Moving along

Today I have finally taken up my needle again and have had the pleasure of stitching these beautiful eucalyptus dyed silk squares sent to me by @bluedorritt as part of the Opening Stitches project.

Stitching on silk squares dyed with eucalyptus, original stitches by Sue Butler

It has been quite a frustrating being unable to stitch, and this project started to drift away from me.

A second silk square.

Now I am better I have had to reacquaint myself with the project.

A close up of the stitched square.

Somewhere along the line l had missed stitching these two squares that were sent to me some months ago. Fingers crossed that the paperwork tracking all the contributions has now been sorted out and I can get back to the making.

Oops, I forgot to mention the Dobell Drawing Prize!

At the Dobell Drawing Prize announcement with my work ‘365 Days’

Looking back on my blog I just realised that I hadn’t posted about the Dobell Drawing Prize 2019, which includes my work ‘365 Days’. Spoiler alert – I didn’t win the $30,000.

The big announcement was made two weeks ago, at the end of March and I went up to Sydney for the event. I always find openings and suchlike quite intense experiences and this show, being the most prestigious I have been selected into was no exception.

The 2019 prize panel called for, among other things, drawings in non-traditional media. This resulted in a wide display of techniques and materials across the 58 finalists. It appeared to me that this was a key element of the selection criteria where the public might have been a bit better informed. There was lots of “but how is this drawing” remarks floating around in the gallery on the night. I certainly had that asked about my work and Justine Varga’s winning work using paint into wet photographic medium also copped a lot of the same.

Justine Vargas winning work, ‘Photogenic Drawing’

I think the gallery might have also increased the understanding of the works by including the artist’s statements in the wall text. I doubt that anyone would realise that my work was made over the course of a year, just by looking at it. When I did look at works with the catalogue in my hand l really came to appreciate a many works that had previously appeared quite difficult to grasp.

With such a broad range of styles on display it must have been a challenge for judge Ben Quilty to make a final choice. There is both seriousness and fun in this show. Chris Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa) certainly got my prize for the best use of glitter in a drawing.

Chris O’Doherty, ‘Robot Priest with captured Australian’

There were also a number of exquisite pencil drawings and this wonderful landscape by Western Australian artist Sonia Kurarra.

Sonia Our area, ‘Martuwarra’

The Dobell Drawing Prize exhibition is being held at the National Art School in Darlinghurst, Sydney and will run until 25 May 2019.

PS My work is featured on the inside back cover of the catalogue!

Small beauty

It’s been a while, but I am moving forward again with my opening stitches project. This time a most beautiful piece of fabric and thread, (both made by Deb Lacativa, http://morewgalo.blogspot.com) contributed by Mo Orkiszewski.

Mo’s original submission.

Mo’s current exhibition ‘I dream of a world where love is the answer’ at Artsite Gallery Sydney, seems more relevant than ever given the awful events in Christchurch, New Zealand. Mo’s exhibition closes 24 March. (https://www.artsite.com.au/exhibition/2019-03-mo-orkiszewski-catalogue.php).

This was a piece that had me thinking of complex wetlands, filled with intense colours and flashes of light, glinting off the water. Couching the threads down proved quite challenging, so choosing to use some slippery rayon thread was possibly more challenging than necessary. Here are the photos of the front and back sides, now that I have worked on it.

The front side.

The back side.

The opening stitches project is still open to new contributions, check of the link to get the full details if you would like to join in.