The Broken Flower paintings are about memory- the way we remember selectively, forget, blot things out, remember again, but differently each time. Each surface has been reworked….. painted, layered, blurred, scraped away and painted again….. and again. The focus of these paintings is often on their edges. I wanted to refer to the way that memories often come at us indirectly, appearing at the edges of our conciousness. Sometimes seemingly unimportant details, only seen in our peripheral vision originally, become the main and most important part of a remembered event.
Landscape Memories
I’ve just finished this new painting “Landscape Memories”, 4×3 feet. During the past months I’ve been longing to travel. The painting is about the layering of memories of landscapes I’ve visited, photographed, drawn. I’ve collaged wallpaper onto the surface. For me the wallpaper represents memories of/nostalgia for an earlier time.
Wearable Art
Nicole wearing my scarves made from natural fibres~ silk, cotton and linen~ dyed with natural dyes~ Indigo, Logwood, Persimmon and Clerodendrum.
Sustainable, ethical fashion. Natural dyes are kind to the environment~ a safe way to produce colour on textiles. My scarves are for sale at etsy.com/shop/NaturallyDyedScarves
Details of Silk Hangings
Some details of my recent hangings. A celebration of silk! Constructed using very transparent silk organza, silk cocoons which have been opened out and leaves from my garden. Dyed with Indigo and Persimmon natural dyes. I’m happy with the transparency I’ve managed to achieve looking through the various layers of silk.
Exhibition at Visual Space Gallery
Silk Hangings
Some new pieces for my exhibition, “The Density of Light”, at Visual Space Gallery. The hangings combine silk organza, silk cocoons and leaves from my garden dyed with Indigo and Persimmon natural dyes. These are the colours of my winter garden~ the soft browns of decay and the icy blues of winter skies. I love working with silk in all of its many variations and with these hangings I want to celebrate the luminous qualities of silk and its contradictions of strength and fragility.
Merino Wool/Natural Dyes
I’m constantly amazed at how Natural Dyes all work so well together! Here is a combination of Logwood, Madder, Lac, Cochineal, Weld and Marigold natural dyes. Japanese Shibori resist techniques.
Indigo & Persimmon
Cotton and Silk dyed with Persimmon and Indigo Natural dyes.
Bouquets
Two paintings from a series of paintings of Bouquets I’ve begun.
Linen
Linen Scarves. Indigo. Weld/Madder/Brazilwood. Logwood
Dresses
Silk Gauze and Silk Organza, dyed with Persimmon and Iron Natural dyes, Copper wire, dried plant material. They are an attempt to express the fragility of the female body, a homage to all the many, many women who have been victims of war and abuse.
Cochineal Dye
These scarves have both been dyed with Cochineal natural dye, which comes from tiny insects found on cactus plants. I’ve only used a bit of dye to give this soft pink colour. One scarf is Merino wool, the other is silk. Printed using Japanese Shibori resist technique.
Some dye experiments
Linen dyed with iron, weld and logwood 
Merino wool dyed with iron, weld and osage 
Silk dyed with iron, weld and logwood
Some experiments with natural dyes. Looking for interesting colours in the grey, brown neutral range. Using a bit of iron with weld and several other natural dyes. I’m happy with the complexity of the colours of the various combinations.
Hydrangea Aspera
Two paintings of the leaves of my Hydrangea Aspera, summer and autumn.
Oil on canvas with silver and gold leaf
Indian Cotton
Very soft Indian cotton with a tiny gold flower pattern.
Dyed with Indigo, Logwood, Madder, Cutch and Myrobalan natural dyes.
Japanese Silk
I brought home some wonderful silk from my recent trip to Japan. The silk is so fine- Gossamer- lovely to work with. I’ve been dyeing it with natural dyes, Indigo, Madder, Logwood, Cutch, Marigold, Weld and Iron
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Midsummer Night Dress
My latest creation! The silk is from saris that I found several years ago in Calcutta, deconstructed, and then dyed with Indigo and Persimmon natural dyes. The Magnolia leaves are painted with fabric paint.
On display at Circle Craft on Granville Island, Vancouver, until the end of August 2017, as part of their 45th Anniversary Exhibition.
Indigo and Logwood
I have been dyeing more scarves, a silk/cotton blend from India, using natural dyes.
A lot of Indigo and some Logwood.
Midwinter/Midsummer
These paintings “Midwinter Frost” and “Midsummer Night” represent two very opposite seasons in my garden. The paintings are about absence as much as presence.
Sitting in the garden on a dark, hot summer night the plant forms seem to grow larger, darker, more mysterious, sometimes even a bit menacing.
On a cold winter day there is a stark beauty and emptiness, expressed so well by Wallace Stevens in the last stanza of his poem “The Snow Man”.
“For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.”
Seasons of My Garden
My garden is a constant source of inspiration, both visually and metaphorically. I am fascinated at observing the seasonal changes, from the soft, hopeful greens of tender shoots emerging in spring, through the vivid colours and overgrown exuberance of summer and early fall, to the stillness and melancholy of muted browns and purples in the late fall and winter garden. As I experience the aging process of my own body and am confronted with the death and loss of family and friends, the natural cycle of death and rebirth that I witness in my garden seems a surprising source of solace and comfort.
This series of dresses is my attempt to evoke the various moods and emotions of the changing seasons of my garden.