Walking in Le Triadou

I have had the thinking cap on  for what i want to make next. I need to do a book proposal and I am contemplating the subject matter and how I will go about  creating the pieces. We have been out walking every morning and the collage is of some of the things we have encountered on our walks.It is Le Triadou on the summers solstice.

the central image in the collage is of flowers picked along the roadside and some eggplant pickles I made yesterday.

Back to some more thinking....

Nimes and Leysin

It has been a busy week. Last Monday we went to Nimes to have another look at the Arena and I must admit i did not notice the matador  statue ( I guess it was too cold last time). The statue is of Nimeno II ( Christian Montcouquiol) . I love the patterning that the sculptor has created on the matador clothing with all sorts of found objects and I love to see the way tourists interact with such things.

I also taught  at Leysin at a Art textile and Patchwork retreat. The other teacher was Liz Berg and it was lovely to meet in person someone's work i have looked at over the years. The event was organised by Christiane Studer and  participants came from far and wide. The accommodation was excellent as was the food- but  we did not see the famed scenery, in fact one could have thought there was only fog in Switzerland! It was a pleasure to teach the same students for 3 and a half days and get a sense of their working rhythms,  their ideas, their inspirations and enthusiasm.

And on that note- I shall be going back to Australia later this year ( though I will make trips back to Europe from time to time) so if you would like to do a workshop please contact me! I still have some times available though  my calender is starting to fill. We will also be doing workshops at le Triadou; dyeing, transfer printing with lutradur, some inspiration in fabrication in July and August ( there is a swimming pool here to cool off ). If you are interested please email me.

I am also coming up to my 1,000th blog post and my 300,000th reader- the events look like they may coincide- who would have thought that would happen when I started blogging???

Southern Lands at Centre Europeen du Patchwork

Clare Smith's Work

Robina Summer's Work

                                                             Sarah Louise Rickett's Work

                                                                 Fiona Wright's Work

                                                            Felicity's Hopkins' Work

                                                      Olga Walters' Work
I am incredibly busy at the moment but found time to visit the Fete du Couture at Centre Europeen du Patchwork and of course Southern Lands, the exhibition which is presently being shown there and which  I have curated. I could not manage to capture the  complete bodies of work of each artist but you will find the work and the artists statements on the Southern lands website.The seven artists exhibiting are Clare Smith, Robina Summers, Sarah Louise Ricketts, Fiona Wright, Felicity Hopkins, Olga Walters and myself ( I didn't include a photo of my work). Whilst i was there  I could hear visitors ohhing and ahhing about the work- and people just standing in the middle of the gallery and absorbing the work as a panorama-it was extremely heartening to find so many positive comments in the visitors book- formidable and magnifique being two words that jumped out . Thank you to the artists for submitting such awesome work!

On another note- the KISS project is still  happening- if you  indicated you were participating earlier in the year please send me photos of the completed work - after the weekend I will have more time to  set up a blog and get things happening !

Bedouin Tent

I have in the past been heard to say that i wanted to live in a bedouin tent- little did I think i would spend the night in one! This bedouin encampment was outside of palmyra and came replete with chickens, dogs, a cat, quite some camels, sheep, goats and a horse!

This gorgeous girl was one of the younger women in the camp- so even in the desert without running water and mirrors you can do eye make-up!

That evening we were entertained by some local musicians, one of whom had been to Australia  to play his music. You can also see the inside of the tent decorated with embroidery made by the women, who sadly couldn't join us because of local custom that the women cannot be present in the presence of non-family members.

The embroideries were made by the sisters in this particular family- I love their naive expression of everyday and imaginary things.The embroideries were quite large- almost a metre wide and about 50 cm high.The depiction of the trees is quite charming as if the embroiderer got carried away with the idea of the shape of trees.!

Modes of Transport

Damascus and Aleppo are modern roaring cities with all variety of cars and trucks- pretty well like all modern cities except for the inner old cities where few vehicles find their way. Out in the countryside transport is an entirely different matter and you find a wide variety of modes of transport.I know we live in the modern world and we have to move with it, yet the transports in this collage also speak of other ways of moving, of a life lived more slowly.

Syrian Food and Spice

What comes to mind when you think of Middle Eastern food? Hommus, baba ghanouj, mahammara,olives,mutabal, fattoush, kibbeh,borak- it's all delicious. Some of the restaurants were a bit disgusted with us  because after our fill of wonderful savoury pastries and dips and salads there simply wasn't room for another thing- or the main course for that matter.

Then there is the spice souq- wonderful smells  and colours, fresh fruit and vegetables( all seasonal - everything is grown in Syria)

The "mobile" juicing stands, loaded with strawberries at this time of year and with the remaining pomegranates.