Festival of Quilts 2018 : Nancy Crow and Maria Harryman

The exhibition  of   75 monoprints   by Nancy Crow was by far the biggest  gallery at Festival of Quilts.  Knowing  how addictive  monoprinting is, the large  board  outside the gallery explaining her methods and process  was a fascinating insight  into her  work.   She has been so influential in  quiltmaking ,  I think she was very brave  to  show  her personal explorations in this medium, so different to her pieced works.  However  while I  am full of admiration  for the  scale of her vision, I didn't love it , the repetitions  and subtle changes  obviously mean a lot to her  but didn't excite me.  The most interesting parts for me was zooming  in on the details of some of the marks, particularly on the black and white pieces .

In contrast , my    favourite   work   at  FoQ  by far ,  were   2 pieces  by   Maria  Harryman,  ' Ubiquitous  1' in the Art Quilt section   (details above)   and 'Ubiquitous 3' in the  CQ West gallery ( below)  

In both pieces  I was drawn to their abstract compositions  of  painterly  layers of colour, with the subtle variations  in  hand stitch and  marks providing emphasis  in  key areas. It's so easy to go too far, I  really admire her constraint.  Then I discovered her website which I've spent  quite a while reading for her insights into  her work.  I too am inspired by  mussels and limpets  but  she's achieved  what I've so far failed to do in my own interpretations ,  producing masterly abstract compositions, successfully scaling up marks, textures  and colours, making the leap from observational drawings to large scale textile  works.    She's inspired me to go back to drawing my 'small treasures' and revisit my sketchbooks  and earlier explorations ( below) .