Creative Perspectives exhibition 

I have recently completed a small mini series of collages about New York. We travelled there a few years ago and I have been planning to make some work about it ever since. My work is in a group show at Quadrant gallery. 

Unfortunately the opening clashes with a wedding I am going to so I won't make it, but I dropped into the gallery today and it looks good, plenty of good work to look at. 

check out my Facebook page Sally Darlison-Artist  or Instagram @saladele for more photos 

Here's the work hanging in the gallery. 

Hope For Women in Unexpected Places

Hope for Women in Unexpected Places is an exhibition  by TEAR Australia, it is a photo exhibition, but I was asked to create a piece for this show - that isn't a photo.

I was very excited to support TEAR as they do fabulous work both here and overseas with those who are the poorest in our world.

I was asked to create something that honoured women and the work they do. I chose to focus on water as this is an essential of life and sometimes one that poses difficulty.
While I was in Nepal I  noticed that the women collected water in large metal containers and then often carried them in a large basket they carried slung from their heads. Washing is also often done in public, communally, at the water taps or down near the river. This also involves carting the garments in the basket.
Washing in Nepal is a colourful palette flying in the breeze and the dhaka fabrics, traditional to the area I visited, are particularly beautiful.

I chose to combine these images and fabric along with a map of Nepal to create my piece for the exhibition.
Washing in Nepal is the result. It depicts the water vessel, the woman carrying the basket of clothes and the washing blowing in the breeze above the stepped rice fields of Nepal.

 detail of dhaka fabric and map of Nepal used in the piece.

Washing in Nepal

detail of the water container image

If you would like to see this piece and the rest of the exhibition you can find it at 

Chapel on Station Gallery 

cnr Station st  & Ellingworth Pde, Box Hill, Victoria

from February 20 - March 4 

Tues - friday 11.30- 3 

Saturday 1-4pm

Sunday 4.30 -7pm

There is an event on Friday 27 February with speaker Hailey Bartholomew of 365 Grateful 

and music from 2 members of The Tealeaves

hope to see you there, tickets are available here 

Exciting news

I'm excited to tell you that the latest Artwear Publication Embellish has just come out and there is an interview in it with me about my artwork.
There are heaps of pictures of my work and quite detailed information about the process I use to make the work.
You can buy it online or have the paper form delivered to your door or find it in shops where all good art magazines can be found!

Summer show

Term 4 is always a really busy time for me as a teacher, thus I have been slack and haven't written an update for ages!!

So... I was asked to fill the Meeniyan Art gallery www.meeniyanartgallery.com.au for the month of January, so I have put together a collection of work from my last show as well as a few new small Italian pieces and a couple from other shows.

The work will be on show from January 2 - 29. The show will be called Fragments of a Journey. 

Here's 4 new little 20 x 20 cm pieces who will join the show.

Cinque Terre

San Gimignano

Tuscan Tower

Venetian Canals

Artist Talk - What fun

Around 25 people came down to the gallery this afternoon to join me for a talk about my work, the processes and techniques I use and the method I used to gather the ideas for this exhibition.

I showed them some of the photos that were particularly influential in the creation of the art work, the kit of art materials I took with me on my trip and the print blocks, dyed fabric, brochures and map bags I collected for each place.

After the initial demonstration we wandered around the gallery to look more closely at the travel books and their relationship to the larger works of art.

A big thank you to Eugene at Quadrant gallery and to those who came, I enjoyed meeting up with old friends and new.

Invites are here - well, the e-invites are here.

You are officially invited to.........

put it in your diary!! 

Woohoo, business cards and postcards arrived!

It's hotting up here in the studio, business cards and postcards arrived, another 2 pieces sent off to the photographer and another on the way.

On holidays from one job, ramping it up on the other job. It's a busy week here in Sal's Studio.

Time is running out, so I am on speedy street, stream of consciousness art pouring out of my fingers. Hope they don't get burnt!!

Count down is on,  only 1 month to the opening.......... Argh........

Here's a peek at the latest and the new cards!

detail of Roma 

business cards and postcards

Onwards with the exhibition collection.

 So I have the date booked for the next major showing of my work.
It will be in May, argh,  the date seemed so far away when I booked it a couple of months ago, but it seems to be looming now.
I have been working steadily, just slowly. Finding it difficult to pare the work back. So much I want to include but want the work to be cohesive as a body.
I have jumped around with various materials and mediums, experimenting.

dyed, collaged and stitched detail of a glimpse of Croatia

                                          The plains in Spain... And yes I even had a go at painting, so quick in comparison to the piece above.

Workshop Fun in Ballarat

Ballarat Embroiderers Guild hold an Autumn Leaves Seminar each year and this year I was invited to teach a class called Fabric Collage and Design.

The 6 students enjoyed dyeing silk, creating several print blocks and different surfaces on their paper and fabric before putting it all together to create a collaged piece.

All in 2 days!

I will give you a peek at the kind of work they did.

First some photos of the luscious silk dyed using Instant Dyes from Beautiful Silks, these silks are THE BEST dyes. I love them and have been using them for some years now. They are literally Instant! You either put the silk into the dye bath and take it out or you brush it on and then it is done! Quick rinse - barely any dye washes out and dry. Very colour fast.

The class started with looking at cooking utensils as I gave a general theme of Preparing a Feast - from the ordinary to the extraordinary. The students used the items to draw from to create print blocks, then did rubbings on various things like the egg lifter, sieve, lace doilies. layer upon layer using paper and fabric they went on to produce these works seen below.  

Lois                                                                                                     

Dianne S

Maria

Suzanne

Dianne 

Jan

Today in my Studio

Studio Day today, and I am working a few things at once -  printed things for the next Wonderful Creative Things Fair- to be held on November 27 at Abbotsford Convent again, also working on my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project. My theme is Tree houses so I have been creating tree prints and images.

Cards for "The Wonderful Creative Things Fair"

Here is the beginnings of a drypoint print of a boat, still a fair bit of work to be done on this yet. Something for some of my small collages. 

The Wonderful Printed Things Fair

I'm busy gearing up for the Fair this saturday at St Heliers St Store + Gallery Abbotsford Convent Abbotsford My lovely friend Jane will be there to sell my printed things as I have another appointment that day. If you wanted some of my work from the Long Socks exhibition I will have them there for a very special price as all work must be under $100. It is a cash only sale so come prepared. Copies of my little matchbox zine (minus the matchbox) will be available for the bargain price of $5 - 10 only!! Cards, Prints, collages, gift tags. ranging from $4 - $100. Cheapest yet

All in a day's work

Today I started the big sew...the machine embroidery, the final stage in the process of creating this large piece.

Playing

I spent a week at Fibre Arts @ Ballarat in a workshop with Cas Holmes, from the UK, in the week before Easter. It was a good week and I thought I'd show you a few of the collages I made during the week.

A New Piece emerges

This is a commissioned piece of a family's journey around Australia, so after consultation, I paint up a design. This is then reviewed by the client, and I redraw sections that are not correct.



I then paint the silk using instant silk dyes. This provides the background colour.


Small pieces of fabric are then cut out for the details, these will then be machine embroidered onto the fabric.