Janine's Journey - A bit of this and that - February 2022
Sent: 2/27/2022 11:44:12 PM

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Janine's Journey - A bit of this and that

Hi Subscriber,

Welcome to my latest newsletter.

I know February is a short month but it seems to have flown by very quickly!

Here in Perth summer has continued unabated and we have broken all sorts of records for number of days over 35 and 40 degrees. I am really looking forward to autumn and some cooler nights and morning and dare I say it rain! Meanwhile my thoughts are with everyone on the East Coast enduring more rain and flooding.

Why can't we have a happy medium instead of extremes on either side of the country?

Here in WA we are starting to have to live with Covid as the Omicron wave takes hold. Later this week the border with the rest of Australia comes down and we are free to travel and catch up with loved ones. It has served us well keeping us safe but now it is time to re-join the rest of the world.

Finally, like everyone else, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Ukraine. Hopefully peace can soon prevail...

"Undiscovered" is off to its forever home

Undiscovered

Undiscovered is off to its forever home in Norway.

It is finished ready to be mounted over a stretched canvas. I added an aboriginal fabric designed by Maureen Nampijinpa Hudson from the Central Desert around the edge which reminded me of the Bungles.

"Queen of the Reef" off to Melbourne

I'm excited to say "Queen of the Reef" has been selected as a finalist for the Australian Textile Art Awards in Melbourne.

There is still an embargo on publicity until opening night on 25th March.

She will be on display from 26th March to 10th April at the Embroiderers Guild, 170 Wattletree Road, Malvern

Bombora

The theme for this years Coastal Thread Art prize is 'Blue Inspiration'.

I have been wanting to do a detailed breaking wave for awhile so this was the push I needed to actually do it.

It is based on a photo Pete took at Gracetown in WA.

It is my usual fabric collage with thread painted details on a sun dyed background. I added the spray by hand with a thicker decorative thread.

It is only small at 30 x 30cm (12 x 12 inches) which is a condition for entry.

Bombora is an aboriginal term for an area of large sea waves breaking over a shallow area such as a submerged rock shelf, reef, or sand bank that is located some distance from the shoreline and beach surf break.

Coincidentally it is also the name of the Mirror dinghy we sail. So when I asked a friend for suggestion on what to call this piece and she said Bombora it was meant to be!

The Digital Cloth

The Digital Cloth is an e-magazine put out by Australian Textile Artist Caroline Sharkey. She has articles from artists from all over the world and I was honoured when she asked me to write about my art. In this article I talk about the reason I like to create realistic art and why I started thread painting. You can buy the magazine here

Creating "Sentinel"

I am continuing to make pieces inspired by our trip to the Kimberley so it was only a matter of time before I did a Boab.

Pete always gets up early (sunrise) and goes for a walk when we are on holiday.

This is based on a photo he took in Broome near Town Beach. What I liked about this photo is that the was actually some cloud to reflect the sunrise not just the picture perfect blue sky.

Boab reference photo

Initially I wanted to make the sky as realistic as possible and tried to work out the best way to do this. After a lot of thought I decided it would take too many hours of thread painting doing each individual cloud which wasn't practical for something that was going to be about 60 x 90 cm (24 x 36 inches). The alternative was to do an semi abstract sky with a realistic Boab.

Normally I work on subject first and do the background last. With this one I didn't fancy working around all the branches so I decided the only option was to complete the background totally including quilting before I added the collage of the tree and thread painted it.

The first step in creating the background was to sun dye it.

To do this I painted it with Heliographic or 'Sun Sensitive' paint. Immediately I put the pebbles on it and left it outside in the sun to dry. The areas covered by an object (pebbles) go light/white and the uncovered areas end up whatever colour you painted them. This gave a nice dappled blue as a starting point.

The next step was to cut out some random light coloured fabric and add them to the sky. I stitched then down with a variegated grey thread to try and soften the edges a little.

Finally to bring out the golden glow I added a copper coloured organza which catches the light which can be seen best in the final photo.

The rest of the background got some thread painting adding some grasses and highlights to the distant mangroves. Finally the whole lot was quilted.

The fabric collage of the Boab was the final thing to be added.

I thread painted it to add all the tiny branches and the lovely highlights of the sunrise catching the trunk and larger branches.

Well that is enough from me for now, I really must get back to the sewing machine.

Thank you for taking the time to read my Newsletter, I hope you enjoyed it and found it informative. If you have any queries I would love to hear from you.

Kind Regards

Janine