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Out the door

Writer's picture: Sarah FielkeSarah Fielke

​Ok so I'm reaaaallllly late this week, but between cutting and packing Lemonade Stand kits, cutting and packing kits for Road to California, making samples and packing all my bags up (and trying to get them under the weight limits!), its been a Week. Still, it's Sunday morning and I'm fairly organised except for being late for you guys, so I'm calling it a win. The bonus is that this coming two week's StitchyMites will be a round up of the quilt show at Road and my classes, so that will be fun! Lots of pretty quilts to show you I'm sure.


For this post I'm back to an art gallery, this time the National Gallery in Canberra, for their initiative Know My Name. This series of exhibitions aims to address the underrepresentation of women artists and their stories within Australian history. I love that they're doing this, it's a fantastic thing to take these incredible artists and bring them into the spotlight.


There is a joint exhibit at the moment between two very different artists, Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar, neither of which I have ever heard of. Both were artists creating in the early 20th century, in very different styles and places.


Ethel Carrick I was absolutely, 100% blown away by! I would encourage you go to to Canberra just for her exhibition to be honest. She was a post-impressionist painter, who lived a truly extraordinary life, travelling the world and painting with her husband. You can read a little more about her here and see a few of her works (https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/ethel-carrick/) but they really are wonderful in real life. Her grasp of light and movement is truly beautiful, and she was SO prolific!! It's a huge exhibition.


The one I really wanted to show you though was a piece by Anne Dangar. I wasn't as taken with her as an artist, just a personal preference. I'm probably in the minority, as she was absolutely revered overseas during her time, just never at home. There were some paintings I loved but a lot of the pottery was a little dark for me. I'm not mad into Cubism so the designs just weren't my thing. You can read more about her here https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/dangar-anne/ and here https://nga.gov.au/on-demand/anne-dangar/

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Around halfway through the Dangar section of the exhibition I rounded a corner into a small room, and there was the most wonderful textile piece that she had designed for the Exposition Internationale in Paris in 1937. The piece was designed by Anne and stitched collaboratively with some of her (adult) students, as the centerpiece of a display showcasing the work of Moly-Sabata (the pottery school where she was teaching and studying - in fact it is still in operation today) in the pavillion for the region she was living in. The piece was so well received that school was awarded 4,000 francs and Anne won a gold medal.



The textile itself is designed as a banner. It has a hand pieced, embroidered and appliqued front and is backed with a plain homespun, so that it can be hung. Its around 60cm wide (24") wide, and few metres long. The piece was designed to tell the history of the Rhône region - I wish the information with the piece had given a little more context as I would love to know what all the panels represent. The thing that really grabbed me about it is the quirky animals - they are so wonderfully rustic and full of character. That fish!! I spent a good half an hour in the room with this piece and I loved every minute.




When Anne Dangar died 70 years ago, villagers in France followed her horse-drawn hearse to the local cemetery that overlooked the Rhone river and the artists’ commune the potter called home in France for more than two decades. In Australia, Dangar’s death went unacknowledged by the press and the local artistic community, apart from a few mournful letters exchanged between friends, notably painter and one-time lover Grace Crowley. Says a lot doesn't it... I'm glad both these amazing women are being recognised in Australia now. If you get a chance to go to Canberra and see these exhibitions - they're on until April 27, after which more women artists will come out of the woodwork for the next in the series.


Ok peeps I'm off to the airport in an hour or so... I must say that it seems very frivolous to be going to LA for a quilt show when so many people in LA are suffering from the terrible fires. The show is still going ahead however and I am under contract so off I trot - Road to California is running a number of donation programs to help quilters affected by the fires so I will find out more about those and let you know in case you're interested. Take care of yourselves and I promise to take loads of pictures of quilts for you!


Sarah x

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Wonderful work! The banner is very intriguing. Thanking for sharing.

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