Tapestry exhibition

Last week I visited the tapestry exhibition at Hawthorn Studio and Gallery.  The work being exhibited is by Joy Smith (my first tapestry teacher) and Gerda van Hamond.  They based their work on monthly visits to sites along the Yarra River but they have produced very different works.  Joy and Gerda spoke at the gallery and it was very interesting to hear about their beginning inspirations and processes.

Joy said she works more from photographs these days and is interested in people in the environment.  Her work clearly reflects this.  It was great to see scenes that I instantly recognised as places we have taken our dog for walks in, especially Yarra Bend Park.

Gerda tends to look at very small aspects of the scene, possibly fungus, bark or some very small element of the site. She also exhibited some of her drawings that she works on before weaving.  She does them with oil sticks and may combine several sketches from the day to make her cartoon.

Based on the river in flood.

Despite concentrating on such small images, her works can be quite large.

This one is based on a piece of bark but is quite large, over a metre square.

It was great to catch up with other students with whom I learnt tapestry over the last couple of years.  We will have to keep meeting at tapestry exhibitions, maybe even put on one ourselves.  I have not done any weaving this year but do have three images I would like to work on soon.  Maybe when this semester is over and I have less assignments due.