Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below posts on this blogspot that featured the artistic output of Helen Lancaster (my dear friend who passed away on the 11th February 2020).
Cane Toad Narrative (Exhibition - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions)
Transformation. An Exhibition of Contemporary Textiles Curator: Helen Lancaster
Floating: Art Exhibition @ Purple Noon Art And Sculpture Gallery
Celebration
The Barrier Reef Corporate Wall [1]: Art Cloth Panels
Helen Lancaster's - The Great Barrier Reef
Introduction [1]
Helen Lancaster's fascination with the Great Barrier Reef (Queensland, Australia) spanned some four decades. She was like Alice but exploring her wonderland, namely - the Great Barrier Reef.
Helen Lancaster.
Helen Lancaster's artistic playground, namely, the Great Barrier Reef.
Helen Lancaster's - The Great Barrier Reef [1]
The early period of Helen Lancaster's work generally had more subdued coloring, although her reaction to some of the reef's underwater creatures inspired her love of bright colors.
Title: 'Organic Reef in Blue', 1982.
Technique and Materials: Crochet. Wool and mohair.
Size: 122 x 92 cm.
Bright colors dominated her recent works. As she gained more confidence, she realized she needed to reflect her Australian heritage rather than follow the global trends of the time which focused on neutral colors.
She was fortunate in that her late husband, Eardley, was a professional photographer who taught that skill at a TAFE college. The access to photographic images in rich color had a major impact on Helen Lancaster's choice of color.
In her work,'Coral Forest', manipulated forms were created from a contrast of matt and gloss, smooth and hairy, opaque, transparent or translucent materials. Making the statement that "Strong tonal and textural work labels me as an organic creature."
Title: 'Coral Forest', 2000 (Soft Sculpture).
Technique and Materials: Machine embroidery and fabric manipulation.
Size: Columns range in height, 107 x 310 cm.
Title: 'Coral Forest' (Detail).
Title: 'Coral Forest' (Detail).
Title: 'Coral Forest' (Detail).
The Great Barrier Reef mostly inspired Helen to create soft sculpture artworks. However, it also inspired Helen's prize-winning 'Barrier Reef' wearable art.
Helen's aim in her prize-winning 'Barrier Reef' costume was to evoke the fragility of the precious environment, with coral polyps forming the garland top and coral formations the skirt. The choice of the long skirt was a reference to the early Christian missionaries' practice of requiring Pacific Islanders to wear long skirts and to refrain from swimming, thereby avoiding any reference to their bodies. The head-dress represents the poisonous scorpion fish, or zebra fish.
Title: 'Barrier Reef Surprise', 1990.
Technique and Materials: Machine embroidery with shirring.
Size: 100 x 91 x 11 cm.
Title: 'Barrier Reef Surprise', 1990 (Detail).
Title: 'Anchors Away' (from the exhibition - 'Where have all the fish gone?') 1995 (Detail).
Title: 'Clustered Coral with Nudobranch', 1990.
Technique and Materials: Twin needling.
Size: 23 x 28 cm.
Title: 'Where have all the fish gone?' 1995 (Detail).
Technique and Materials: Twin needling.
Size: 23 x 28 cm.
Title: 'Coral Flow' 2001.
Technique and Materials: Machine embroidery, twin needling on velvet.
Size: 61 x 51 x 10 cm.
Title: 'Coral Flow', 2001 (Detail).
Title: 'Crown of Thorns', Anemones & Clown Fish, 1995 (Detail).
Technique and Materials: Hand drawing on satin.
Size: 242 x 112 cm.
Reference:
[1] H. Lancaster, Portfolio Collection, Telos Art Publishing, Winchester, England (2002).
For your convenience I have listed below posts on this blogspot that featured the artistic output of Helen Lancaster (my dear friend who passed away on the 11th February 2020).
Cane Toad Narrative (Exhibition - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions)
Transformation. An Exhibition of Contemporary Textiles Curator: Helen Lancaster
Floating: Art Exhibition @ Purple Noon Art And Sculpture Gallery
Celebration
The Barrier Reef Corporate Wall [1]: Art Cloth Panels
Helen Lancaster's - The Great Barrier Reef
Introduction [1]
Helen Lancaster's fascination with the Great Barrier Reef (Queensland, Australia) spanned some four decades. She was like Alice but exploring her wonderland, namely - the Great Barrier Reef.
Helen Lancaster's artistic playground, namely, the Great Barrier Reef.
Helen Lancaster's - The Great Barrier Reef [1]
The early period of Helen Lancaster's work generally had more subdued coloring, although her reaction to some of the reef's underwater creatures inspired her love of bright colors.
Technique and Materials: Crochet. Wool and mohair.
Size: 122 x 92 cm.
Bright colors dominated her recent works. As she gained more confidence, she realized she needed to reflect her Australian heritage rather than follow the global trends of the time which focused on neutral colors.
She was fortunate in that her late husband, Eardley, was a professional photographer who taught that skill at a TAFE college. The access to photographic images in rich color had a major impact on Helen Lancaster's choice of color.
In her work,'Coral Forest', manipulated forms were created from a contrast of matt and gloss, smooth and hairy, opaque, transparent or translucent materials. Making the statement that "Strong tonal and textural work labels me as an organic creature."
Technique and Materials: Machine embroidery and fabric manipulation.
Size: Columns range in height, 107 x 310 cm.
The Great Barrier Reef mostly inspired Helen to create soft sculpture artworks. However, it also inspired Helen's prize-winning 'Barrier Reef' wearable art.
Technique and Materials: Machine embroidery with shirring.
Size: 100 x 91 x 11 cm.
Technique and Materials: Twin needling.
Size: 23 x 28 cm.
Technique and Materials: Twin needling.
Size: 23 x 28 cm.
Technique and Materials: Machine embroidery, twin needling on velvet.
Size: 61 x 51 x 10 cm.
Technique and Materials: Hand drawing on satin.
Size: 242 x 112 cm.
Reference:
[1] H. Lancaster, Portfolio Collection, Telos Art Publishing, Winchester, England (2002).
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