Leni Wiener

In my continuing quest to move forward, I have completed the first stage of a second piece.  The new direction I want to explore is faces with little or no background; and the pieces are smaller–they will be about 10″ square when quilted and squared off–in an attempt to get big impact in a little piece.  Many art quilters strive to work larger, but I am finding my comfort zone is getting smaller and easier to handle.  One of the reasons for this is that I want to focus more on the quilting and I can do more elaborate and intricate stitching on a smaller piece.

Here you can see the face and her arms complete.  I tried several colors for her hair, feeling that her skin tone is far from representational and the hair need not be so literal, but only this color looked right.  This is the stage where little details mean a lot.  I did not like the edge of her face, so made that darker; and needed to find the right fabrics for both her clothing (which will show just a bit on the edge) and the blanket on which she is leaning.

The blue in the corner is unexpected, but I think it brings some life to the otherwise somber palette.  I plan to do a few of these and then do the quilting at the same time.  For me, it is easier to focus on one change at a time, and since these are small, they will have not wait for too long.

Critiques:

On another note, often readers of my blog and/or book “Photo-inspired Art Quilts” email me to ask my opinion about something they are working on or have just completed.  This is what I do in my monthly art quilt workshop–help guide my students along when they have problems or questions.  Even when the work being reviewed belongs to someone else, it helps everyone learn to see the problems and the possible solutions.

For this reason, I am offering my blog readers the opportunity to submit photos of pieces they are working on, or have completed, for a review on this blog.  You must be willing to let me share it here so that others can learn from it.  You can send me a Jpeg at Leni@leniwiener.com and I will post your photo and my comments.

There is an article in yesterday’s NYT about the Frick collection renovation which involved changing the colors of some of the galleries to better reflect the paintings in the room.

Here, the east gallery is shown in a New York Times photo by Fred Conrad.  The east gallery has been changed from dark brown velvet walls to what the Times describes as a deep coral (in the photo it appears to be an orange/red).  Look at the way the contrast of the paintings makes them really stand out.  My dining room is a similar color, and the artwork in that room looks far more significant than it did when the room was a more neutral and conservative linen white.

The other photo in the Times shows this gallery, in a deep charcoal gray.  I have long wanted to paint my living room this same color, but it makes my husband nervous.

This notion of adding color to the permanent collections of museums isn’t new, but it isn’t wide-spread, either.  WAY back in 1973 when I was doing my MA in Florence, Italy under the auspices of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace Museums, they were experimenting with color in their galleries.  (Although a visit to the Uffizi website this morning indicates that with very limited exceptions, the galleries are all now neutral white or off-white.)

This is what La Tribuna in the Uffizi looked like in 1973, and as far as I know it is still the same color.   At first glance some may say that it is too garish, but the red on the walls adds a richness to the otherwise dark paintings and light sculptures housed in the room.  The single blue curtain frames the sculpture in front of it and draws the eye.  If the walls were white, the sculptures would be lost against it, and the dark paintings would look like black holes.

Here is the gallery of Modern Art at the Pitti (also in Florence) taken from their own website.  I love this rich blue, and the way the gold frames come alive.  The arrangement of the paintings is something more common to European Museums than those in the US, but these paintings, mostly works with expanses of water or sky, are beautifully complimented by this color.

The prevailing direction in the US is to use light neutral walls so that the art stands out and the walls disappear.  Although this can be true, this minimalist approach can also look stark and cold.  Obviously, galleries and museums cannot change the colors of their rooms with every change of show, but for permanent collections it can greatly enhance the colors of the artwork in each room.

Adding color in a gallery is similar to adding a border to a traditional or art quilt.  Start with a quilt with several colors and audition one of those colors as a border.  All of a sudden, that is the predominant color in the quilt.  Audition another color border and the overall complexion of the quilt changes.

Just look at these examples from my book “Photo-inspired Art Quilts” (what, you don’t own this book yet?  What are you waiting for!!?? Order it from my website and I will sign it for you, or from Amazon–but at least use the link from my site to get to Amazon).  You can see how the border color brings out that color in the quilt, making the quilt seem more that color than the others.  Changing the color of a room does the same thing.

So if you can’t choose the color on which your work hangs in a show, at least paint a room in your house to compliment your artwork!

Everything comes down to color, color, color, and value, value, value–both in creating work and displaying it.

I am thrilled to be included in the 2009 Quilt Expo in Madison Wisconsin this September 10-12.  For three days I will be teaching all day workshops in which students will create art quilts based on “grove of trees” from my book “Photo-inspired Art Quilts”.

If you live in the area, and ever wanted to learn to make beautiful art quilts based on photographs, please come join us!  I will also bring lots of other quilts from the book (and some not in the book) for you to see.  Of course, there are lots of other wonderful classes and events, so check it out at:

http://www.wiquiltexpo.com

my workshop is listed under the “hands-on” classes.

Hope to see you in Wisconsin!

For those of you who have purchased my new book “photo-inspired art quilts” (thank you) you know there is a section called “artists shorthand” in which I give you some simple techniques for creating elements often used in art quilts.  In today’s blog entry, I will discuss the artists shorthand for water.

Water is often depicted in art quilts, and can be confusing.  As tempting as it is to use a single fabric (as so many of them are water-appropriate) I think that isn’t as interesting as combining fabrics to make the intrepretation truely your own.

Here you can see three fabrics that look tempting to use alone as water, all soothing blues with swirling pattrens that resemble water.

When I depict water, I choose three fabrics; one that serves as the “base” and two accents–usually darker than the base.  In the next two photos you will see two quilts currently on my design wall, and for both of them I used the three fabrics for the water that are pictured above:

In each of these I chose a base fabric (in this case, the BACK of the striated blue fabric at the bottom of the fabric photo–although I know that water is blue, it is not the strong dark blue of the fabric I initially chose, so using the back looked more appropriate.  The farther something in your quilt is away from the eye, the lighter and grayer the color should look, and because this water is in the background, it should be lighter rather than dark blue.) I cut very thin (and not so straight and even) strips of the other two.  I also used a few strips of the front of the striated blue–darker than the back and in tune with the other fabrics I had chosen. These were placed onto the base fabric in a manner I like to call “controlled random” which means I distribute each of the fabrics around the composition, trying not to line things up, but keeping the eye moving around.

In this detail of the seascape quilt from the book you can see how the darker pieces of fabric form the shadow area around the base of the rocks (I looked at the original photo to know where this would be):

This is the same shortcut–one base fabric and randomly cut little pieces of two others, placed in a manner that looks like the shadow–darker at the base of the rocks and getting lighter (although still darker than the base fabric) as the water moves away from the rock.  The choice of fabrics are all unexpected–they have movement and interest without having started with a water “agenda”.

In this close-up from the Flamingo quilt (also in the book–see why you NEED to buy this book!?!?) shows clearly how the four fabrics are combined and the stitching that holds it all together:

The stitching is very stream of consciousness, moving back and forth in the direction that water appears to move when viewed from a distance.

Again, in another quilt in the book, on the rocks, the water has a base color and many other fabrics–none of which are water looking–there is an Asian geometric, a check–some lighter and some darker than the base color.

So the next time you want to depict water in your quilt, think about expanding from a single fabric to use three (or more), and using the back of a fabric if the front is too strong (remember to trust your eye and not your brain).

I am sorry for such a long time between posts.  Lots of non-quilt things have been going on in my life, like my son graduating from college and work going on at my house.  I also had a month of down time while my poor little sewing machine waited for a replacement part.  Needless to say, I have not spent any time in the studio for much too long.

My big news is the release of my second book: PHOTO-INSPIRED ART QUILTS which was presented at the spring quilt market a few weekends ago.  The book is now available in quilt shops, through my website and from Amazon.  It includes a DVD produced by Nancy Zieman (which was great fun working on).  In the DVD, I show readers several of the steps described in the book, and Nancy and I discuss some of my art quilts.

In this book, I show step by step how I create my art quilts.  I always start with a photo for several reasons–I don’t have to figure out the perspective or the shadows, and I have a guide to be sure that the proportions of all the elements are correct.  That is not to say that I follow the photo exactly, I sometimes add things to the photo, take things out, or change the colors.  But the photo always serves as a sort of road map.

The book includes information about how to choose a photo, how to choose fabric, and how to complete a fabric collage.  I also discuss the difference between color and value, and why each are so important.  There is a chapter on thread painting the accents, and another on what I call “artist shorthands” which are simple tricks to do eyes, lips, trees, rocks, water and autumn trees.

There are several “patterns” for quilts in the back of the book for readers to use to learn the technique.

Here are a few of the finished quilts from the patterns provided:

and this one (which was the workshop in Taiwan–Faces in Fabric):

In addition, many of the art quilts I have completed in the past few years are pictured in the book.

I am thrilled with how beautiful this book looks, and I want to share my excitement with my blog readers.  So,  I have decided to have a drawing for a free copy of the new book from those who post a comment expressing interest.  Spam posts will not count.  US residents only, please.  Be sure to include an email address where I can contact you if you win (in order to get your shipping address).

Please visit my website (www.leniwiener.com) to see more of my art quilts or to order either book.

I am happy to announce that my work will be exhibited at the Larchmont Public Library in the first floor Oresman Gallery from February 3 to 27, 2009.   The show will feature “photo-inspired art quilts” many of which are on my website.  You may even see the flamenco quilt featured on this blog (I am not sure yet which pieces will be hung)

The gallery is opened during library hours:

Monday and Thursday from 9 - 9;

Tuesday and Wednesday 9 -6;

Friday and Saturday 9 -5;

Sundays 12-5.

The library is closed for President’s day on February 16.  For directions go to www.larchmontlibrary.org/hourdir.html

Please join me for the opening reception on Saturday, February 7 from 3 to 4:30.