Colour: A Personal Response Exhibition Gets Hung in ArtSea Gallery Tulista Park, Sidney BC

Sarah unwraps her artwork.

The first task once we got access to the gallery at 6:00 Sunday evening was to set up tables to work from.

We laid sheets on the floor along all of the walls we were planning to hang on.

We did a check to see if it would all fit in the space.

While Sarah and I did a rough hang of the work Ron sorted out all of the hanging cables and placed what was needed above each work.

While Ron and I got each artwork leveled, at the right height and spaced from its neighbour, Sarah set up different colour centers. 

Here are the Fabric Colour Cards in their individual racks on rotating stands. We are selling individual cards and have complete sets of 24 cards packaged up as well.

On the wall is one of each colour card mounted in a frame by our fabulous framer Jane Conner in the Mat Shop. She framed all of the works in the exhibition and gave us lots of good advice along the way.

Another colour centre is in a quieter space in the back alcove of the gallery. I made 24 little colour books and am asking people to pick any book and write in it how they feel about the colour.

Another colour centre has 36 colour books set up in racks. 

Sarah is going through a book with Isobel Jones, an early visitor to the exhibition the morning it opened.

I'll show a better shot of this centre in a  later post.

Sarah has chosen not to sell her original works at this stage but has made prints and cards of individual works to sell.

Speaking of selling - here is Ron programming my Square in preparation for sales.

We worked until after 10 last night and were back in the gallery early this morning to do all of the remaining tasks before officially opening. The gallery committee support person, Dale MacEwan, was in the gallery last night and first thing this morning to explain all the gallery systems to us. Thank you, Dale, for all of your support.

The gallery is open. The exhibition is on!

Colour: A Personal Response Exhibition - getting ready to hang

For the past 2 years, Sarah McLaren and I have been producing bodies of work based on how we feel about specific colours.

I have produced 24 works, each one exploring the energy I feel from a specific colour.

Sarah has explored each colour through the works of one of her favourite artists.

Here is her 'Modigliani in magenta' and my 'Synesthesia #5 Green'.

Earlier in the year, we set up a little taster of our exhibition in the gallery where we will be exhibiting next week - ArtSea Gallery at Tulista Park, Sidney BC, September 18th to 24th.

We both made colour cards in 24 different hues with shades, tints and tones in fabric on one side and paint on the other. We are busy packaging these up in sets to sell.

 We both made colour books, one to match each of our fibre works.

Here are my books laid out flat while the matte medium layer dries.

 I also made a second set of smaller books. 

The rack cards and poster have been designed, printed and distributed.

Many thanks to Sarah's daughter, Margo for all of the work she has done to promote the exhibition. 

In these last few days, we are working through our checklists of all those tasks that need to be done to mount an exhibition. Labels - check, print stickers - check, pick up cards - check, .....

Sunday evening we begin hanging. Sarah and I are very excited to see for the first time how our work looks together. I'll keep you posted.

'Colour: A Personal Response' 

September 18th to 24th, 2017

Artsea Gallery, Tulista Park, 9565 Fifth Street, Sidney BC

Open 10am to 4pm daily

Opening Reception September 19th, 2017 from 4 to 6pm

Working With Itten's 7 Colour Contrasts

"Our sense organs can function only by means of comparisons. The eye accepts a line as long when a shorter line is presented for comparison. The same line is taken as short when the line compared with it is longer. Colour effects are similarly intensified or weakened by contrasts." Itten The Elements of Color, p. 32

Itten's 7 kinds of colour contrast:

1. Contrast of hue

2. Light-dark contrast

3. Cold-warm contrast

4.Complementary contrast

5.Simultaneous contrast

6. Contrast of saturation

7. Contrast of extension

With this Synesthesia series of work, I am working with one hue/colour at a time, defined as a monochromatic colour scheme. It means I am not able to use #1. Contrast of hue. For each individual work to be successful I need to work with other colour properties to achieve contrast.

The Synesthesia series aims to show how I feel about each colour's energy. To express that energy I focus on line, without making a thing, shape or motif and I work with value. #2 Light-dark contrast is my main design tool

# 2. Light-dark contrast. Here I have overlapped with an off-set, dark to light threads over a dark to light ground.

To me, this colour evokes calmness, an immensity in its calmness. To give this feeling I need to show a low level of contrast but still need to have some contrasting elements for the work to be successful, otherwise, there is no energy at work.

I took advantage of one of textiles' strongest features - texture. This low contrast dark to light fabric line up is still interesting to the eye because each fabric has a different texture.

These fabrics also show #6 Contrast of saturation at a low level but the eye can still see a brighter blue beside a dull blue.

When checking for #2 Light-dark contrast I look through a 'Ruby-Beholder' - a red or green plastic strip and or I take a picture with my camera to get a black and white image. 

Here I decided there was just enough contrast of light and dark for the eye/brain to notice while still giving off a calm vibe.

Including too wide a range of light to dark generally is not successful. One needs to limit the range of values to a group or block along the light-dark continuum.

When I am designing a work I take out all of the fabrics I have that would be suitable as far as their other characteristics are concerned. I arrange them in a continuous line from light to dark. I then look along the line to decide which section would best express the feel and energy of that colour. I work with fabrics in that section and put away those either side of the chosen ones.

I am making colour cards to go with each Synesthesia work. The cards have strips of fabric glued to them. When I select the fabrics I aim for the maximum range of values, saturation, and cold-warm contrast because the purpose of the cards is to show the full range of the colour's properties.

A stop for a quick dark-light check during construction. 

Is there enough contrast to effectively express the energy I feel from this colour?

When I make work I do a lot of research and pre-planning in a sketchbook. Next, I sample with the actual fabrics. When I am actually making the work it feels as though I am back at the trial and error stage but this time I am working towards producing that image or feeling I have of what the work should be and it guides my decisions.

VISDA Current Threads 2017 Exhibition in Ladysmith BC

The annual Vancouver Island Surface Design Association Currents Threads exhibition will open on April 15 and run until April 30, 2017.

This year the group is returning to the Ladysmith Waterfront Gallery, Ladysmith. 

All of the work will have been completed in the last 3 years and has not been shown in any Current Threads exhibition before.

We are anticipating another successful exhibition with many visitors.

The Artist Reception is on April 22, from 2:00 until 4:00 pm. I do hope many of you can attend to enjoy the work and talk to the artists in attendance.

Artists will be sitting the gallery every day from 11 am until 4 pm.

During Ladysmith's Spring Art Tour on April 21st until 23rd, the gallery hours are extended from 10 am until 5 pm.

This annual exhibition is a survey of the most recent work by fibre artists who live on Vancouver Island and many of the smaller offshore islands.

You are all invited to attend.

Textile Society of America 15th Biennial Symposium

Textile Society of America Symposium 2016

The opening reception was held at the SCAD Museum of Art scad.edu/museum

On a balmy evening, 400 delegates from 23 different countries gathered on the podium between the oldest surviving antebellum railroad depot in the US and the modern building of the art museum.

After a time of nibbling delicious southern canapes, sipping cool drinks, listening to the band, talking with old and new friends, and paying attention during the speeches of welcome and thanks, we moved into the exhibition spaces.

Ebony G. Patterson, 'of 72 project,' digital prints on embellished bandanas, 2012

'What happens when 72 die and no one knows who they are? 

Who were these men and this woman?

Ebony wanted to make people aware of a 2010 massacre of 72 men (and 1 woman) at the Tivoli gardens in Jamaica. It is an event that has received very little attention from the media, has been ignored by Jamacia's usually vocal music scene and has had little acknowledgement governement. By making a mixed media portrait of every victim and hanging them all together on a clothesline the sheer number has great impact and the viewer is forced to realise these silenced people do matter.

Subodh Gupta, 'Known Stranger,' mixed media, 2014

This fabulous installation is an endlessly fascinating collection of well-used cooking pots and containers. The setting sun reaching through blinds to spot illuminate the work only added to its curiosity. People just walked around and around looking up and smiling.

This was just one of many exhibitions available for delegates to enjoy throughout the week. There was a well-organised gallery-hop one evening.

The daytime hours were mostly spent listening to the presentation of research papers on the theme "Crosscurrents: Land, Labor and the Port."

3 or 4 papers were presented in each session  X  5 concurrent sessions at any one time X 8 periods of concurrent sessions over 3 days = 140 papers presented. Phew, no wonder my head felt full towards the last day. The last day was spent attending roundtable discussions, films, videos, a merchants market. poster session, a closing plenary session and finally an awards banquet dinner. Those who still wanted more could join the post-symposium workshops and tours.

All in all an amazing event.

The next symposium will be in Vancouver in 2018. I can hardly wait.

Textile Society of America Symposium 2016

Textile Society of America Symposium 2016

The Textile Society of America 15th biennial symposium was held in Savannah Georgia in 2016.

The co-hosts were the Savannah College of Art and Design and Art Rise Savannah.

Ingrid lincoln and I attended the symposium this year.

We caught one of the pre-symposium tours opting to have a group of enthusiastic, knowledgeable students take us on a tour of their university - Savannah College of Art and Design.

The Savannah campus is spread over 80 buildings most of them restored historic buildings in old downtown Savanah, all within walking distance of each other.

The first stop on the tour was the student centre. The beautiful building was filled with art. See the fireplace above.

Pencil drawings on planks of wood.

Next Stop: The Fibers Department, one of 42 disciplines offered.

The entrance art installation - light shining through fibres trapped between acrylic panels on the walls and ceiling.

The dyeing studio.

It looks small but that is because the class sizes are small and only a few students would work in here at any one time. All of the studios are open 24 hours, 7 days a week so students are free to work as their muse strikes or as close to deadlines as they like to.

Induction heating surfaces, steamers and pressurised vat.

SCAD offers 3 fibers degrees - B.F.A., M.A., M.F.A. link here.

Backyard Project vs. Studio Work

You might think with all of my postings about the Backyard Project that not much is going on in my studio. 

Here are some pics to show that I am working in my studio...

...until there is action outside.

Delivery of the cement.

This is an impressive little 3-wheeled forklift.

It was easily able to manoeuvre along the paths to drop off its load conveniently close to the job site.

These bags of cement will be mixed to make the concrete footings for the propagation room.

I have checked everything out. Now I can go back inside my studio to the work in hand.

The first school report I ever got had the comment "Lesley is easily distracted." 

As a 5-year old I had to ask my mother what that meant. 

Her answer, "If someone came to the door of the classroom you would look up." 

My reply, "Well how would I know who came to the door?" 

I guess that teacher nailed it, all those years ago.

Articulation's 2016 Study Session in Gimli

First stop out of Winnipeg on the way to Gimli was at Arnason's Icelandic Horse Farm.

One of the few places in the world outside Iceland where these distinctive horses can be found.

For more about these unique horses visit Articulation's blog here

Rock Art - Boat - Gimli

The reason why Articulation went to Gimli was to study Icelandic culture.

Gimli (New Iceland) is the largest Icelandic settlement outside Iceland. Back in 1875 and 1876 more than 1,000 Icelandic immigrants settled on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg on land the Canadian government gave them to govern independently. 

We found Icelandic textiles old (as above in the Gimli museum) and new in the local shops.

A Whitefish boat up on the hard. 

Evidence of the early dependence on fishing in Lake Winnipeg was found in many places up and down the western shore.

Hecla historic home

The Icelandic immigrants brought with them their architecture and woodworking skills.

Pickeral and wild rice

We sampled Canadian/Icelandic food whenever we came across it.

For more about Articulation's time in and around Gimli, check their  blog  here.