Majesty of nature on show in Beautiful Swarm exhibition

 If you find insects irritating or cringe at the idea of a swarm of them, perhaps a new exhibition by textile artist Jan Clark, opening next month at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery, will change your mind.

The Beautiful Swarm exhibition, Jan’s third at Timeless Textiles, brings the glory of nature to life in a sea of colour.

Clark sees a swarm of insects as evidence of the abundance of life. For her it is life affirming and startles her with the brilliance of colour, texture and movement. Her exhibition seeks to capture and celebrate this display. She draws on this resource for the textiles in this latest exhibition.

“I have always been drawn to insects,” the locally-based artist says. “I lean closer to take in their minute beauty, shape, colour, transparency and lustre.”

Clark’s work has always been entwined with the natural world. Completing a Bachelor of Natural History Illustration (Hons) at the University of Newcastle has informed and enriched her textile work.

“I have documented my local environments for 10 years and this is the basis for my entire body of work,” she said. “It encompasses large painterly textiles to smaller meticulous scientific illustration of insect species using coloured pencil. At the moment moths have much of my attention.”

Beautiful Swarm is Clark’s vision of the textures and colours of moths, with beetles, dragonflies and cicadas. She has used many different fabrics, mostly scraps, to create her mixed media works. The works are layered constructions on net forming vertical panels of texture, imagery and glitter.

“I have tried to convey the softness and lightness, both physical and optical, of these beasties and also the infinite variety of patterning.”

Individual insects inhabit box frames (silver) and collections are arrayed in real entomological specimen boxes (black). Clark stresses that no insects were harmed in the making of the exhibition, with butterfly wings foraged from the forest floor. These delightful works will give you a new perspective on insects.

Beautiful Swarm will run at Timeless Textiles from 6- 24 December 2017.

Food meets fibre in Taste of Textiles exhibition.

Taste of Textiles, is being launched Saturday 12th December 2014, at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery, which celebrates a passion for humble and exotic, seasonal food and the rich textures of fibre arts.

Taste of Textiles exhibition brings together work from 20 fibre artists from around the world displaying their passion for textile art, cooking and growing food. This creative venture will appeal to everyone with a love of food and a flair for the creative. Artists contributing to Taste of Textiles include Nicola Henley, Marjolein Dallinga, Polly Stirling, Sylvia Watt, Glenys Mann, Judy Hooworth and Meredith Woolnough to name a few.

The contributing artists have represented a variety of vivid produce in their works, including the humble potato, mulberries, beetroot, saffron and rose petals. Each has created a visual narrative based on and inspired by their love for that particular produce.

Inspired by the artists’ passion, local cook Bev Whitehead has created and tested simple recipes to mirror the artworks. These include lemon myrtle spelt shortbread, chilli jelly, fig affogato, pomegranate with rosewater jelly with Persian Fairy Floss.

A limited edition boxed set containing stunning images of the both the final dishes and the artwork that inspired them, beautifully captured by local photographer Garrick Muntz is also available at the opening.

Opening: by Janet De Boer at 2pm, Saturday, 13 Decemberand continues until 23 December 2014.

Successful Artist Returns to Timeless Textiles.

Fibre artist Jan Clark will showcase her intimate connection with the Australian landscape in a new exhibition Immanence, scheduled to open in April 2014 at Timeless Textiles Gallery in Islington.

“Immanence is often understood to mean the manifestation of the divine when experienced in the material world,” Clark explains. “The intention behind my work is to convey the spiritual link with the natural world that many people experience when in the landscape, whether it is their backyard, the park or the Australian bush.”

Clark, who also teaches workshops at Timeless Textiles, brings her recognisable art making style back to the gallery after a successful 2013 exhibition. Her work is inspired by the natural world, with the concepts developed into layered works using a mixture of printing, painting, drawing with water-soluble media, fabric collage, dry felting, dyeing and free motion machine sewing.

Blurring the lines between organic abstract motifs and natural history illustration, Clark has a distinct and exciting style. Her attention to detail is obvious in her multi-layered mixed-media textile pieces

Based in Uralla, Clark has exhibited worldwide during her career. She is an Honours graduate in Natural History Illustration and is currently completing a Master’s degree at the University of Newcastle. Clark won the 2012 Victorian Quilters Incorporated prize in the large quilt category and was highly commended for her work in the Beyond the Border show in Victoria in 2005. She has been published locally and internationally in Fiberarts Design Book 7, Contemporary QuiltingandWeaving New Rhythms.

Over the previous year, Clark’s work has involved documenting specific habitats within the Lower Hunter Valley and New England Tableland regions. She says of her new exhibition

“The images of flora and fauna have been developed in a range of styles from scientific illustration to painterly marks on textiles. The surfaces of the textiles are then layered with imagery and translucent fabrics to convey the essence of the natural world. My textiles are full of recognisable insects and plants that are the backdrop to our often busy lives. I hope to suggest to people that the mundane world around us, the familiar, the everyday, is also the bearer of the divine, the other, the spiritual nature of life.”

The Immanence exhibition opens on the 17^thof April and runs until the 11^thof May 2014.

Revealing beauty of native wildflowers

An exhibition of textiles by Jan Clark, opening at Timeless Textiles gallery, seeks to reveal the beauty and femininity of Australian wildflowers.

 Many Australians are familiar with the wildflowers of Europe and associate the poppies, daisies, pansies and daffodils of northern hemisphere habitats with connotations of home (meaning Europe) and femininity.

 While most Australians are familiar with our native flowers, they are often viewed in a less significant way. Colonial settlers described them as ‘curious’ or ‘exotic’, but rarely recognised their beauty. We have yet to evolve the flower language of symbols that is intrinsic with European wildflowers. Native wildflowers often don’t have even have common names, and if they do, they echo the European names of Cockspur, Bluebell, Milkwort and Thistle.

 The aim of the Wildfloweringexhibition is to show the native wildflowers of the Lower Hunter Valley as just as pretty as their European counterparts. These small herbaceous plants are difficult to see but in spring they flower abundantly and cover the forest floors of open eucalypt habitats.

 Jan Clark’s wildflower textiles reference wider connotations of women and their association with flowers. The concept of the feminine brings in aspects of beauty, the domestic setting and traditional women’s skills of lacework and embroidery. The textiles have mixed these elements together in collages of printed, dyed and embellished fabrics mixed with found objects, such as doilies, laces and buttons.

 Techniques used in making the textiles include screenprinting, monoprinting, fabric painting, hand dyeing, transfer dyeing, transfers, thread drawing,fabric collage and machine quilting.

The exhibition opens at 6pm- 8pm on 19 July 2012 and continues until 12 August 2012. 

Jan Clark Unnoticed Worlds exhibition opens.

Local fibre artist, Jan Clark, reveals the extraordinary beauty in the tiny details of nature in this new exhibition tracking a 12 year creative path.

Beetles, rock pools, ancient forests, are all reflected in the pattern play of Jan’s extraordinary textile surfaces. In this exhibition, her works reveal her sustained interest in nature and our connection with it.

“Bringing this often unnoticed world to the attention of people motivates me to create”, said Jan.

“The world teems with life, beautiful life, and I try to give a sense of this as the constant background to our own self absorbed lives. We come and go, but nature endures.”

Textiles and surface manipulation are the bedrock of Jan’s art practice and this body of work shows a range of techniques and media including dyeing, discharge, printing, painting, quilting, collage, cottons, sheers and glitz. These elements are combined in glorious profusion to reveal a small part of our unnoticed world.

This show will be opened by Trevor Weekes, Senior Lecturer in Natural History Illustration, University of Newcastle, from 6-8pm on Thursday, 20 October. It will run until 12 November 2011.

“The Hunter is home to a surprising number of leading textile artists whose work I will feature alongside national and international artists in our inaugural new exhibition, “Revealed: Uncovering the Beauty of Fibre Art” which opens Thursday 25^thAugust and runs for 3 weeks. This opening exhibition will introduce eighteen of the artists who will be featured in solo exhibitions over coming months.

The inaugural exhibition will be opened by the well known Fine Art Program Convenor  at University of Newcastle Dr Kathryn Grushka.

“There is increasing interest and appreciation of the fine skills involved in creating beautiful textiles, the ability to transform fibres into exquisite forms of art.

Building on Newcastle’s avant-garde approaches to art, Timeless Textiles will focus on new works by local and international textile artists using techniques such as felting, dyeing, quilting, surface embellishment and design as well as  and fibre jewellery. As well as the art featured during exhibitions there will be a selection of pieceswhich would make unusual and beautiful gifts, suitable for all budgets.

“I have created a space especially designed for fibre art to expose the fine skills of textile artists and to claim its place as a collectable and desirableart form,” said Kempton. “There is increasing interest and appreciation of the fine skills involved in creating beautiful textiles.  This Gallery will also offer workshops for people interesting in learning the processes involved in fibre art.”

The workshops will provide an opportunity for anyone interested to experience the wonder of fibre art and textile design in a day workshop – on your own or with your friends. “This is a chance for people to learn new skills, brush up on their techniques and most importantly to enjoy themselves” enthused Anne “I hope to see you there!”