CHAPTER 12: STUDY THREE ARTISTS

1. JAE MARIES
Jae Maries is an oil painter and textile artist whose inspiration generally comes from the world around her. She often starts with a small sketch from a visual diary as an inspiration, which is then developed into life-size wall-hung textile pieces. Her daily life  is recorded in sketchbooks through symbolic and abstracted marks and forms. The works may represent figures in an environment, landscapes or exploration of her personal reactions to the world around her.

Jae uses mixed media and several techniques in her work, tending to use a very restricted palette, selecting  colours that will convey the feelings and ideas that she wants to express. Her base fabric is usually unbleached calico prepared to take the oil paint or fabric inks. Some fabric areas are prestitched to provide texture to the work. She prefers to use simple hand stitches for accent, and  free machine straight stitching to  hold pieces of fabric together. She very rarely uses stitches decoratively and rarely selects glittery threads unless they are essential to the underlying ideas of the piece of work.
 
Jae is a freelance artist and teacher, with commissions  and various works displayed in many UK galleries and public buildings. She has been a member of the contemporary textile group, the 62 group, for many years and was Chairperson from 2009 – 2013.   

Her work has reached a wider audience through her  book "Contrasting Elements" which highlighted some of the contrasting elements which feature in her art -  light and dark, energy and tranquillity, cold and warm- through use of contrast in colour, materials and imagery.  One of the embroidery groups I attend in Australia used this book as a study reference a few years ago, with each member taking a turn to select some exercises for the group to experiment with and discuss. We found it to be an excellent resource and I would strongly recommend it to people interested in design for their personal study.

I am drawn to Jae's work due to its ability to convey moods and ideas through use of colour, contrast,  shapes and lines. These are some of the works I particularly like:

Fragile Dunes

Poles apart

Tracts

Water, water, water

References

http://www.jaemaries.com

http://www.62group.org.uk/artist/jae-maries

http://www.londonquilters.org.uk/jae-maries.html

Jae Maries, "Contrasting Elements", 2009

2. BARBARA LEE SMITH

 Barbara is an American textile artist whose work has an emphasis on mixed media. She has been combining paint, print and pigment with machine work of some sort for over thirty years. She fell in love with embroidery in the 1960s, being influenced by artists such as Mariska Karasz and Constance Howard and started pursuing embroidery art full time; participating in local, national and international embroidery and craft guilds. She is well known for her teaching, exhibitions and commissions.  

Her inspiration is drawn from the landscape such as the land, sea and sky experienced in her home environment in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, but also the many places where she has travelled.He recent work has focussed on simplifying the landscape, to reveal an essence of the land without reproducing it in so much detail, by moving the work towards the abstract.

  

Materials: Interestingly Barabara has stated that she only uses one material, an industrial grade polyester non-woven fabric ("Lutradur"). It looks like paper, but is very tough. She uses acrylic paints and  silk-paint pigments, all chosen for light-fastness. Each finished piece is attached with Velcro to a wooden frame that is mounted behind the work, pushing it away from the wall so it appears to hover on the wall, casting its shadow.

Process and Techniques: Barbara generally uses a three-stage process of painting, collage and drawing to make her work. She starts with a painting on the material, then bonds several layers together to form a heavy base on which to collage small elements of the same painted material that are heat-set in place.  A number of her pieces include a “lacy” rendering for wave-top foam. She achieves this by lightly melting the edges of the Lutradur® with a large heat gun. The final stage  is drawing with the sewing machine in lines that resemble a topographical map to literally and visually bind the work together.

A few pieces that I like that are representative of her work include:

 

 

Entrance

 

Solstice Summer

 

White Caps 

 

 

Oyster light

A personal goal of Barbara’s has been to help the field of textiles be recognized as a major art form and to see that those who use fiber as their primary medium are recognized within the larger world of art.

References

Barbara Lee Smith – The rhythms of nature  - TextileArtist.org

https://www.barbaraleesmith.com/about-the-work

Donna DeShazo:  “Sources: A Journey of Life and Art,” Presentation to Contemporary Quilt Art Association May 13, 2013 by Barbara Lee Smith 

 

 3. JOHN OLSEN

I have chosen John Olsen as my third artist to study as his abstract works of the Australian landscape have been of particular interest while I have been   developing my wall hanging. 

Olsen (1928 to present) is recognised nationally and internationally as one of Australia's most significant artists, due to the vitality and diversity of his work. His painting has been influenced by the ideas expressed by Paul Klee: of taking line on a journey through the landscape. This is what attracted me to his work as I could picture it being adapted for embroidery just as well as painting. He also believed that a sense of movement is essential: "Nature is never static, it is in constant flux". In another interview he said: "So I come out here, and I take the line for a holiday. It's really an interrogatory line, you know: I'm asking a question. The line says 'Move me this way,' and I say, 'Yes? Really? Okay. If you want to go this way, okay.' " He waves his hand gently. "Then it says, 'No, little bit that way.' 'All right, I'll move you that way.' 'No.' 'All right, all right. We'll participate.' "

John Olsen started formal art training in the mid-1940s, and ten years later started breaking  free from traditional themes and depicting local themes in a more abstract manner.  He spent time in Europe between 1957 and 1960, mainly in London, Paris , Spain and Portugal.  Here he began moving  to embedding figures in the landscape through the use of lines and shapes.

Olsen has interpreted many aspects of the Australian environment - regional and desert landscapes, plant and animal life, as well as some urban themes.  He redefined the landscape by taking an aerial view, showing meandering rivers and billabongs with no horizon. In a recent interview he said:" The landscape contains a spiritual essence that is part of me. I am in the landscape and the landscape is in me." Some of his works that I like the best  are in this style. A wonderful retrospective exhibition of his work has just opened in Sydney and I was enthralled and inspired by the pieces on display. He has also designed works for ceilings, tapestries and ceramics as well as large wall pieces. Some of the highlights were: 

 

Five Bells 1963

 

 

Sydney Harbour at Spring Tide 2007

Lake Eyre 1975

Sydney Sun 1965 (ceiling panels)

My friends and I walked around imagining many of these works as pieces of embroidery - lots of inspiration!

 References

http://www.artserieshotels.com.au/olsen/john-olsen

Amanda Hooton, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, September 3, 2016

 Deborah Hart, " John Olsen", Craftsman House 1991

David Hurlston & Deborah Edwards "John Olsen The You Beaut Country"  National Gallery of Victoria, 2016  (Exhibition has now opened in Sydney in March 2017)