Sydney Long

I belong to a group called the Waverley Art Quilters and we meet once a month to study a different artist, theme or technique and in May we were studying Sydney Long.

Sydney Long was an Australian landscape artist who was born in Goulburn NSW on 20th August 1871 and died in London on the 23rd January 1955.

He became known for his lyrical and graceful Art Nouveau style landscapes and in his later years his work evolved into a decorative, symbolist style.
He won the Wynne Prize for Landscape in 1938 for The Approaching Storm and in 1940 for The Lake.

Sydney Long was also known as a master etcher but when the etching boom collapsed in the mid 1930s he went back into painting.

People loved his flamingo paintings and because they sold so well he painted many of them.

After much deliberation and attempts on two different quilt designs, I finally settled on making a Flamingo quilt. After I had made that decision it was amazing that I saw flamingos everywhere I looked.

Birthday Card

I saw birthday cards, perfume advertisements, baby clothes labels, even printer ink, there were flamingos everywhere, it is quite amazing what you notice when a subject is in your mind.

Because I am still interested in how to make successful reflections in a quilt I drew up a flamingo and his reflection and tried to crop it in an interesting manner.

Sydney's Flamingo ©2014 Linda Steele

I used batik fabrics because they fuse so well with no fraying which means I don't have to do any stitching on the edges, I can quilt over the entire piece to secure everything and it gives a more realistic appearance to the bird.

Here are a couple of close up photos of the flamingo and his reflection.

Sydney Long was known for his more subdued colours which is why I chose a background fabric that was a more muted blue than I would have normally chosen.

I also read that Sydney was thought to be an odd man who was jealous and envious of other people's success and he always thought that he deserved more recognition than he got.

Poor Sydney, that is a dangerous frame of mind and an easy trap to fall into. I decided a few years ago that we are all on our own path and there is room for all of us and the only person that I compete with is myself in my quest to improve.

Bye for now,
Linda