Painting and Sandals!

The title of this blog is rather strange but I did two workshops recently - one in which I made leather sandals and one in which I painted still life with pattern.  This was at the new Contextart Forum held in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in the autumn school holidays.  For many years I have attended the Textile Fibre Forum which has been residential and held in Mittagong and then Orange in NSW.  Janet de Boer who is the main motivator and organiser has now enlarged the forum (including a name change) to include some straight art courses since textile and fibre artists tend to be interested in all forms of art.  For more information see Tafta.  Schools are used as venues but it is no longer residential.  Since the Blue Mountains area is a popular holiday destination there were many cottages to rent as well as hotels etc. and it was lovely walking in the mist in the mornings and enjoying the lookouts over the steep valleys.  It brought back many childhood memories for me as our holidays were always in this area as we lived in Sydney.  Showing my age, I remember the puffing billy steam trains when we seemed to go so far away..... 

I had always wanted to do one of Yvonne Twining's shoe workshops and finally there was the opportunity for a 2 day one making sandals.  She  also ran a 4 day workshop making non lasted full shoes. We could choose our own designs and be as creative as desired.  It was quite challenging learning how to measure one's feet, cut, glue, sew and ensure one didn't get two left feet!  I of course chose purple leathers as it is my favourite colour and added a little button decoration.  I now have to wait until summer to wear these thongs.

 

 I then did a workshop with Graham Marchant -  Still life with Pattern.  We each brought patterned items from home and set up our still life display.  We then spent time looking carefully at it and making a detailed drawing before painting it.  Some of these items I have had for many years but have never looked so carefully at them!.  The Paraguayan lace in the front and the Polish wooden plate took a lot of concentration.  I used acrylic paints, but some used oils and watercolours.  Here are the results.