD 

Hidden Patterns

The weekend seems so far away, and what a wonderful weekend it was. Filled with catching up with friends and fellow artists and enjoying some yummy food and conversations. Tricia Smout, Felicity Clarke and I are having a collaborative exhibition, and over breakfast, we decided upon a name. The title of our show will be "Undercurrents" at the Arts Factory, South Brisbane in September. It's getting exhilarating now that we have decided on a name. Time to get a harry on making my pieces for the exhibition.

Following breakfast, I went onto lunch and met up with the founding committee members of 2QAQ our 3-year term came to an end in September last year, we decided to have our final catchup in the new year so we could hear all the wonderful travel stories a couple of members had. We also wanted a little time to prepare one last surprise for our leader Sue Dennis who has been instrumental in getting 2QAQ up and running as well as starting the annual SOTA (State of the Art) juried art quilt exhibition for Queensland Quilt members to enter. We the secretive eight decorated/embellished a mini canvass each with the colour orange (Sue's favourite colour) being the common thread and presented them to Sue. Connect through to Sue's blog to see the mini canvasses.

I've also been experimenting further with printing and stamping using a banana trunk. We trimmed out some of the suckers, that way the main trunk has more chance of producing fruit. I noticed that the interior of the trunk has an interesting spiral pattern. So off I went firstly for the camera to take a few photos, and then I wondered if the pattern would print; time for creative play and discovery. So far, I've mostly printed onto paper and have a couple of fabric pieces ready to print as well. I've used acrylic paint and applied it to the banana trunk with a sponge brush and pressed it onto the paper/fabric.

Related Post:

Texture the element of art that stimulate sight and touch 

Banana Blossom Coleslaw

Rusty Fabric

Over the weekend I started working on my submission for the annual juried Art Quilt Exhibition through 2QAQ  the entries are due beginning of February. While I was searching through my fabric stash and auditioning fabrics for the submission piece I came across the above two pieces of fabric that I have dyed  using rusty objects. I really enjoyed doing the above pieces and plan to dye a couple more and make up a quilt with them. Both pieces are using cotton fabric. The piece on the left had been getting used as a rag cleaning up acrylic paint, the rag was hand rinsed and then popped through the wash which removed most of the paint but left some behind which has added a little bit of interest and depth to the background.

The Rust Fabric Dying Recipe 

Natural Fibre (for me this is usually 100% cotton fabric), white vinegar and rusty objects.

Take one or several rusty items and wrap/sandwich the item into the chosen natural fibre. Place the wrapped item into a seal-able plastic bag and pour enough vinegar over until the item is completely covered. Seal the bag and place in the sun for a minimum of 48 hours (I usually loose track of time and they end up being in the sun for 1 or 2 weeks). Unwrap the fabric, remove the rusty items and rinse out the fabric, soak in a salted water solution for an hour or so and then rinse the fabric again.

Today we delivered the SOTA10 Art Quilts to Childers Art Gallery

Just arrived home from taking the State of the Art Quilts 10 up to the Childers Art Gallery. We helped with the setting up of the display. The art quilts will be on display at the gallery until the 12 December 2010. The Childers Art gallery is located on the upper level of the "The Palace Building" in the main street that runs through Childers.

Approximately 3 years ago Sue Dennis announced at a general meeting of Queensland Quilt Group that an Art Quilt group would be forming as a sub-group and asked for volunteers for the founding committee. A few of us put our hands up to be part of the journey. We have held monthly meetings and once a year a juried exhibition is held for the members. The exhibition tours to several venues: this years collection has been to The Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC) in Melbourne, Textile Art Festival in Brisbane, Boonah Art Gallery and currently at Childers Art Gallery.