Opening Night!

THANK YOU to all those wonderful people who contributed to our opening night - making it a wonderful success. We were so impressed with the number of people who braved the rain, and came along to share the evening with us.

A special thanks must go to Sue Jurd and Alba Conti for all their help with hanging the exhibition (and catering!), to the band - who provided us with wonderful music all night (at very short notice), to Mark Ravenscroft, for donating the wine - and finally to all the artists who put their faith in us that our first exhibition would come together, and kindly agreed to display their masterpieces. You are all greatly appreciated!

We look forward to seeing many more friendly faces drop in and visit us over the coming weeks. We will be open Saturday-Monday, 10am-4pm.

And if the rain ever stops ... our parking lot should be safe to enter once more! (Thanks Mike for rescuing everyone out of the mud!).

The Countdown is on!

Well, we are officially counting down the hours until opening night! Paintings are hung (but are sure to be rearranged yet again!)

We are so impressed with the standard of work for 'Things of Thread and Wood' and can't wait to share the works with you all.

Opening night is set to be a wonderful night and we are very much looking forward to it ... and not to mention enjoying a wine or two!

Opening night is tomorrow night, 24th September - from 5:30pm. 1257 Amiens Road, Stanthorpe.

Image above: Fay Roselt admiring one of Sue Jurd's pieces, 'Turning'.

Feature Artist - Fay Roselt

Fay's Artist Statement ...

As a relative newcomer to the world of art, I feel a certain urgency to create; however, the reality is that although I'm overflowing with ideas, there isn't enough time for the actual creation of all the work milling around in the ‘ideas bank’.

Participation in a Machine Embroidery workshop by Carol Wilkes in 1999 (in response to an advertisement in the Courier Mail for the McGregor Winter School), kindled a deep interest in textile art. I hadn't realized that I was looking for something in life, but this workshop revealed in me an untapped passion. I was off on a grand journey.

This was followed by a McGregor Summer School workshop in 2000. Two weeks is a long workshop and I struggled to contain myself as my mind was brimming with ideas, excitement and endless possibilities. My tutor was Glenys Mann. She believed in me and with her dedication and encouragement I managed to last the two weeks. Glenys is still my mentor and continues to encourage me in my artistic endeavours.

Most artists seem to work in a chosen medium and develop from there, but I've not settled in a particular area as I'm interested in many facets of fibre art. As I consider myself a 'dabbler' I was well pleased when a well-respected artist/tutor referred to herself as a 'dabbler'.

Working with old woollen blankets, a nostalgic reminder of my childhood, gives me great pleasure. Sometimes stained and always well worn, these treasures have served their useful purpose well and with imagination can be transformed into a work of art.

Collage work with found objects is another area of particular interest. As an avid collector of interesting 'stuff' including feathers, bones, rusty things, desiccated frogs etc, there is much to work with.

My practice is intuitive rather than meticulously planned, ie I take an idea and go with it, the work just evolving rather than reaching a preconceived conclusion. However, participation in a workshop in January 2009 with good friend/mentor well-known embroidery artist Judy Wilford kindled my interest in design and I will explore this approach in future work.

Feature Artist - Cathy Braid from Polly&Me

Today's feature artist is Cathy Braid, from Polly & Me. Examples of her work and the team of women she works with in Chitral, Pakistan, will be on display at the opening of Nest Gallery - including hand bags, wallets and an original piece of embroidery.

Polly & Me is a social enterprise. It is a business based on a model of contributing to the community they work in. Using themes from both international development and the private sector, they create jobs for women in a culturally acceptable manner where there are otherwise limited work opportunities.

Women in Chitral embroider in community spaces they can walk to, or they take the cloth and threads home to sew. The eight collectives across Chitral valley give the 500 or so women artisans space to work together in their neighbourhood, with the flexibility of maintaining their domestic roles.

One of these pieces, 'My Prayer is...' has just been selected as a finalist in the prestigious Blake Prize for religious art.