Kata Tjuta Cameos by Linden Lancaster 2019

Last year I visited Alice Springs to teach a workshop and have a short holiday with my husband. Having never been to the NT before, little did I know what I was in store for. I never imagined this landscape could be so beautiful and unique. I imagined Alice Springs sitting in the middle of flat and brown spinifex, not surrounded by the beautiful and unique MacDonnell ranges. On my way home, with a book of sketches and a swag of photos, I mapped out a series of quilt ideas that would become a new body of work on central Australia. This would be divided into three parts, Landscape, Flora and Fauna, and Cultural.

Kata Tjuta: tone, shape, scale

 Kata Tjuta: colour, texture, marks

In my few hours at Kata Tjuta, I did not race around taking a lot of photos like the other visitors but found a spot by myself and lay on my back. Looking up at the vast pocked marked walls of red contrasting with the turquoise sky, it was a great (and less exhausting) way of soaking in the atmosphere. The following small sketches here were done very quickly from the bus window.

A while back I did an online workshop called ‘Translating Landscape’ by Anita Lehmann. One of the briefs I really enjoyed was dividing up a page with one inch boxes and putting a tiny abstract landscape in each with watercolour, pastel and ink. This could be a way try and capture the essence of a place, rather than trying to capture the whole thing in one go (which could look very ‘blobby’).

Tiny Landscapes by Linden Lancaster 2018

Keeping with this idea and (trying) to keep everything loose and abstract, I quickly drew up some simple shapes that reminded me of my visit to Kata Tjuta. These were enlarged and assessed for their potential:

During the summer, I dyed and screen print a whole lot of fabric, with colours and marks in mind. I experimented a lot with breakdown printing, a method whereby thickened Procion dyes are allowed to dry on a silk screen, then printed onto cloth. Each subsequent pull with wet media, breaks down the dry dye, giving a unique effect and the texture I was after.

These fabrics were auditioned, cut and pinned on the design board using the above enlarged abstract squares. I tried to make each section complete in itself, as well as relating to each other. These were then pieced, with the violet and orange border fabric.

My original idea was to quilt the whole lot with big sweeping organic lines and then infill these with patterns. I had some difficulties getting the stitches and lines fluid enough, so resorted to quilting each square separately being sympathetic to the marks on the fabric.

You can see this quilt and lots of others at the National Wool Museum in Geelong, Victoria, Australia from 6/09/19 to 15/12/19

For more details see the Ozquilt network.

This unique Australian bird will be gracing the walls of the Arizona-Sonara Desert museum in October as part of the SAQA global exhibition “Connecting Our Natural Worlds”.

Our brief was to share a story of something relevant to the theme which speaks to our personal experience of the natural world in our own backyard. The artists statement, had to identify danger to the flora or fauna represented and recommend a call to action.

Old-timers in our district recall that they would often hear the eerie ‘weer-loo’ call of the Bush Stone-Curlew, especially on moonlit nights. Sadly, this event has become quite rare, as this species is now seriously endangered in our area.

The Bush Stone-Curlew is a shy ground-dwelling bird, found across Australia in open woodland habitats. A curious looking thing, its distinctive features are large eyes and long, gangly legs. It requires areas with lots of fallen branches and leaf litter – for foraging, shelter and camouflage.

The Bush Stone-Curlew’s only defence strategy against predators is camouflage. Whereas other birds fly away, it lies flat on the ground and stays still, hoping to blend in with its surroundings. Their chicks make an easy meal for introduced species such as foxes, dogs and cats.

In the Murray River Catchment area where I live, to aid this species’ survival, farmers, in particular, have been encouraged to protect remnant woodland and leave fallen timber on the ground. There is also a consistent programme of regeneration, through planting native species, as well as trying to control feral animals.

Bush-stone curlew Linden Lancaster, 2019

Techniques:

Whole cloth mono-printed background with fabric paint, fabric collage, thread sketched and quilted on a domestic machine.

Materials:

Cotton substrate, fabric paint, variety of fabrics including commercial and surface-designed cottons. Cotton and polyester threads.

Bush-stone Curlew detail. Linden Lancaster 2019

A lovely group of ladies from Alice Springs spent two days of creating in my ‘fabric collage’ class. Some worked on their own inspirations, whilst others on the ‘Meet Jacquie’ design.

They tell me they are a ‘laid back’ bunch….but don’t you believe them- they worked right through meals!

A big thank you to Sue Thiel for putting us up (and putting up) with my husband and I. We were able to stay on and do some sight seeing, which was wonderful.

Alice Springs Quilters

I strongly recommend anyone who has not been to the Northern Territory of Australia, to put it on your bucket list. It is a very unique place and they don’t call it the ‘Red Centre’ for nothing. Here are a few of the thousands of photos we have taken. I have come home with a head brimming full of ideas, so watch this space…..

This is a new workshop using a simple collage technique and free-motion quilting. Jacquie is my sister’s cockatiel and was a wonderful subject to play with. Two day class, approx A3 size. Use your own colour palette or bring your own bird design.

For more information you can download an information page from ‘Classes’ section, above.

I’ve been having a little break from quilts the past few months. Painting and drawing is a good way to fill the well and I have been participating in a lovely online class with Carla Sonheim called “Y is for Yellow”. The following are mixed media 6 x 6 inch bird portraits from my own photos (apart from one). These will be part of my exhibition in Kyabram in October this year.

I’m delighted to announce that my quilt ‘Calendar’ has been accepted for the SAQA  Global Exhibition tilted “Season after Season”. The exhibition opens at the Texas museum USA in Jan 2019. I was most surprised as I was not entirely happy with the end result, but then I had got a bit sick of it and perhaps my judgement was off!

‘Calendar’ by Linden Lancaster 2018

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

There will be a display of 15 of my quilts at ‘Jeff’s Shed’ in Melbourne, July 26-29, as part of Victorian Showcase. Its a fabulous event if you have not been before, with plenty of quilts and shops galore. Thank you to all those who have let me borrow their quilts back!

Thank you Cohuna Country Quilters’ group, for inviting me to teach at your wonderful annual event. Great food, great people, great teachers and superb organisation. I recommend this event to quilters of all kinds.

Below are participants with their creations from my class ‘Pictorial ideas into Quilts’. Thank you girls for your enthusiasm and willingness to be subjected to all that design theory…….. and Anne is the most awesome angel!

The dining hall decorated with quilts from Pakistan

‘Angel Anne’

Terrific works of art…..I hope they finish them……..

I was excited to be a finalist in the above exhibition and attend the opening last Tuesday night. The event was well attended with high quality works presented.

I was quite ambivalent about whether to enter my piece, as I felt it was quite experimental and, therefore, not quite up to my usual standard. I had to really push myself to finish it; and I’m glad I did as I learnt a lot from the process.

Artists Statement:

‘Fly like a bird and look down on the tidal flats where exposed shells and assorted seaweed are strewn on the sand. Or bob along in your boat looking across the waters, where the light and reflections dance together, to the shoreline and mouth of the tidal river.’

These two perspectives are overlaid.

Process and Materials:

This piece is an experiment in layers and transparency. There are five layers of process, beginning with thickened Procion dye monoprints of two similar landscapes in different colours. These were then torn into strips and woven together and fused to the top of the quilt sandwich. The piece was then stamped with fabric paints using found objects, such as cardboard tubing and a plastic cotton reel. The fourth process was the quilting, and lastly, painted organza added with metallic thread.

Cotton whole cloth, organza, thickened Procion dyes, fabric paints, foils, cotton and metallic threads. Quilted on a domestic machine.

‘BORDER TOWN’ by Linden Lancaster 2018

‘Border Town’ by Linden Lancaster

I grew up in the border town of Echuca where the Murray River divides Victoria and NSW. I spent many hours on the river – a scruffy, suntanned girl – swimming, fishing and riding my bike up and down the goofies with friends. Sometimes we would construct cubbies in the shadow of the bridge when the river was low.

My first kiss was under that bridge, bridging childhood into adolescence. Forty years later, the painted graffiti of first crushes are still being proclaimed from the bridge pylons and framework.

Raw edge applique with hand designed and commercial fabrics and organza. Machine embroidered with polyester threads. Domestic machine quilted with cotton threads.

Detail 1

Detail 1. Border Town by Linden Lancaster 2018

Detail 2

Detail 2 ‘Border Town’ by Linden Lancaster