Impressions of Color

Last night was opening of my show at Maryville College. There was a wonderful turnout of many good friends and their friends, as well as family. I so very much appreciate the support from everyone!

Beautiful flowers from my family in Norway, to wish me good luck.       

 Great turnout of good friends and family, and small reception of goodies. All thanks to the Art department at the College. Carl Gombert takes care of everything, and makes all of it look so good.

 First time I have worked in a pictorial series. The "Ironworks" series are inspired by a photo taken by my sister, Marita. Absolutely loved working with the different colorways. Right now I am not sure which color is my favorite, just love to see them together.

This is a leaf I found in Florida. Very hard and a little difficult to get definition. But finished they are my "Brain" pieces. Had so much fun working on them and coming up with names. "Mush Brain", "Grey Matter", "Left Brain, Right Brain".

 These are huge sycamore leaves, actually it's the same one used in all 4 pieces

Most of the pieces are a combination of machine outline stitching and hand seed stitching. I dye the pearl cotton to fit with the color scheme I am working on, and fill in all background.  I love this kind of handwork and it fills the need to work at a slower pace.

 These are large sycamore leaves and some Hawaiian leaves.    

 Another favorite is the boat on the waterfront. Have a thing for the old wooden rowing boats, just something about the wood and colors. My sister, Marita, sent me this photo which had to be a quilt .

The largest piece at the show. The huge leaves are from Tennessee and Hawaii. I don't work so much in cooler colors but this is one of my winter quilts

 And one of he smallest pieces at the show, a study of leaves from my back yard. More vibrant in real life.

My interest and fascination with Hawaii comes from two trips there, The islands are so diverse and the nature is so varied. The lush areas just so impressive, not just the size of the leaves but also the shapes. I could make hundreds of pieces from the inspiration of Hawaiian botanical life. And pretty soon I will have !

This Hawaiian inspired piece is appliqued, rather than transfer paint, and was made after many photographs of  leaves on O'Ahu.

Love to work with these colors, and the surprises that will occur is always  an "opportunity" to do something different, never a mistake. After I get my feet down on the ground again, I have many pieces of fabric,  a box full of leaves, lots of painted papers, ready to be something, very soon!       

"The Impression of Color", exhibit at Maryville College , August 2018

Everything is packed and ready to go to be hung at the gallery. two years of work in four rolls of quilts! That puts things in perspective..

Opening reception August 3rd, 6 PM - 8 PM.
Location: Denso Gallery at the Clayton Center for the Arts, Maryville College, Maryville, TN.
Please join me if you can!

Show runs through August, opening hours are 10 AM - 6 PM, Monday thru Friday.

Beautiful space for any art, and I feel so fortunate to be able to show what I love to do.  I have called the show "The Impression of Color". These pieces tell the story of my love for colors and how each color can influence each other. Layering of color is done  very intuitively and I am not bound by any rules when I  do this. Most of the pieces are done using "Transfer Paint" techniques, but there are also several pictorial pieces inspired by photographs. Both the "Ironworks" series and"the boat" are from photos taken by my sister Marita.

These are three pieces from the show, inspired by leaves found in Tennesssee and Hawaii. Many more at the show.

Transfer Paints with Foothills Piecemakers Quilters in Greenville, South Carolina

Going to Greenville, SC to Foothills Piecemakers Quilting Guild, for two days in June, was so fun.Wonderful to meet quilters from my first time there, back in 2016. The workshop this time was Transfer Paints, and had the opportunity to spend two days playing with paints, colors and many different fabrics. I am always so impressed of what comes out of a workshop, and all the creativity that emerges from very enthusiastic women .I am more than a little inspired when I go home.           

Have to show this little demo piece, because I truly got some real "red" color for once. Red is difficult, and very often show as pink. One of the women in the workshop, Mary, brought in some excellent polyester fabric that was just outstanding to work with, and I think that the fabric has a lot to do with this bright transfer. Mary was very generous, so I have a few more pieces of this fabric, ready to play next week. Cannot wait!

Usually the first day is spent mixing colors and painting papers. Some real interesting stuff going on. About 25-30 papers are usually enough for each for the next day transfers.

These two pictures are very good illustration of how this process works. Mary has transfered a base layer of yellow, and places several leaves on top. The leaves will act as resists, and as the  next color, red, is added on, the leaves will leave a yellow impression. Stronger colors will also give  more defined shapes.

Mary will add stitching to finish this piece.

In addition to bring us great fabrics, Mary also has a great sense of color. Strong, bright colors give wonderful definition, especially on the mimosa leaves below. You can see each individual little leaf. She is ready to pick leaves in the fall!

Nan  was able to transfer quite a bit of texture from the papers. She worked with grass and straw like plants and got some very detailed results, which she plans to finish with adding stitched details. They will make beautiful small landscapes.

This small collage piece has got lots of potential. Nan used leaves and paper stencils.

This is the finished "Miniature landscape" quilt, that Nan started in the previous workshop. She has added stitching, paint and embellishments which truly have brought this arched trail to life. Beautiful!

Martha did not stick to one paint color on the paper, rather played with many colors at the same time. That is how she created the striking collage effect below. Very random, yet keeping the movement with stencils and leaves moving across the fabric.

Janine fell in love with some of the paper stencils, and made many small designs using the front and back of the stencils. As the paper stencils also will pick up some of the colors from the transfer, she manipulated them with her color use. The one below is both her and mine favorite.

Debbie got a few unusual colors to work very well together. The "purple" and bright green combination could have turned out bad, but this one works! Strong imagery with lots of details will result in something beautiful when she adds stitching to define the details.

Debbie showed her "Miniature fabric postcard" she started in the earlier workshop. She finished it by adding detailed stitching and a border/frame. The barn is so life like! Debbie's first quilt

Gayle also did many multi colored painted papers. That doesn't always work well, but here the unusual markings and color combinations takes on a life of their own. These fabrics will be very fun to use, and I can imagine adding words in a few places.

So much fun to see what creative women can do! Hope to get some time to work next week, got some new ferns and leaves pressed and ready to go. Also want to test out a few new paper products, so I might have to crank up the heatpress.

Easy Arch challenges at JCC Folk School

Full moon, and a beautiful clear night at John C Campbell Folk School. April/May is a great time to spend a week at the school in Brasstown, NC. My class was Easy Arch, and 6 women from all four corners of the US spent a week with colors and creativity, exploring new directions with their quilt designs.                                                                                                                                                  

Some very exiting quilts were made, and I know many more will be made as a result of the fun we had.

 Linda from Florida,chose 3 colorways in vibrant batiks, yellow/orange, blues/ and purples. All put together she has a glowing piece, most likely it will be a lap quilt, or she really could use it for display on the wall. That's how beautiful and well made  it is.

Some of Linda's small leaves. Think the black one is my favorite.

Linda brought her feather weight to work on, absolutely beautiful machine. This is what you can do on a straight stitch machine!

Laura  from New York decided to play with her black and white with a touch of yellow fabrics. Very productive and made 4 sets of blocks. The close-up also shows her very nice first attempt at a curved border design.. This works very well with her blocks. Very successful, and as you see even softer colors are exiting with this block design.

Going to her brighter, bolder stash, these smaller blocks were cut on the diagonal as well and when assembled I thinks this turned out very fun. Not decided if there will be a border added on yet.    Scrappy but very controlled because of the color scheme.

 One of Pat's (from Oregon) very favorite colors to work with  is purple. Two of her pieces used a lot of her favorite color! To me they were so much like the Smoky Mountain colors. She worked on a smaller scale but very effectively  used the chosen colors. One of the pieces has wonderful reds, and almost has a "fire" feel to them. When quilted these smaller pieces will be outstanding!

   

The wooded areas around the school campus has many treasures during spring time.
These "Lady slippers" were tucked away on a quiet spot on the trail.

As were these white miniature lilies. Nature is beautiful.

 Marcy from California for sure brought a bold collection of print fabrics. This is what she enjoys working with, and using the Easy arch she brought them all together in a very unconventional way.

 She  sewed several collections of blocks, and made the bold fabrics shine. I would love to see these pieces finished!

This color combination really speaks to me, the touch of red/pink gives the blocks a cohesive look.

 Stephanie from North Carolina also has a great eye for the bold and unusual fabrics. She very successfully used  many stripe and geometric fabrics in the same piece. The blue piece was her first collection of blocks and she made 2 sets which was assembled into this striking piece. The yellow/orange piece above turned out very exiting, very much because of the black surprise element and very skinny polka dot bias strips that was inserted between the curves. This was very effective in giving the blocks movement.

                                                        

Rebecca from North Carolina made what I call "over the top" blocks. She used the most rich and saturated colors together all in one piece. Or rather she made two pieces, both very vibrant and so fun. Perfectly matches her personality! The polka dot fabric for sashing was found at the local quilt shop in Murphy, and that is my favorite sashing for the week.     

Lots of quilts with purple this week, maybe I shoud be using it more, it no doubt makes beautiful quilts!

Fun week, with fun ladies. I enjoyed so much spending time with them all, and hope to see them again soon. Good luck in your quilting endeavors!