COASTAL ARTISTRY ON HILTON HEAD ISLAND (Cheri)

We had an unanticipated delight today, as we happened upon an extensive, and truly delightful, display of quilts on Hilton Head Island today.

I was at a quilt shop on the mainland, in Bluffton, South Carolina, when I saw a very high quality postcard publicizing an exhibit by Art Quilters of the Low Country at the Coastal Discovery Museum.  Art quilts are my favorite, so I looked up the Museum's web site when I got back to the truck.

Oh!  A lecture in 45 minutes?  Let's go!!!

The Art Quilters of the Low Country is a group of five quilters who met through traditional groups, and now provide mutual support to each other, and exhibit and teach together.

One of the members, RO MORRISSEY, gave a lecture about her techniques, and another, Peg Weschke, was on hand to talk briefly about how she created a couple of the quilts that you will see below.

This was a large exhibit, including approximately 50-60 quilts, all mounted on stretcher bars, and many for sale.  I only got pictures of a few pieces.

Morrissey, who created the next three quilts, creates despite having developed an seeing disparity which distorts one plane of her sight.  (Vertical, I believe.)  She started creating traditional, block-style quilts, and is thankful that she can still create more free-form, landscape quilts.

Mark noted the shine-enhancing threads that Morrissey used on the next two quilts, which make it look as if the sun is dancing on the subject matter.

(I loved how some of the artists used quotes from other artists to speak to the mood that they were reflecting.)

PEG WESCHKE, who created the sailboat quilt at the top of this post, and the next three, works more literally, from photographs.

One of these two artists - I unfortunately forget which - mentioned that she is awaiting a response on her entry to display one of her quilts with the international organization SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates).

JODY WIGTON created these last three quilts.  The first started with a photograph, which she heavily embellished, using a variety of methods:

I like the almost-literal, not quite-whimsical approach of the next two quilts:

I believe Hunting Island is one of the places we will be going tomorrow.  Until then . . .