Preamble
This blogspot exhibits many of my students outputs from a variety of workshops. There are one, two and five day workshops as well as workshops that have a different focus. Nevertheless, it always surprises me how much I learn from my students and how enthusiastic they are to learn and so for your convenience, I have listed the workshop posts below.
Visual Communication and Design (The University of Newcastle Multi-Media Course).
The University of Newcastle (Newcastle and Ourimbah Campuses, NSW, Australia) 2008 to 2010.
In Pursuit of ArtCloth:Improvisational Screen Printing Workshop
The Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association Inc. Sydney, NSW.
One and Two Day Disperse Dye Workshops
Various Textile Groups (Australia) 2008 - 2011.
Five Day Workshop - In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
“Wrapt in Rocky” Textile Fibre Forum Conference (Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia) 29th June to 5th July 2008.
Five Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
Orange Textile Fiber Forum (Orange, NSW, Australia) 19th to 25th April 2009.
5 Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
Geelong Fiber Forum (Geelong, Victoria, Australia) 27th September to 3rd October 2009.
Two Day Workshop - Deconstructed and Polychromatic Screen Printing
Beautiful Silks (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) 20th to 21st March 2010.
Five Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
“Wrapt in Rocky” Biennial Textile Forum/Conference Program (Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia) 25th June to 1st July 2010.
Two Day Workshop – Improvisational Screen Printing
ATASDA (Sydney, NSW, Australia) 28th to 29th August 2010.
Two Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth (Day One)
”Stitching and Beyond” Textile Group (Woodbridge, Tasmania, Australia) 2nd to 3rd October 2010.
Two Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth (Day Two)
”Stitching and Beyond” Textile Group (Woodbridge, Tasmania, Australia) 2nd to 3rd October 2010.
Advance Silk Screen Printing
Redcliffe City Art Gallery Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia) 10th April 2011.
One Day Workshop - In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
The Victorian Feltmakers Inc. (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) 14th May 2011.
One Day Workshop - In Pursuit of Complex Cloth (Felted and Silk Fibers)
Victorian Feltmakers Inc (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) 15th May 2011.
Five Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
SDA (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) 13th to 17th June 2011.
Five Day Disperse Dye Master Class – Barbara Scott
Art Quill Studio (Arcadia Vale, NSW, Australia) 15th to 19th August 2011.
Five Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
Fiber Arts Australia (Sydney, NSW, Australia) 26th September to 1st October 2011.
One Day Workshop – Improvisational Screen Printing
Newcastle Printmakers Workshop Inc. (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) 5th November 2011.
One Day Workshops – Low Relief Screen Printing
Various classes within Australia.
Two Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
ATASDA (Sydney, NSW, Australia) 23rd to 24th June 2012.
MSDS Demonstration at Zijdelings
(Tilburg, The Netherlands) October, 2012.
Five Day Workshop - Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
Fibre Arts@Ballarat (Ballarat, Victoria, Australia) 6th to 12th April 2013.
Two Day Workshop - Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
EFTAG (Tuross Head, NSW, Australia) 13th to 14th April 2013.
Two Day Workshop - Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
Zijdelings Studio (Tilburg, The Netherlands) 9th to 10th October 2014.
PCA - Celebrating 50 Years in 2016
Art Quill Studio 2016 Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Image Dreamings: Basic Silk Screen Printing Workshop - Part I
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Image Dreamings: Basic Silk Screen Printing Workshop - Part II
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of: Improvisational Screen Printing Workshop
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of: Low Relief Screen Printing (LRSP) Workshop 2016
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Art Quill Studio 2017 Workshop Program
2017 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of: Low Relief Screen Printing (LRSP)
2017 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of Complex Cloth: Layered Printing Approaches
2017 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Melding Experiences: New Landscapes Using Disperse Dyes and Transfer Printing.
2019 Art Quill Studio Workshop (NCEATA, Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of ArtCloth:
Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing Workshop
2022 Two Day Workshop (ATASDA, Sydney, NSW, Australia).
Screen Printing Information
Screen-printing is an exciting, colorful medium that allows you to easily create printed images of your artwork in multiples without using a printing press or needing an elaborate workshop or studio space. It is a versatile process that loves color and can produce vivid, sophisticated or subtle imagery by employing simple paper stencils and/or multiple techniques. For the artist, silkscreen printing offers endless possibilities in terms of color, design, pattern, line, shape, texture and layered imagery. For the textile artist, the resulting fabric may be used as an end in itself or a point of departure for further embellishment.
One day Workshop Synopsis:
Image Dreamings: Advanced Silk Screen Printing Workshop
This workshop was organized by Karen Tyler of the Redcliffe City Art Gallery, Queensland in conjunction with the exhibition, "Unleashed: The Rise of Australian Street Art".
The workshop was held at the Shillam Room, Cultural Centre, Redcliffe on the 10th April 2011. Jill Burgess, Di Flint, Helen Forrest, Jeannie Henry and Brenda Wood attended the workshop.
The one day workshop expanded on the techniques gleaned in the previous 'Image Dreamings: Basic Silk Screen Printing' workshop in August 2010. Participants learnt to use the silkscreen in an exciting non-traditional mode. Direct and indirect stencil techniques were explored using paper, wax, tape, talcum powder and other inexpensive and readily available improvisational media to create unique richly printed fabrics using fabric paints. Participants also employed the underlying principles of color theory and color mixing throughout the one-day program. Some prior experience using a silk screen was recommended for this class.
Group Photo at the Redcliffe Cultural Centre, Shillam Room.
Form left to right: Jill Burgess, Brenda Wood, Helen Forrest, Di Flint and Jeannie Henry.
Jeannie Henry (a) - Talcum powder silkscreen print on a multi hue printed background.
Jeannie Henry (b) - Talcum powder silkscreen prints overprinted with masking tape silkscreen prints using ombre print technique on a white background.
Jeannie Henry (c) - Direct imaging employing wax. Analogous colors printed on white background.
Jill Burgess (a) - Masking tape silkscreen prints overprinted on a multi hue printed background; side-by-side registration and alignment.
Jill Burgess (b) - Color, value and texture study creating multi hue silkscreen prints.
Jill Burgess (c) - Direct imaging using wax. Employing transparent and opaque paint colors printed on a dyed background.
Di Flint (a) - Talcum powder silkscreen print on a multi hue printed background.
Di Flint (b) - Negative space print overprinted with a talcum powder silkscreen print using ombre color print technique.
Di Flint (c) - Multi hue printed background overprinted with directly imaged wax prints in blue paint. Surface layer printed using talcum powder silkscreen prints.
Brenda Wood (a) - Direct imaging employing wax. Analogous colors printed on white background.
Brenda Wood (b) - Stenciled prints employing transparent and opaque paint colors on a multi hue printed background.
Brenda Wood (c) - Masking tape silkscreen prints overprinted on a batik printed background.
Helen Forrest (a) - Color, value and texture study creating multi hue silkscreen prints.
Helen Forrest (b) - Masking tape silkscreen prints overprinted on a dyed background. Registration aligned on all sides of each print.
Helen Forrest (c) - Talcum powder silkscreen prints using ombre print technique on a pale yellow background.
Margo Lewers' ArtCloth
Working in a number of art media, Margo Lewers explored ArtCloth late in her life. She first exhibited her ArtCloth works in 1975, when she was 67, just three years before her death.
Margo Lewers was born Henritta Margaret Ernestine Plate at Mosman, Sydney, on 23rd of April 1908. She was educated at Neutral Bay Public School, trained as a secretary and attended Dattilo Rubbo’s Art School, where she met Gerry Lewers (a sculptor) whom she married in 1933. She visited Europe with her husband. She studied textile design with John Farleigh in London and then returned to Australia and continued to work with hand printed fabrics. She believed that personalized dyed textiles could be an important field for women who had artistic ability and wanted to demonstrate it.
Margo Lewers.
In 1945-50 she attended painting classes with Desiderius Orban (a Hungarian painter) and began exploring abstract expressions. She died on the 20th of February 1978 at Emu Plains[1].
Margo Lewers - Elephant Form (1935).
Lino-block exhibited at the Argosy Gallery in King Street, Sydney (Australia) in 1935.
Note: Some of her designs featured elephants, armadilloes, turtles, totem poles, pigs, and cacti.
She moved to Emu Plains in 1950 and devoted herself full-time to painting. Margo Lewers, with her brother Carl, ran the Sydney chapter of the Contemporary Art Society during the 1940s and early 1950s[2].
Margo and Gerry Lewers house and property at Emu Plains, NSW, Australia (1950).
It was at the suggestion of John Reed that Peter Bellew came from Melbourne to Sydney to meet with a group of artists in order to assist in forming the Sydney chapter of the Contemporary Art Society[3]. The Reeds were wealthy art patrons who financed and published the Angry Penguins. Moreover, John Reed took a leading role in intellectual and political debates of the Melbourne art world[4]. Their property, known as “Heide” (Melbourne, Australia), became a center for well-known artists and writers who lived and worked there[5].
In contrast, to the Reeds both Margo and Gerald Lewers were practising artists. Whilst they also attracted artists in their midst, there was no intellectual publishing aspect to it, and so it was never considered, even at the height of their influence, an intellectual art hub of Sydney (Australia)[5]. It should also be noted that the Reeds thought that Nolans, Boyds, Hesters, Lewers’ and Tuckers were essential pieces in any contemporary art collection[6].
The property at Emu Plains is now the Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest. It is devoted to the creation and exhibition of art.
Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewers Bequest is an idyllic place for dynamic cultural activity. Established in 1981, the Gallery offers an unique opportunity to explore the home and gardens of Gerald and Margo Lewers and to enjoy an ever-changing program of exhibitions, workshop programs and special events.
What Is Abstract Expressionism?
“It is non-figurative art in which the canvas is an arena on which to act – rather than as a space in which to reproduce, redesign, analyze or express an object, actual or imagined. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. The painter no longer approached his easel with an image in mind; he went up to it with material in his hand to do something to that other piece of material in front of him. The image would be the result of this encounter” (Harold Rosenberg – American art critic[7].
In the 1950s, Margo Lewers together with Erica McGilchrist and Dawn Sime were among the first to establish abstract expressionisms in Australia[10].
Non-figurative art became pervasive in all corners of the Australian continent[10]. It was taught in secondary schools and was readily purchased by established art galleries and museums[10]. In a very real sense, this art became more materialistic, less concerned with image and idea, and more concerned with the creation, deliberately, or adventitiously, of novel surfaces, edges and textures. This obsession with surfaces was accompanied by an equal and opposite obsession with the nature of space. Both obsessions satisfied a growing intolerance of figurative art[8]. Within a decade, radical abstract expressionisms, slide out of fashion and sales for Margo Lewers’ art were not so forthcoming[9].
Margo Lewers in her studio.
Margo Lewers' ArtCloth Work
At a late stage of her career, when she was 67, Margo Lewers returned to fabric as a medium for her abstract ideas. She produced a series of vibrant painted ArtCloth works, based on early geometrical watercolors where she had experimented with overlaying transparent colour in loosely geometric shapes[10].
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth wallhangings (exhibition at Macquarie Galleries in 1975).
Margo Lewers summarized her approach to her art as follows[11]: “I am intensely interested in color. It excites me and I want to show the effect of one color upon another and the influence of light upon color…You must experiment and experiment. Each person feels differently and reacts in a different way to color. Each must find out for himself…To abstract means to isolate the feelings which one has experienced or the impressions one has gathered and to re-express them in form and colour”.
Margo Lewers later in life.
Her views on color and abstraction suited the times in which her art grew. The 1960s were the beginning of the “new” age for the “working” woman. Within Margo’s lifetime, the nature of womanhood had significantly changed - the contraceptive pill, technology replacing repetitive domestic chores, the attempts to reform social and political structures from a feminist perspective was just starting to emerge. The 1960s was in a sense, Margo’s time. The age of “being” rather “having” had arrived for those ahead of the pack, such as Margo[12]. For example, Margo Lewers typically created her Christmas in a single color[12]. In one year, she created a Christmas in green for her family and her friends. The flowers were green, the Christmas tree was green, the Christmas decorations were green and Christmas presents were shed from their green wrappings. In other words, her environment was her art, her art was her environment[13].
Margo Lewers' Christmas cards (miniature paintings).
Although she was principally known for her abstract paintings, nevertheless a number of other influences permeated her artististic life. For example her artworks display influences by: (i) the 1930s Bauhaus inspired artifacts; (ii) the organic pastels and drawings of the 1940s; (iii) the abstract and geometric paintings of the 1950s; (iv) the abstract expressionist work of the late 1950s and; (v) the experiments in textured matter painting of the 1960s. Her ArtCloth works of the 1970s provided a resolution of these styles.
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work - Orange and Red (1975).
These influences surfaced in works of subtle design and striking color[14]. The ArtCloth wallhangings (which ranged in size from 277.5 cm x 109 cm to 127 cm x 101.5 cm) were free hanging and were dyes painted onto materials such as poplin, satin, terylene, raw silk and cotton [15]. They were designed to hang from the ceiling[15].
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – Orange Came Through (1975).
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – 05 (1976).
These works were designed with modern domestic architecture in mind but were considered by the critics to be more suitable for larger corporate spaces[10].
She found dyes difficult to work with, because over-painting posed difficulties when using dyes[15]. Hence she did smaller paintings to work out the exact color effects. These smaller paintings then provided the basis on which she could work with the larger ArtCloth works[15].
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – 19th December (1975).
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – Nocturnal (1976).
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – Torquoise and Red (1976).
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – Under the Sea with Red Stripe (1976).
In some of these ArtCloth wallhangings, themes from later series were also reworked, as in Twelve Circles, where pink, cerulean and yellow circles are superimposed onto a dramatic geometric background in reds, dark green, ochre and yellow[10].
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – Attached (1976).
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – In Between (1976).
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – Grey with Yellow (1976).
Margo Lewers’ ArtCloth work – Twelve Circles (1976).
Asked about her work just a year before her death Margo Lewers responded that she always felt ill at ease when questioned about her work. Nevertheless, she spoke of her constant interest in light and color[16]
References:
[1] Hickey, D. “Gerald and Margo Lewers: Their Lives and their Work”, Grasstree Press, Sydney, 1982, 125.
[2] ibid. 37.
[3] ibid.35.
[4] Allen, C. Art in Australia: from Colonization to Postmodernism”, Thames and Hudson, Singapore, 1997, 120.
[5] Hawley, J. “Queen Margo”, Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend Magazine, July 27th, 2002.
[6] Dutton, G. “Out in the Open”, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1994, 112.
[7] McCoubrey, J.W. “Modern American Painting”, Time-Life Books Inc., New York, 1970, 142.
[8] Smith, B. with Smith, T. and Heathcote, C. “Australian Painting 1788-2000”, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, Melbourne, 2001, ps 317 – 318.
[9] Allen, C. “Art in Australia: from Colonization to Postmodernism”, Thames and Hudson, Singapore, 1997.
[10] Bell, P. “Margo Lewers Retrospective”, National Trust of Australia, Sydney, 2000, 18.
[11] Hickey, D. “Gerald and Margo Lewers: Their Lives and their Work”, Grasstree Press, Sydney, 1982, 89.
[12] Fromm, E. “To have or to be?”, Jonathan Cape, London, 1978.
[13] Hickey, D. “Gerald and Margo Lewers: Their Lives and their Work”, Grasstree Press, Sydney, 1982, 82.
[14] Bell, P. “Margo Lewers Retrospective”, National Trust of Australia, Sydney, 2000, 9.
[15] Hickey, D. “Gerald and Margo Lewers: Their Lives and their Work”, Grasstree Press, Sydney, 1982, ps 113 – 116.
[16] ibid. 116.
Introduction
Last year's award of the Wynne Prize for Australian Landscape was very confusing (to say the least). It was not an Australian landscape and moreover, Sam Leach (who won the prize) later admitted it was an "appropriated" piece. The winner of this years Wynne Prize will be announced within the next few days.
Sam Leach's 2010 award demands that artists should debate where the boundary lies between an "appropriated" image and a "mimicked" one. The former is a time honoured artist tradition, whereas the latter in it is "worst" art context is a fraud and in its "best" art context is a learning experience.
I hope you enjoy this opinion piece on art.
The Boundary Between Appropriation And Mimicry
In the digital era, the recipe for appropriation is simple: get a multi-mega pixilated photograph that you admire; use “photoshop”; edit with a range of filters and distortion techniques to re-cast the image; translate the new image onto the art medium of choice. This may be a process of appropriation but what happens when process just becomes mimicry?
Artists have been mimicking the art of other artists, ever since images were smoked on the walls of caves (in terms of a learning experience). However, as the education psychologist Piaget has pointed out, mimicking (and not appropriation) is the footprint of an under developed skill (i.e. the reflexive stage of Piaget’s four stages of psychological development).
Appropriation of art is not just replicating someone else’s work, but rather it becomes an important tour de force when it re-presents the original interpretation in a different art context or engagement. (See Codes - Lost Voices, on this blog site, where appropriation created a re-interpretation of the art context of the images presented, but in doing so, attribution was correctly placed squarely at the front and center of the ArtCloth installation).
None of us will forget Marcel Duchamp’s Mona Lisa (L.H.O.O.Q.)
DuChamp's Mona Lisa (L.H.O.O.Q.)
He took an image that he considered was far too revered by the cognoscenti and then re-cast it from its extraordinary adoration context into a more ordinary context. For Australians like myself - who are born to be irreverent - DuChamp freed us to paint moustaches on Kings, Queens, Heads of State and politicians; that is, anyone we wanted to deride in order to reduce their self-esteem to a more mundane level.
In academia - appropriation when not correctly attributed - becomes plagiarism. Clearly, DuChamp’s Mona Lisa is correctly attributed since the image he appropriated was so well known that every art viewer was well aware of the attribution, without it needing to be documented. Note: he purposely and definitively refashioned the act of engagement when compared to the original painting.
What if an artist won a major Australian art prize by mimicking a fairly obscure 17th century Dutch painter and moreover, omitted to give attribution to the image he had mimicked? What if the same artist won this prize for an Australian landscape when in fact it is largely a procured image of an Italian landscape (without the people)? What if this artist called his painting, “Proposal for a landscape cosmos”, the title of which fails to attribute that it was largely procured from Adam Pynacker’s 1668 painting, “Boatmen moored on a lakeshore”?
This is what occurred with the 2010 Australian Wynne prize. The trustees of the prize condoned Sam Leach’s actions by reinterpreting that even a mimicked artwork from an Italian landscape, could still be construed as an original Australian landscape! I wonder if these same trustees would have reached this decision if Sam Leach had mimicked an aboriginal artwork - such as Natalie Bateman’s painting – “Tribal Wave at Scotts Head”. I doubt it!
Adam Pynacker’s 1668 painting, “Boatmen moored on a lakeshore”. It is an Italian Landscape.
Sam Leach: “Proposal For A Landscape Cosmos”. It won 2010 Wynne Prize for Best Australian Landscape.
Note: Spot the differences between the two - the Australian landscape never looked so Italian. Newcastle Art Gallery (Australia) has now acquired Sam Leach's version of Pynacker's painting.
The trustees that awarded the prize, stuck to its guns when comparisons were made between the two paintings after it was awarded (even though some of the judges were not aware of Adam Pynacker’s 1668 painting at the time the prize was awarded and Sam Leach entry never mentioned Pynacker's painting).
Note: What Leach failed to do was to refashion and definitively alter the act of engagement. His painting is just a poor reflection of the original.
My take of these events is simple – the Wynne prize has been severely compromised and so the kudos in winning future Wynne prizes will be severely diminished. Leach’s mimicry is not appropriation, but rather is the product of an artist whose development in capturing Italian Baroque Art is at best in Piaget’s reflexive stage. We can only hope that Mr. Leach reaches the more mature formal stage of development as quickly as possible so that we can all enjoy his own imagination rather than a procured version of someone else's.
What DuChamp did was appropriation and what Leach did was mimicry. There is nothing subtle or blurred between these two approaches – the differences are glaringly self-evident. The former altered significantly the act of engagement, whereas the latter painted a pale reflection of the original.
We all appropriate at some point in creating artwork. My golden rule is - be confident to attribute your work and so let others enjoy your re-interpretation and new insight of the original artwork(s)/images. If you are mimicking the artwork, it is clear you want to learn from it, rather than to re-interpret it and in doing so, you are also following a time honoured learning tradition.
So what is your verdict? Was it an appropriated artwork or a mimicked one? Where do you think the boundary lies?
For a further discussion on appropriation - see Aboriginal Art Appropriated By Non-Aboriginal Artists.
Preamble
This blogspot exhibits many of my students outputs from a variety of workshops. There are one, two and five day workshops as well as workshops that have a different focus. Nevertheless, it always surprises me how much I learn from my students and how enthusiastic they are to learn and so for your convenience, I have listed the workshop posts below.
Visual Communication and Design (The University of Newcastle Multi-Media Course).
The University of Newcastle (Newcastle and Ourimbah Campuses, NSW, Australia) 2008 to 2010.
In Pursuit of ArtCloth:Improvisational Screen Printing Workshop
The Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association Inc. Sydney, NSW.
One and Two Day Disperse Dye Workshops
Various Textile Groups (Australia) 2008 - 2011.
Five Day Workshop - In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
“Wrapt in Rocky” Textile Fibre Forum Conference (Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia) 29th June to 5th July 2008.
Five Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
Orange Textile Fiber Forum (Orange, NSW, Australia) 19th to 25th April 2009.
5 Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
Geelong Fiber Forum (Geelong, Victoria, Australia) 27th September to 3rd October 2009.
Two Day Workshop - Deconstructed and Polychromatic Screen Printing
Beautiful Silks (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) 20th to 21st March 2010.
Five Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
“Wrapt in Rocky” Biennial Textile Forum/Conference Program (Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia) 25th June to 1st July 2010.
Two Day Workshop – Improvisational Screen Printing
ATASDA (Sydney, NSW, Australia) 28th to 29th August 2010.
Two Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth (Day One)
”Stitching and Beyond” Textile Group (Woodbridge, Tasmania, Australia) 2nd to 3rd October 2010.
Two Day Workshop – In Pursuit of Complex Cloth (Day Two)
”Stitching and Beyond” Textile Group (Woodbridge, Tasmania, Australia) 2nd to 3rd October 2010.
Advance Silk Screen Printing
Redcliffe City Art Gallery Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia) 10th April 2011.
One Day Workshop - In Pursuit of Complex Cloth
The Victorian Feltmakers Inc. (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) 14th May 2011.
One Day Workshop - In Pursuit of Complex Cloth (Felted and Silk Fibers)
Victorian Feltmakers Inc (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) 15th May 2011.
Five Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
SDA (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) 13th to 17th June 2011.
Five Day Disperse Dye Master Class – Barbara Scott
Art Quill Studio (Arcadia Vale, NSW, Australia) 15th to 19th August 2011.
Five Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
Fiber Arts Australia (Sydney, NSW, Australia) 26th September to 1st October 2011.
One Day Workshop – Improvisational Screen Printing
Newcastle Printmakers Workshop Inc. (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) 5th November 2011.
One Day Workshops – Low Relief Screen Printing
Various classes within Australia.
Two Day Workshop – Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
ATASDA (Sydney, NSW, Australia) 23rd to 24th June 2012.
MSDS Demonstration at Zijdelings
(Tilburg, The Netherlands) October, 2012.
Five Day Workshop - Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
Fibre Arts@Ballarat (Ballarat, Victoria, Australia) 6th to 12th April 2013.
Two Day Workshop - Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
EFTAG (Tuross Head, NSW, Australia) 13th to 14th April 2013.
Two Day Workshop - Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing
Zijdelings Studio (Tilburg, The Netherlands) 9th to 10th October 2014.
PCA - Celebrating 50 Years in 2016
Art Quill Studio 2016 Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Image Dreamings: Basic Silk Screen Printing Workshop - Part I
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Image Dreamings: Basic Silk Screen Printing Workshop - Part II
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of: Improvisational Screen Printing Workshop
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of: Low Relief Screen Printing (LRSP) Workshop 2016
2016 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Art Quill Studio 2017 Workshop Program
2017 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of: Low Relief Screen Printing (LRSP)
2017 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of Complex Cloth: Layered Printing Approaches
2017 Art Quill Studio Workshop Program (Newcastle, Australia).
Melding Experiences: New Landscapes Using Disperse Dyes and Transfer Printing.
2019 Art Quill Studio Workshop (NCEATA, Newcastle, Australia).
In Pursuit of ArtCloth:
Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing Workshop
2022 Two Day Workshop (ATASDA, Sydney, NSW, Australia).
Introduction
One of the multiple layering techniques used to create ArtCloth is the “complex cloth” technique. Complex cloth is created using surface design processes like dyeing, over-dyeing, color removal/discharge, painting, and foiling on natural fibers. Layered imagery is developed using traditional printmaking methods of silk screen printing, stamping, stenciling, lino-block printing, mono-printing, transfer printing, hand painting, and digital imaging to create cloth of rich visual depth and complexity.
Other traditional textile processes like batik, shibori, mud cloth and natural dye processes can also be used in conjunction with “complex cloth” techniques to create vibrant richly layered contemporary works that further enhance the complexity of the multi patterned printed surface.
Below is the output from students who did a five-day workshop at Rockhampton (Australia) under the tutelage of Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
Five-day Workshop Synopsis
In Pursuit of Complex Cloth: Complex Cloth Intensive
This workshop was organized by the "Wrapt in Rocky", Central Queensland Textile Fibre Forum Conference, Rockhampton, Queensland. It was their inaugural Textile Fibre Forum. The workshop was held at the Walter Reid Cultural Centre, Rockhampton, (Australia) from the 29th June - 5th July 2008.
The workshop participants were Suzy Atkins, Joan Bertino, Jan Collins, Chris Evans, Lidia Godjin, Gwen Jones, Denise McKenzie, Susan Mears, Sue Nowson, Rhonda Simonis and Estelle Virgen. They created unique and personal one-of-a-kind ArtCloth fabrics of great depth and complexity.
The five-day workshop was dedicated to exploring and mastering complex relationships on the cloth surface using “complex cloth” dyeing and printing layering techniques. Using a variety of printing tools, processes and color combinations, participants were introduced to the underlying principles of color (monochromatic and color), contrast, value, scale and texture employed in the creation of complex cloth using dyes, discharge media, fabric paints and foils to create the illusion of depth.
Exercises included immersion dyeing, overdyeing, low water immersion dyeing, resist, discharge (color removal), stamping, stenciling and foiling as well as the creation of tools. The participants also explored and were encouraged to think about the relationship and impact of the color and design processes via discussion and examples.
Participants were encouraged - prior to the workshop - to prepare themed ideas and map out images as well as to prepare some tools prior to the class.
(a) Group Photo at the Walter Reid Cultural Centre. Sitting from left to right: Gwen Jones, Estelle Virgen, Jan Collins. Standing from left to right: Lidia Godjin, Marie-Therese Wisniowski, Suzy Atkins, Susan Mears, Joan Bertino, Neil Craig (our bus driver), Rhonda Simonis, Denise McKenzie, Sue Nowson, and Chris Evans.
A Word About The Images
By the end of the week-long workshop each participant created a work measuring ca. one x one meter/yard. The following works were dyed and over-dyed using various binding methods, discharged, foiled and printed using the multiple complex cloth layering techniques. Color and design principles were also studied during the week-long program and effectively incorporated to create this final series of stunning works.
(b) Suzy Atkins’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using formal print and design mode.
(c) Rhonda Simonis’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using formal and random positioning print and design modes.
(d) Chris Evans’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using random positioning print and design mode.
(e) Gwen Jones’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using formal print and design mode.
(f) Lidia Godjin’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using formal and random positioning print and design modes.
(g) Sue Mears’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using formal print and design mode.
(h) Joan Bertino’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using random positioning print and design mode.
(i) Jan Collins’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using random positioning print and design mode.
(j) Sue Nowson’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using formal and random positioning print and design modes.
(k)Estelle Virgen’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using formal print and design mode.
(l) Denise Mckenzie’s completed ArtCloth piece employing complex cloth techniques using random positioning print and design mode.
(m) Rhonda Simonis admiring some of her smaller complex cloth pieces and a general view of the workshop space showing other participants and their works hanging in the background.
(n) This photo and the two below show images of the smaller complex cloth pieces/exercises at various stages of the processes.
Group Photo at the Redcliffe Cultural Centre, Shillam Room.
Jeannie Henry (a) - Talcum powder silkscreen print on a multi hue printed background.
Jeannie Henry (b) - Talcum powder silkscreen prints overprinted with masking tape silkscreen prints using ombre print technique on a white background.
Jeannie Henry (c) - Direct imaging employing wax. Analogous colors printed on white background.
Jill Burgess (a) - Masking tape silkscreen prints overprinted on a multi hue printed background; side-by-side registration and alignment.
Jill Burgess (b) - Color, value and texture study creating multi hue silkscreen prints.
Jill Burgess (c) - Direct imaging using wax. Employing transparent and opaque paint colors printed on a dyed background.
Di Flint (a) - Talcum powder silkscreen print on a multi hue printed background.
Di Flint (b) - Negative space print overprinted with a talcum powder silkscreen print using ombre color print technique.
Di Flint (c) - Multi hue printed background overprinted with directly imaged wax prints in blue paint. Surface layer printed using talcum powder silkscreen prints.
Brenda Wood (a) - Direct imaging employing wax. Analogous colors printed on white background.
Brenda Wood (b) - Stenciled prints employing transparent and opaque paint colors on a multi hue printed background.
Brenda Wood (c) - Masking tape silkscreen prints overprinted on a batik printed background.
Helen Forrest (a) - Color, value and texture study creating multi hue silkscreen prints.
Helen Forrest (b) - Masking tape silkscreen prints overprinted on a dyed background. Registration aligned on all sides of each print.
Helen Forrest (c) - Talcum powder silkscreen prints using ombre print technique on a pale yellow background.
