• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Creating with Brenda Gael Smith

  • WEBSITE
  • About
    • Biography
    • Resume
  • Shop
  • Gallery
    • Serendipity Gallery
    • Contemporary Textile Art
    • Monthly Art Project 2019
    • Weekly Art Project
  • Workshops & Programs
    • Workshop Booking Form
    • Overview
    • Workshops Brochure
    • 3 Hour Zoom Workshops
    • Schedule
    • Lectures & Programs
    • Abstraction from Reality
    • Bound to Please
    • Creating with Felt
    • Circular Explorations
    • Improvisation Plus
    • Lines of Beauty
    • Logs & Ladders
    • The Modern X
    • Shibori Serendipity
    • Stacks of Improvisation
    • Strata Various
  • Resources
    • Copyright Resources
    • Tutorials
    • Melody Quiltalong
  • News/Events
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Blog
  • Contact

Creative Backstory: Celebrating 20 Years – Year 2010

21 June 2020 Filed Under: Contemporary Quilts, Creative Backstory, Exhibitions

To mark the 20th anniversary of my first baby quilt, I  have been reflecting on what I have learned along the way. Creative Backstory is a series of blog posts each highlighting a different year. I invite you to share your creative backstory. Each day, I will post an optional prompt. Leave your response as a comment below or on my Serendipity Facebook page or use the tag #creativebackstory or Instagram and I will add your name to my Creative Backstory Giveaway. I look forward to reading about what has shaped your creative life.

2010 – a year of consolidation

I have previously recorded some highlights from 2010 in my blog post Timelines 2010. With the benefit of further hindsight, I can see that it was an important year of creative consolidation. Building on my participation with the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge, I was starting to develop a body of work that reflected my personal voice. For the purposes of this creative backstory post, I will focus on the two works selected for The New Quilt 2010: Turf and Desire Lines #5: After the Rain

Inspired by a freshly mown lawn, glistening in the morning dew, Turf is a continuation of my Grass series exploring the organic splendour and variety of grasses.

Turf 64cm x 67cm
©2009 Brenda Gael Smith
Turf 64cm x 67cm – detail

Desire Lines# 5: After the Rain in some ways marks a convergence of my grass series with my Desire Lines series. With the rain comes new life, reaching for the sky:

Desire Lines #5: After the Rain Brenda Gael Smith
Desire Lines #5: After the After the Rain
53cm x 112cm ©2010 Brenda Gael Smith
Desire Lines #5: After the After the Rain – detail

I am proud to be a life member of QuiltNSW. I value belonging to an organisation that recognises the quilt medium as an art form and invests energy in providing opportunities for textile artists to share their artwork in a gallery setting.

Call for Entries: The New Quilt 2021

QuiltNSW is relaunching The New Quilt at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW from 5 February – 11 April 2021.

The New QuiltThis juried survey exhibition showcasing the art of quilting is open to any textile artist resident in Australia whether or not they are QuiltNSW members. Think big, think bold – be adventurous! Note:

  • there is no prescribed theme – submit your best work reflecting your creative practice
  • a quilt means stitched and layered materials using any technique
  • the quilt must be your original non-traditional design
  • 2-D, 3-D, installation work, ceiling hung work, work on stretcher bars, and framed work will be eligible subject to certain size restrictions

The online entry form opens on 1 July and closes on 2 October 2020. See the QuiltNSW website for the conditions of entry and other information.

Sharing Stories: Prompt # 7 & Giveaway

I invite you to share your creative backstory. Here is an optional prompt: when was the first time that you shared your artwork in a gallery setting?

Leave your response as a comment below or use the tag #creativebackstory on Facebook or Instagram. I look forward to reading about what has shaped your creative life and will put your name into my celebratory giveaway. At the end of June, after I have completed Creative Backstory posts, I will select one commenter and, pandemic postal system permitting, this King Parrot textile sketch will wing its way to a new home.

King Parrot - creative backstory giveaway
King Parrot (15x15cm mounted on 20x20cm canvas) Creative Backstory Giveaway

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michelle Weatherson says

    22 June 2020 at 1:22 AM

    Just want to say how much I am enjoying and appreciate your sharing of your journey Brenda. The curated view of life that social media presents, disguises the progression, hard work and missteps that finding one’s visual voice actually takes. It’s good to know that those artists whose work I admire today started out just like me–at the beginning of the journey, and often with a baby quilt. Thanks again!

    • Brenda Gael Smith says

      22 June 2020 at 4:40 PM

      Hi Michelle – thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I have found it instructive to look back over the past 20 years. It’s good to know that others find useful insights in this creative backstory. Keep on creating!

Primary Sidebar

Blog Posts Straight to Your In Box


Melody 33

Blog Archives

Serendipity Studio Newsletter

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Australia Wide Eight Tour Begins
  • Circular Exploration Workshops: FUNdamentally Circles & Beyond
  • Invitation: Art of Finishing Zoom Event
  • Updated Serendipity Workshop Schedule
  • Abstraction in Action 2022 Student Gallery

Footer

Contact

Brenda Gael Smith
brenda@serendipitypatchwork.com.au

PO Box 4033, Copacabana
NSW 2251 Australia

Tel: +61 412530190

Serendipity Studio News

Sign up for periodic updates from my studio - new artwork, workshops, exhibitions and other news

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

New on Instagram

Looking forward to sharing my artwork in the Gosfo Looking forward to sharing my artwork in the Gosford Art Prize 2022 at @gosfordgallery from 20 August to 23 October 2022. The official opening is coming up on Friday 19 August. The gallery will be live streaming on IG from approximately 6.30pm.
#gosfordartprize #gosfordartprize2022 #brendagaelsmithart
I made these Pacific-inspired place mats years ago I made these Pacific-inspired place mats years ago for my family in New Zealand. It’s great to see they are useful and used. 🖤💚❤️

You can make your own variation with my free pattern. Link in profile.
#brendagaelsmithproject #utiliterianquilting #eatingtogether

Copyright © 2003–2022 All Rights Reserved · Brenda Gael Smith