March Meeting - Joanne Frankel

Our speaker this month was Joanne Frankel. Joanne is originally from the Forest of Dean, a place which still inspires her work, although now she is based in Cheshire and she exhibits regularly with several groups of artists in the North West.

Joanne Frankel - detail

Her current work is very distinctive and colourful, and her talk led us through her journey from starting out as a mature student and the (in her words) navel gazing of some of her degree pieces, via her stitched canvases, to her newest work being explored as part of a return to study to gain a Masters in Fine Art.

Joanne Frankel - detail

Joanne brought many of her pieces for us to see close up and admire the detailed stitching, both hand and machine embroidery. It was a very interesting talk and was followed on Sunday by a workshop where we were shown some of the techniques she uses, and we were able to create our own stitched work.

Workshop pieces

Starting with a design created by Joanne, we painted, appliqued and stitched to create some very individual pieces of work.

Workshop pieces

A very enjoyable weekend.

In other things . . .

There will be a meeting of Young Embroiderers on 17th and 18th April, where the theme will be 'Man in Space' See the Young Embroiderers page for more details.

Pauline will be running an Artists' Trading Card day school on Sunday 7th July. Bookings will open at the April meeting.

We are not having a branch meeting in June (the hall was double booked). However, 8th June is Regional Day. Speakers will be announced shortly. Tickets (which includes lunch) will be £25 and Ingrid will be taking bookings next month. The competition themes at Regional Day are

• A Flower beginning with the letter I (in memory of past Regional Chair Maggie Judges)
• Re-imagined for the members' competition
• 'Man in Space' for the Aurifil competition (previously the Coats Anchor award)

It will be the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the York branch in September. Suggestions for how to celebrate this are welcome.

The April meeting will include the judging of the competition for 'best commercial design'. (Perhaps we might see some finished Joanne Frankel pieces . . . )