Voices Plus - Quilt Art Exhibition

I almost missed this exhibition by the Quilt Art group, but just managed to squeeze in a visit on it's very last day at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale. And what a beautiful exhibition it was with some very diverse work by an international group of quilt artists. In a statement they say that " The aim of the group is to extend the boundaries of quilting as an artistic medium and achieve wider recognition of the quilt as a contemporary art form". Here are some of my favourites.

Jette Clover

Yael David Cohen

Val Jackson

Mirjam Pet-Jacobs

And my absolute favourite was Elizabeth Brimelow.

Voices is a touring exhibition and has now moved to The Brindley in Runcorn.

Top Ten Part 1

Last Year I watched a programme presented by the art critic Alistair Sooke, it was about the top ten worlds most expensive paintings. It got me thinking about my own top ten art works, not expensive art just things that I like and if I could own just one what would be my ultimate number one. So in no particular order ( I will reveal that in the last part ) the first two paintings that have made my top ten are:

The Dessert: Harmony in Red ( The Red Room ) by Henri Matisse was painted in 1908. Apparently the canvas started out as Harmony in Green and then was transformed into Harmony in Blue and finally ending up as Harmony in Red. I love the flat picture plane of this painting and the way the blue pattern from the tablecloth continues to climb up the red wall. Currently the painting resides in The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

Betty by Gerhard Richter completed in 1988 a beautiful painting of a moment captured in time, the original photograph was taken in 1978 and is the artists daughter Betty when she was ten years old. When I saw this painting I was immediately struck by it's mystery, what is Betty looking at, I like the contrast in colours and the softness of the hair and that beautiful red and white patterned jacket.

If I remember correctly at the time of the programme numbers one and two of the worlds most expensive paintings were both Picassos.
I would be really interested to know what would be in your top ten and if you could own just one piece of art what would it be.

Autumn Walk to Clover Field II

Maggie Matthews

I have long been a fan of the welsh artist Maggie Matthews. Now based in Cornwall she is one of the areas leading abstract painters. Inspired by the coastline, indigenous and exotic plant life, and collections of pebbles and shells, Maggie sketches while out on cliff walks, recording the shapes and patterns below her. Returning to the studio she works on abstracting her experience reducing her sketches down to flat areas of space and colour. You can see more of Maggie's work at Cornwall Contemporary Penzance.

Beach Art

Came across the artist Andy Coutanche today whilst browsing Coast magazine, Andy is from Jersey and he is a sand artist and will soon be competing in the My Memory beach art championships.

I don't think he has a website but I did find this video.

Also competing is the San Francisco artist Andres Amador who makes some amazing patterns in the sand.

Summer

John Hoyland

The art world has lost another wonderful abstract painter, the artist John Hoyland who died a few days ago.
You can read about him here and see a video of him here preparing some work for the Royal Academy summer show.

Starting again