Holidays and the Elizabeth Gower Exhibition

In the last school holidays my husband and I spent a week down in Torquay with my daughter Alison and her daughter Savannah. Alison's husband could only come down for the weekend because he had recently started a new job.

It is a really lovely part of southern Victoria.

The weather was cool but we still managed some fun at the beach. Here is a photo of Alison and Savannah walking close to the water and just after this photo was taken a wave came too close and drenched little Savannah. She thought it was very funny.

Everyone had a chance to choose an activity and I chose to go to the Geelong Art Gallery.

The Geelong Art Gallery

The portrait painting prize the Archibald's were just setting up and so half the gallery was closed, luckily I had already seen it in Sydney when I was up there.

We saw an exhibition by Elizabeth Gower, an Australian artist who specializes in collage. She has also done a lot of quilting and embroidery and it shows in her work.

Elizabeth Gower

She meticulously cuts out pictures from magazines and collages them onto plexiglass. it's only when you get up close you realise that the flower like shapes are made of pictures of shoes.

Detail

There were two rooms; a colour room and a black and white room.

In the colour room they were arranged according to colour.

Here are some close up photos of them, it was hard to pick a favourite; they were all lovely.

They look like traditional quilts, don't they? It's just that they are made of paper and are glued in place. Apparently Elizabeth Gower has been collecting quality magazines for 23 years.

Here is one from the black and white room.

When you get up close you can see it is made from photos of irons.

Her most recent work is changed a little and is a little more like appliqué than piecing.

I do not know how she is so precise with her cutting and gluing.

It was unusual to see such a quilt like exhibition in an art gallery and I couldn't help but think if it was made of fabric it wouldn't be in the gallery!

Speaking of fabric we also went to Amite Textiles, a quilt shop down in Torquay. I managed to spend money on Aurifil threads and more fabric for my recent contemporary quilt.

It is a huge shop and I recommend a visit especially as it has a wonderful café. We did a lot of eating out on our holiday and my family voted that the Amite café was the best and if we had have had time we would have gone back another day.

Savannah eating cake at Amite

It was a lovely week away especially as we got to spend so much time with Alison and Savannah. We packed a lot of adventures into that week, including a visit to a wildlife park.

The Elizabeth Gower exhibition is on until the 25th of November and the Archibald Prize closes a week earlier on the 18th, so still a little bit more time to get there.

Bye for now,
Linda