Landscapes with Sue Benner

What a great week this has been. It felt like a week at art school, as Sue packed our classes full of information both within the scope of our landscape class, and beyond it. Not only did we discuss the elements of good composition, the importance of value and colour, the techniques possible for abstracting a landscape, and much more. We also were introduced to numbers of other artists - some familiar and some new to us - working as painters and/or as textile artists representing landscapes. We visited work that was more realistic and other work that was more abstract. I could go on, but will leave it there, and would highly recommend her class to anyone wanting to create landscapes in fabrics. Our own work started with making three small studies from the photographs we'd brought with us, working in our own area of interest. I brought photos from our days in Lesotho, and made one small study with basic shapes, one with more curvilinear lines to it, and a third was a detail study. Then we began to work on a larger piece, based on one of our studies. I chose to make a bigger piece that was a combination of a couple of my smaller studies, and you can see it underway here, alongside the photo on which it was primarily based. I've also posted a couple of finished pieces (without the quilting), the first by Edie and the second by Leslie. The work going on around the room was most impressive, and I will post more photos in a few days. Lastly there is a photo
of Sue, discussing the finer points of quilting ourpieces with us. I only hope I can remember half of what I've learned from her.