Two Weeks to go....
- loisparishevans
- Mar 16
- 3 min read
This time in two weeks my solo exhibition Contours and Contrasts will be hung and ready for business at Timeless Textiles Gallery in Newcastle, Australia. It is not my first solo exhibition at Timeless Textiles so I know what to expect but it is six years since my last solo there. How times flies!
I am really looking forward to seeing Contours and Contrasts hung and to being back in my old hometown, catching up with friends and observe what changes have occurred in the city.
I guess there are many ways that people come up with the theme for an exhibition - maybe you could drop me a line at the end to share how you come up with an exhibition theme. For this exhibition my initial source of inspiration was this art quilt "Coastal Contours" and I then brainstormed Contours. I always love to look up the meaning of words because often that will also inspire new ideas and I wasn't disappointed when I looked up the meaning of "contour" - "the outline or shape of something" Vocabulary.com. It was a broader definition and far more encompassing than I my understanding which was probably restricted to landscape and coastlines..... It meant that I could include some of my macro images or close up work of leaves, which if I thought about it often became landscapes anyway.
I wanted to add another word to Contours and when I thought about the images I could include with my new definition of contours, the word Contrast came to the fore. Contrast is defined in a simple word as difference. I thought about the contrast - and similarities- in the two countries that I have an affinity for - Australia and NZ, about the difference to an artwork that is created when using different techniques, about the contrast in a body of work that has taken a few years to create - not just the journey but the contrast in how I am currently portraying what I see in the natural world around me.
Coromandel Contours: Two small examples of the contrast in techniques - first image is raw edge applique and free motion quilted, second image is hand painted and free motion quilted. Neither of these will be included in the exhibition as they are both now in private collections overseas.
Contours and Contrasts enabled me to curate a body of work for this exhibition that has meaning and journey for me. Curating art quilts from the last few years that work together under this title.
Something that I have thought hard about in the lead up to this exhibition is how much to show on social media. Some of the feedback I received from my Nature Observed exhibition was "although I'd seen it on social media it was good to see it in person" and I wondered if there was some disappointment in not seeing unseen works.....Maybe you could give me some further feedback about this. It is a tricky one because as an artist you want to build interest and desire to see the exhibition without giving too much away. As a result I have tried to give very little away about what is in this exhibition. However it has also prompted me to write this blog!
So... as in all my experience with exhibiting I always have way more ideas than I could ever hope to create - I smile at myself! I need five lives to create all that I want to create and I am excited about the current direction of work. However it leaves me with options to continue exploring my subject matter....and that fills me with joy.
I hope to see you at my exhibition, the opening or at my workshop at Timeless Textiles.
For further information: https://timelesstextiles.com.au/events/contours-and-contrasts-lois-parish-evans/
