New show hanging at Nectar Desserts

Nancy Dormer and I spent Friday morning hanging our second show together at the funky little dessert bar Nectar in historical Inglewood just east of downtown Calgary. It looks great (of course!) and very colourful.

Called "Seemingly Simple" the description goes as so... "Does everything need to be complicated? Fruit is one of the basics of a healthy life. The design of a kimono appears uncomplicated and pleasing to the eye. Travelling to far off lands can be summed up in one memorable image. A complicated architectural design is compiled of many uncomplicated segments."

Nancy will be displaying her wonderful acrylic and mixed media artwork using techniques she has been experimenting with over the last year (and building on over the last few decades!) Using hand carved stamps, hand painted papers and original drawings her pieces are colourful and appealing. Her titles Caw, Sasha, Be, Soar, Fly, Play, the Mod Ladies, and Brown Crow look forward to your visit.

I have incorporated into my art pieces embroidery on paper, darning with yarns, hand dyed fabrics, embossed metal, and much more. With titles like Castles in the Rockies, The Cedar Remains, Buried Treasure, Standing Stones of Scotland, Stone Age Art of Sweden, and Silver Fern of New Zealand, they cover a large range of subjects and a huge variety of techniques.



Sunfest, Inglewood's annual street festival, will occur on Saturday August 1st, and will feature 3 full blocks of happenings - a good day to explore the area. Nectar is closed Sunday and Monday for the Heritage Day holiday but reopens Monday to Thursday from 3 to 11 pm, Friday and Saturdays from 10 am to midnight, and Sundays 10 am to 5 pm.

Nancy and I will also be hosting an artist reception on Wednesday, August 19th - more about that later.

"The Fruits of Summer"

Whew! Another show comes into fruitation (ha ha, fruitation, get it?)

Nancy Dormer, Lesley Turner, her husband and I spent the morning yesterday in Nectar Desserts, hanging our show that will be open this summer over the next two long weekends (August and September). As usual it looks great - and especially with the addition of Nancy's paintings amoung our textile creations.

The title "fruits of summer" is wide enough to cover our theme of fruits and flowers that bloom and bear fruit over the summer. I will be posting photos and details of my pieces one by one over the next week. Here is a sneak peak into the loft gallery... (Check right hand panel for Nectar's location and hours.)

Fruits...

So what have I been working on all summer?

Here are shots of some of my pieces (still in progress - I like to work on many pieces at once so that each gets a chance to hang and be looked at before deciding when enough is enough.)

First are the lemons that I showed you a picture of a couple of days ago. This is a shot of all the fabrics and threads I gather at the start of the process. If you look carefully, you can also see a blown up photograph of a lemon slice used for inspiration hiding under the threads.

Then blueberries... When finished I will have a couple of pieces based upon this particular fruit. This one is done in the same process as the lemon above, where I start with a hand dyed background; collage scraps of fabric bits in the shapes and colours to represent the fruit and its surroundings; then hand and machine stitch over it all to blend everything together. I have done the first two steps here and will now start the stitching.


Apples and pomegranates - this piece is totally different - as is more common among my art - usually each piece is done using a different technique. This is more of a 'whole cloth' piece in which the design was silk screened using a range of paints from yellow to purple onto the hand dyed fabric. A second layer of silk screening was done over top. The stitch done over that is Italian Cording where rows of stitches are laid down and then stuffed with wool (you can see the ends of the wool still hanging over one end.) This piece is one waiting for the final decision of how to hang it and finish the edges.

More to come...

The Fruits of Summer at Nectar Desserts

Executive chef Rebekah Pearse of NECTAR DESSERTS takes the freshest of whatever fruits are in season and creates culinary treasures served up for your pleasure. She has invited us back for another textile show for the month of August, 2008 which we have themed featuring the fruits and flowers she uses in her baking of tarts, cakes, desserts, and ice creams.

Lesley Turner and I will provide the fibre creations and we have asked our friend Nancy Dormer to join us this year with her acrylic paintings.

The space is described as an eclectic loft area - it is very comfortable with exposed brick walls and a mishmash of over sized armchairs mixed among modern tables and chairs. It is one of Calgary's few evening destinations for dates or group gatherings which doesn't involve alcohol as the main attraction - although she does offer dessert wines and offers to educate your palate upon pairings with her desserts.

My work, which has kept me tied to my studio for the dog days of summer, is based upon the closeups of five fruits: the strawberry, the lemon, blueberries, apples, and raspberries. I continue to work in only (so far) a slight panic with the hanging on July 31st!




Nectar Dessert - located upstairs at 1216 - 9 Avenue SE, Calgary

Hours:
Monday to Thursday, 10am - 11pm
Friday to Saturday, 10am – 1am
Sunday, closed

Nectar Desserts

April 9th marked the one year anniversary of Nectar Desserts in Inglewood and Rebekah Pearse invited us to the party!

http://www.nectardesserts.com/tarts.php

Along with nibbling her sumptuous goodies and drinking champagne cocktails (yum), we confirmed our August show dates and theme. Donna Clement, Lesley Turner and Nancy Dormer will be exhibiting fruits and flowers associated with Rebekah's French inspired desserts. More info on the show to follow.