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Wednesday 27 March 2013

Southern Flowers

This quilt of mine below is travelling with the exhibition "Beneath the Southern Sky" (see the website and facebook page) in the USA now and has been shown throughout Australia in 2013


You can see how I use the photos of the flowers in my own work.




Southern Flowers - 2012

Tuesday 26 March 2013

More Flowers - from my garden

Some more photos - this time from my own garden
Hope you can see what I love about the flowers - their shapes, colour and smell
I wish I had more time and flowers in my garden
I do take my camera everywhere
On my last trip to Singapore I went to the Botanical Gardens again
This time I spent a lot of time in the orchid section - what a delight!!!
My camera was in overdrive that day
Will post some of the pictures later






Flowers 

As many of you know I love flowers
I draw them and then use them in my work
Below are a few photo I took on our trip to Murray Bridge
Enjoy them - the colours and shapes are beautiful
I grew up in a Nursery and my grandfather took me to the Botanical Gardens here in Adelaide - I therefore developed a love and an appreciation of flowers all my life.
Cut flowers were grown outside my window as a child
I love the native flowers as well






Saturday 23 March 2013

India Flint Exhibition

On Saturday we travelled to Murray Bridge to visit India Flint's Exhibition "muddy waters"
It ii on at the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery from 1 March until 14 April so you still have time to visit
It is an interesting exhibition with new work done in New Orleans
If you are interested in natural dying (eco) then I suggest a visit
The Gallery itself is a joy- with always 2 or more exhibitions on at the same time

The entrance to the Gallery

A detail "bywater" India Flint 2012
cotton, silk, plant dyes

Monday 18 March 2013

Indigo Workshop

On the weekend I had organized Jane Callender from the UK to  conduct a weekend workshop using Indigo and its techniques.
The tutor was very generous with her time and she shared so much of her knowledge with the students which was extensive. All the students had a great time and learnt heaps.
Below are a few general pics of the students working etc..

Cally, the tutor, as she is known is doing an Australian tour and will continue onto other places in OZ after Adelaide. 

Jane Callender (Cally)
Julie Haddrick unpicking an indigo stitched piece


Colleen Morrow hanging out her Indigo pieces

Rosemary Abbot dipping into the Indigo vat


Students hanging up their work

The students and Cally at the end of the workshop - they are still smiling and have blue hands???!!!!

Thursday 7 March 2013

"To Dye For" = dyeing 

The students in my classes yesterday were dyeing some of their 40
resist dye samples - tie-dye. They had so much fun and it was a hot day therefore perfect for dyeing and batching (heat set) the dyes. I will show some of their finished pieces in a later post.









Tuesday 5 March 2013

DARE TO DIFFER  - Contemporary Quilt Exhibition held in Adelaide

Suzanne Gummow "Garlands" exhibited in "Dare to Differ - 2011
Tomorrow night, Thursday , 7 March at the Quilters' Guild SA's meeting, Julie Haddrick and I will give a powerpoint presentation explaining what is "Dare to Differ", who can enter, some history of the exhibition and more - hoping that the technology works!!! So if you are not doing anything please attend - at the Burnside Community Centre, Burnside Town Hall, Portrush Road, Burnside at 7.30pm. All welcome.  If you have any Art Quilts please bring them along for display. So come and enjoy the night with us!!!
Paper, Fabric and Stitch - Collage

On Monday I introduced "Paper, Fabric and Stitch" and Mixed Media ideas to the Certificate IV students - we discussed what papers and fabric to use, which are better, which 'glues' to use and then they could not wait to get started with some experiments. So they 'glued' and 'glued' and create the bases for their works ready to stitch or draw (or even paint) into when the pieces dried. It will be great to see what they do with them in the next couple of weeks.


Christine Bowden working on paper and fabric

Papers ready to use

Barbara Dunn

Roswitha Christian
Sue Buxton

Anna Healey


Christine Bowden

Christine Bowden

Saturday 2 March 2013

Marden Senior Collage Murals

Marden Senior College is where I work as a Visual Art Educator here in Adelaide, South Australia.

I initiated, wrote and now teach the Certificate Course in TEXTILES - my passion and the students are fabulous, keen and range between 16 and 72 years of age - what a pleasure to go to work! I am SO lucky!!! The students always inspire me too - hope I do the same for them.

A few years ago I organised an "Artist in School"  program and we had the pleasure of working with Wendy Muir who is a fabulous painting artist from South Australia.
We worked on designing 3 large murals for the canteen area - on the theme of food (of course) suitable for the venue in which they were to hang. These murals are in acrylic paint.

So why have I only now decided to share these with you? Well we have just had the canteen painted and new furniture added - and now the murals have a new life - they stand out so well against the "red" painted walls and the furniture is so "in tune" with the students we have - young (and older) adults.
This refurnishment is due to our Principal Brenda Harris' vision and what a difference has it made to the area to sit and enjoy your break and the food - so enjoy the photos below of the murals.

Students designs for the murals on paper - paint and collage

More designs for the murals

Mural 2 - size aprox. 1.2m X 2m

Mural 3 - 2.4m X 1.2m

Mural 1 - 2.4m X 1.2

The 3 murals in the canteen - aren't they great against the "red" wall????
I love them
What great textiles would they make?
ENJOY

Love to get your feedback about these great murals