Adelaide Craft and Quilt Fair 2019

The week after I got home from Japan, I went to Adelaide to visit family and friends and the Adelaide Craft and Quilt Fair. It was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre in the city and that made it so easy to get there by public transport.

The major attraction this year was that Danny Amazonas was the guest artist. You can see how big they are by the photo below. They are huge and super impressive.

Me in front of one of Danny Amazonas' Quilts

The quilt that I am in front of is called Abyss.

Abyss by Danny Amazonas

Here is a detail photo so you can get an idea of the hundreds of fabrics that are included.

Abyss detail

Danny did a long talk and spoke about his quilts and how he makes them. He puts fusible web behind his fabrics and also starches his fabrics so they are ready and easy to use. He makes his own starch.

Danny doing his talk

He seemed like a lovely humble person. His quilts are very large, the one below named Bouquet is 3 metres wide and 1.76 metres high.

Bouquet by Danny Amazonas

I loved Levitate almost as much as I loved the undersea quilts. I am into circles at the moment!

Levitate by Danny Amazonas

Here is a detail photo so you can see all the fabrics, Danny uses a lot of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

Levitate detail

I went to Danny's morning lecture and in the afternoon I did my duty at the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). SAQA had the Textile Posters exhibition on show.

While I was in Adelaide I went to the South Australian Art Gallery to see the Ben Quilty Exhibition. Ben Quilty is a young, famous Australian artist. He won a prestigious Portrait Prize, called the Archibald Prize, a few years ago with his portrait of another famous Australian artist, Margaret Olley.

Margaret Olley by Ben Quilty

I have seen this portrait before but this time I was so struck by how thick the paint was.

Paint texture

When I did my painting classes a few years ago I was being so careful to be smooth, I should have been much more free!

Ben Quilty's exhibition was mainly focussing on his paintings that he had done since his trip as an artist in war torn, Afghanistan. I found the paintings quite sad and full of anguish and didn't take many photos.

Life Jackets by Ben Quilty

At the gallery there was also a work by Japanese artist, Chiharu Shiota. She makes big installations using string that she weaves. I saw a documentary on her recently and she said that she is inspired by the idea of what or who used to be present in a room.She says that she feels the presence in absence and the red represents blood.

Absence Embodied by Chiharu Shiota

It was a brief but lovely visit to Adelaide.

Bye for now,
Linda