Art Prize

Somehow I managed to delete the post from Sat, June 2.  Clever of me, eh?  Thank goodness for that backwards arrow.  So I am copying and pasting and then adding a new image I have been working on today for the Art Prize collage.

(previous post)


Art Prize is a large local open art competition held in Grand Rapids, MI.  Last year artists from 39 different countries entered the exhibition which is held from mid-September to early October.  It took me a long time to decide about doing this, but, I have finally committed to enter this year.
 Over the past year or more I have been repeatedly confronted with the fact that even though I am not a rich person by usual standards,  I have great wealth compared to so many around the world. The piece I am working on for Art Prize focuses on the children of the world who for a variety of reasons barely have subsistence and struggle daily to survive.  Their living conditions are deplorable and many are orphans left to care for younger siblings.  It also focuses on our part in this scenario as those who have so much ! . Here is a part of the much larger piece I am working on  ( 8 feet wide x 4 feet high).

still tweaking these but wanted to show progress so far

 

Come back to check on my progress as I will be posting updates to this project periodically.

Thanks for stopping by :) ~ LW

 

“We can ask no greater joy, than to go gently through this place that has been given to us, and make something out of it. Not necessarily to fully understand it, for that might be an impossible task, but to honor it in our own way.” – Robert Genn, painter and author of The Painter Keys.

It's official...life is too busy !  But, for me, in a good way.  I have managed to finish 2 commissions and a birthday gift in the last couple of months !  Here are the results...

The Path # 1,1   by Lynette Williams - fabric collage on panel

I have been concentrating on developing depth in most of my work lately.
 Life is traveling into the unknown and this piece suggests to me the idea of choosing a path in life and how important it is which  path we choose to take.

Home  by Lynette Williams  -  fabric collage on panel

A commissioned work depicting a family farm that is no longer there.  The trick was to piece together from a couple of family photos a semblance of what was once there.  Again, trying to achieve a sense of depth and include all of the elements the family remembers from the farm.

The Path   # 1, 2 by Lynette Williams  -  fabric collage on panel

Living near Lake Michigan,  I am privileged to see it often and enjoy the inspiration it provides.  It has been a favorite place to be for most of my life and continues to be a favorite subject for my art.
This piece was commissioned by someone who lives nearer the lake than me and walks the beach almost daily.




Can't wait to start "cuttin up" my next project.
LW

And now..for something completely different !

I have been exploring something a little different.  I know I have a lot of UFOs (UnFinishedObjects) that were in previous posts, but when inspiration hits, you have to run with it.  You never know what may come of it.  Besides, those projects aren't going anywhere.  They will still be there when I am ready to pick them up and finish them. And I am confident they will be even better for having some space to  "grow".
  I have been intrigued with the monochromatic of late.  My fabric hunt for these resulted in some interesting combinations.  This series will be called "Monochrome Garden" or "What my flower garden might look like at midnight".  Some will have a hint of color like this one.

More to come in future !
LW

American Avocet

This fabric collage was commissioned to co-ordinate with a particular room, so the colors were chosen accordingly. "American Avocet "  was inspired by a photo of this bird seen locally and it will reside in the home of an avid bird lover.  It is a mid-western and Pacific coastal migratory bird that inhabits marshland, beaches and ponds during its breeding season.  It turns gray in the winter.  Its bill, very long and thin, is used in a side to side motion in the shallow water to search for crustacea and insects.

"American Avocet"    by Lynette Williams

                                                              Fabric Collage    14" x 11" on cradled board

Being a mother, I cannot warm to this bird.  It does not feed its young!  They fend for themselves.  But incubation is shared by both parents  -  a very redeeming quality :) and it is a very stately looking bird. 
More birds are in my "collaging " future.  I like this version of being in touch with nature....especially in the dead of winter.
Till next time
LW
                                                        

Guest Artist

With a sigh of relief, I am taking a day of laziness.  Up to almost the last minute I was extremely busy, with everyone wanting something sewn to embellish their home before Christmas.  What a joyous time of year!!  I love to celebrate the birth of our Savior and build wonderful memories with family and friends.  But it can be a very busy and tiring time!!  Now it is time to relax!
The continued struggle to find time for Fabric Collage was never more evident than in the last 2 months.  Hence, the lack of posts on this blog.  I am taking this week between Christmas and New Year to rejuvenate.  Included in that rejuvenation will be some finished Collage pieces.  One is a late November birthday gift for a friend and another is a commissioned piece to be given as a Christmas gift...also late :(.

I am pleased to have been in recent communication with Dattatreya Phadke.  He is a Pathologist in Novi, MI who has enjoyed doing many forms of art since childhood.  Among his pursuits are handmade greeting cards, acrylic, one-stroke, watercolor and watercolor batik painting as well as photography.  His education and career in the medical field has prevented him from pursuing art in a formal way, but, he uses his spare time to satisfy his creative flair.  His most recent addition to this list is his experimentation with fabric on canvas.   His first piece is called  "Harmony"  which he did with whatever bits of fabric he could find at his home.

"Harmony"

                                                             12" x 12"  Fabric Collage on boxed canvas
                                                                                  by Dattatreya Phadke



 Since that first endeavor, Dattatreya has enlarged his portfolio.
I really enjoy his style and felt compelled to share his art.   

"Bird of Paradise"
11" x 14" Fabric collage on canvas panel
by Dattatreya Phadke

   










                                                 
           


 In this piece, Dattatreya achieves a beautiful blend of colors.  The background is gorgeous but does not over-power the birds of paradise flowers. 

                                                 
       

                                                                         In Bloom 
                                                     11" x 14" Fabric Collage on canvas panel
                                                                                     by Dattatreya Phadke


 I love this vibrant suggestion of a flower in full bloom.  I think balance and texture are the keys to this pieces' success.

In a piece such as this, the selection and placement of color is crucial and that is what Dattatreya does very well.

                                                                       Snail Trail
                                                  11 x 14  Fabric Collage on canvas panel
                                                                by Dattatreya Phadke

                                                                   Fall Splendor
                                                                     11" x 14"  Fabric Collage on canvas panel
                                                                                      by Dattatreya Phadke

                                                                            
Dattatreya found inspiration for this piece from a photo he took in Traverse City, Michigan this fall.
Beautifully done !

I hope you have  enjoyed these as much as I have.  Thanks to Dattatreya for his willingness to share his art with us !  I am looking forward to seeing what he creates next.
Till next time !
LW

The Paper Garden

I am reading a book titled "  The Paper Garden"  by Molly Peacock.  I want to own this book !  It is not only interesting but just a beautiful book !   It is about a woman named Mary Granville Pendarves Delany who lived in Great Britain in the 1700's and at the age of 72 began her "career" as , what we would today call,  a paper collage artist .  She noticed one afternoon that a piece of colored paper matched the dropped petal of a geranium.  She began cutting petal shapes out of the paper and her fascination began.  She called these creations  "flower mosaicks"  and completed nearly a thousand cut-paper botanicals in the next 10 years.  Remember, she began at age 72.  That is amazing, not to mention inspiring !
She always painted the paper on which they were mounted with black watercolor and..."once dry, she'd paste onto these backgrounds hundreds ....of the tiniest dots, squiggles, scoops, moons, slivers, islands and loops of brightly colored paper, slowly building up the verisimilitude of flora"  ( p.4).   Mrs Delany's niece donated hers works to the British Museum in 1895 where they are bound in leather-edged volumes and seen by appointment!
"The Paper Garden"  credits Mary Delany with the rudimentary creation of collage at a time when paper of all kinds, including wallpaper, was handmade.  She actually did use some wallpaper but mostly she would paint rag paper with watercolors and cut the pieces for her work from them.  Here is an example of one of her most famous and most popular images - Damask Rose.  Mrs Delany was 80 years old when she completed this !

The author counts 71 pieces in the main flower .













Mrs. Delany is said to have poured herself into this endeavor as  
" employment and amusement"  to fill the void after the deaths of
her beloved sister, Anne, and her husband, Patrick, whom she called her best friend.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book but am already tremendously inspired,  since I too have started on an artist's journey rather later in life than most.
LW

  For more on the life and works of Mary Delany you can follow this link :
http://www.britishmuseum.org/search_results.aspx?searchText=Mary+Delany

"Frog Heaven" - Fabric Collage Art

Finally finished !  This is probably the largest piece I have done to date - 24" x 48"  I enjoyed the larger work area and anticipate doing more of this size or larger.  It takes a lot more fabric so that will have to be a consideration when purchasing a piece of fabric that seems to have potential.......getting enough in case it will go in a larger piece.  Because if I have to go back for more, I am likely to be disappointed.  Especially if it is several months down the road.
As I have said before, I like art that tells a story somehow or suggests more is going on than what is immediately visible.  The cattails'  reflection in rippling water in the right foreground adds movement to the piece suggesting a pond teaming with life.  It carries to the slight water movement  by the lilies' reflection and the image of the frog about to hop on the pad.  I chose colors that may not be explicitly realistic but complement each other and give enough reference to a cool summer oasis......at least for a frog.