These older works are a series that reflect my love of the water, and the opportunity to explore a multitude of mediums and topics with the ocean and its colourful environments.
I love to play with colour, texture, and form to re-interpret sea life in it’s many forms.
So Long and Thanks for the fish 2017 – So Long and thanks for all the fish are the memorable words from the iconic 1984 series, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Uttered as the Dolphins left Earth, what would they say today 3 decades on? With perhaps the worlds greatest invention becoming perhaps the worlds most devastating tragedy, plastic is littering our oceans, fouling our waterways and being ingested, not just by our water life, but by us as well. Tiny fragments have been found to leave washing machines from our clothing and are so small a huge majority of us will have them in our system. But conscience, resilience and entrepreneurialship are rising to the fore to help.
I have a passion for the sea and wonder at the diversity and beauty of all that it contains. Rising out of the depths to the sunlight my passionate red hued whale hopes to enlighten us.
SOLD
Suckers 2021 – When working on this piece I was taken back to my childhood when we frequented a quiet little aquarium which was always the highlight of an annual holiday., and upon one visit the staff told the story of how the fish in the tanks kept disappearing. They would come in the mornings and find them gone. No outside interference. No break-ins and the local cat was not in residence. Upon further detective work, after many such nights, it was discovered that the resident octopus was removing the cover to its tank, making its way across the aquarium, then settling into whichever tank he felt had the tastiest morsels. Then once sated, he would return to his quarters, pulling the tank cover closed behind him.
Hence the name…. if Octopi are intelligent.. what must he have been thinking while watching the aquarium staff scratching their heads each morning…
Suckers was juried into the 2021 SOTA exhibiton and came home with a lovely Second place red ribbon.
| Watercourse 2020 – Most people’s first thought regarding the outback are of the land. But the lifeblood of the land are the watercourses & artesian springs. The waterways from Queensland’s outback flow to the sea with a diverse list of fish species along the way. The fresh water fish are plainer in colour than their reef counterparts, whose patterns & colours burst into life the further up the coast you go. The challenge was “Queensland Outback to Reef” and my quilt “watercourse” took an aqueous route from inland to the outermost reefs. My piece takes an aqueous route from inland upper Queensland, down to the lower border, then out to the sea and up the last to the outermost reefs. Fish represented in order are (freshwater-) Flyspeck hardhead, Barramundi, Barred Galaxias (saltwater-) Red Emperor, Coral trout, Moari wrasse, Parrot fish, Spotted boxfish, Maroon clownfish Watercourse is the SOTA 2020 (state of the art ) winning piece. SOTA is the juried Queenland Quilters Art Quilters annual exhibition. SOTA 2020 was meant to premiere at AQC in Melbourne but was delayed until it’s recent unwrapping in Brisbane. The quilts had all been sent in so none of the winners & entrants had seen them for 2 years and it was actually hard to remember what it looked like! |
| Materials & Techniques Commercially dyed fabric, stitching, applique, reverse applique, digital & free cutting, free machine stitching |
| The abundant sea life around Australia is some of the most varied and beautiful in the world. Sea grasses and Manatees, Corals and Parrot fish, Jellyfish and shark, all have their unique place in the Oceans’ chain of life. I wanted to represent them in the form of a Mandala to show the symbiotic link that each has to the other. Drawn in a simple freehand style the simple becomes complex. Always up for a challenge I decided that a double sided quilt only in white and blue would allow me to experiment with design and stitch drawing. I like the result, but the jury is out as to which side should be the front ! |
| Materials & Techniques Freemotion drawing Bag wadding |
| Jellies 2012 – Ethereal and timeless, Jelly fish float along with the currents, gently propelling themselves with no foreseeable destination in mind. Deadly or delightful one cannot but admire their grace and they move out of the depths to the surface light. |
| Materials & Techniques Commercial cottons, synthetics, beads, ink, glitter. |
| Leafy Sea Dragon 2012 – The leafy sea dragon floats effortlessly amongst the reeds and leaves of the sea floor vegetation. I used a cartoon like depiction of the dragon as a playful style. |
| Part of the Oceania Too series for the 3 Piece Suite exhibition Materials & Techniques Inktense watercolours, stitch and cotton fabric. |
Brenda Wood Art 