Helen Maudsley

In the Waverley Art Quilters this year we are studying female abstract artists and last month it was Australian artist Helen Maudsley.

Differences by Helen Maudsley

Helen Maudsley was born in 1927 and now in her 90's. She studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1945 to 1947 and at the same time studied at the Conservatory of Music. She was married to well-known Australian artist John Brack whose painting Collins St -5pm is very famous in Australia.

There was an exhibition of her work from the last five years at the NGV Ian Potter gallery earlier this year. It was called Our Knowing and Not Knowing. The titles of her works were rather like essays and she says they are written thoughts; here is an example of one of the titles from the exhibition.

I've abbreviated her titles. Helen Maudsley is a meticulous planner and does many precise drawings before starting her painting

The Effort by Helen Maudsley

The Shoe by Helen Maudsley

Her colours were quite subdued and pastel-like which I found a little challenging. I decided that her painting called 'The Self' reminded me of patchwork and took my inspiration from it.

The Self by Helen Maudsley

I chose colours of purple and blue but made them stronger than the painting, even though she has a restricted colour palette there are a lot of different values of lights, mediums and darks.

I enjoyed making the quilt using the improv method. I cut and pieced many shapes without thought of where they would be in the quilt. After making them I started to try and put them together.

Top complete

I started to do detailed quilting at first and then I realised that it didn't need it, the interest is in the shapes and piecing, so I just did mainly ditch stitching and straight lines.

Finding my Way with Helen by Linda Steele

I did a slightly long title but nothing likes her epic poems. It measures 12" x 16".

Our next topic is Maps and I have absolutely no idea what I will do!

Bye for now,
Linda