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I started my art journey as a potter, lots of mugs, jugs and casseroles, till I eventually made large gold art pieces.  I stopped several years ago, painted for some time then into quilting.  Lately I have been returning to painted work that echoes my time in the ceramics world.  I enjoy working with lustres and gold leaf and textures.  This piece is 24 inches x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas, yet to be titled.  I will probably be only featuring paintings on my blog into the future, quilting is fading for me as a form of expression.  Its an odd angle to photograph a work from however I wanted to show the light on the gilded areas. 

I lived in South Australia for a time and  used to love to drive along beside the mighty Murray River, the colours so Australian.  The high sandstone cliffs in places towering over the river and rich bird life made it a very special part of Australia.  The rusted and dyed fabrics in this piece are reminiscent of the Murray and that time in my life.  Picnics along  the river banks with my children and then the long drive back to the Adelaide Hills where we lived dot my memories.  Size about 5 ft eight inches long.  I still have to hand turn the bottom of the quilt but that is for another day. 

I lived on my grandfather's sheep property, "Wayford"  while very young.  He and my grandmother had twelve children and raised them near Armidale in New South Wales.  A beautiful home with a long driveway of pines, gardens, tennis court and down the rear was a shearing shed.  I used to visit it and was fascinated with the slats in the floor and how the light shone through them and the smell of the sheep wool.   Along the road it sat on were several properties all belonging to family members including my great grandfather's home named "Blink Bonney' .  As a child it gave one a sense of family and grounding and with a huge family came many cousins, around 24 of them by memory.  Quilts 29 x 27 rusted and commercial fabric, farm stencils.  Machine and hand quilted.  

I finishing quilts for my yearly showing in the local library.  I like to do this showing because it is where I live and create.  Somehow its important, to belong and have a sense of place and I hope my work reaches out to my local community who visit the library.  I live in a suburb by the bay, cohesiveness of community via knowing everyone is impossible, its not like the country towns I have inhabited in my life's journey.  It lacks the easy going friendliness of a small town  simply because of its size.  I made the top of this quilt using rusted nails and wire.  Was not happy with it so never completed it, something seemed to be missing and yesterday I decided to add the hand dyed fabric and extra wire circle rusted piece on the bottom, loved it the moment I laid the green fabric down.  Sometimes quilts take a very long time, we have an idea and create but we have to wait for the completion till something else presents and  forms the whole. A bit like life really, we have t

'GATHERINGS' An eco printed fern leaf, then rusted, some Banksia leaves and a background of quilted rusted fabric all formed in one way or another in my back yard.  I do my rusting on my back pergola looking over the garden full of large ferns so I like to gather what grows around me in my own suburban back yard and turn it into textile art.  12 x 12 inches and will be framed under glass.  Beauty of the everyday is becoming my mantra.

This is a small piece 12 x 12 inches and will be framed under glass.  A piece of my very cheap fabric I purchase locally but it rusts like no other fabric in its take up of the rusted object images I use on it.  I think I used an old BBQ plate on this initially, soaked the fabric in vinegar, salted then placed in a plastic wrap with the rusted plate.  I left it for twenty four hours.  The striped piece reminds me of old mattress ticking that was on all the mattresses when I was a child.  I eco printed watercolour paper with gum leaves, soaked them in vinegar, placed the paper and leaves between bathroom tiles and tied them and then steamed them in a steel pot with rusty bits in the water and left it on the stove cooking for about two hours.  Then treated the paper with matte gel medium and sewed it to the already quilted fabric piece.  A little of white gesso on a roller and rolled it over some of the stitching.  I am not a purist and am happy with whatever result I receive from