Janet Budge's fabric collage "Woodland Walk" won second prize and the People's Choice award in the Woodlands Exhibition. By Geoff Ellis
JANET Budge can be found in the Wonthaggi Goods Shed on Monday mornings, sharing her love of materials amidst the whirr of sewing machines and the laughter of friends. She started this sewing group a couple years ago so people could learn while sharing ideas and experience. They’re coming along in leaps and bounds, crafting quilts and bags and all sorts of clothing, each one a unique work of art.
JANET Budge can be found in the Wonthaggi Goods Shed on Monday mornings, sharing her love of materials amidst the whirr of sewing machines and the laughter of friends. She started this sewing group a couple years ago so people could learn while sharing ideas and experience. They’re coming along in leaps and bounds, crafting quilts and bags and all sorts of clothing, each one a unique work of art.
Janet is an artist who paints with textiles. It was her good friend Sue Cornelius who convinced her to enter the Save the Woodlands Art Exhibition held in that Goods Shed over the Winter Solstice weekend. She entered two fabric collages with no expectation of sales, let alone a prize, as the Shed was filled with works by artists of local and national renown.
Janet couldn’t make it to opening night so she wasn’t there to hear that her “Woodlands Walk” had won second place. Or to hear that Judge Meg Viney had said of the prize winning works, "I was looking for a heart-felt response allied with finesse in execution".
When curator Ellen Hubble told her the news the following morning, Janet responded "I never thought my work was good enough to enter". She had tears in her eyes.
Event organiser Catherine Watson relates: “We could have sold Janet's two works many times over. In fact, we did sell the prize-winning work twice. On opening night, Ellen was putting a red SOLD sticker on it just as I was taking the money from another buyer.
“We had some explaining to do to the disappointed buyer, but we put her in touch with Janet and she bought another of her works.”
Janet couldn’t make it to opening night so she wasn’t there to hear that her “Woodlands Walk” had won second place. Or to hear that Judge Meg Viney had said of the prize winning works, "I was looking for a heart-felt response allied with finesse in execution".
When curator Ellen Hubble told her the news the following morning, Janet responded "I never thought my work was good enough to enter". She had tears in her eyes.
Event organiser Catherine Watson relates: “We could have sold Janet's two works many times over. In fact, we did sell the prize-winning work twice. On opening night, Ellen was putting a red SOLD sticker on it just as I was taking the money from another buyer.
“We had some explaining to do to the disappointed buyer, but we put her in touch with Janet and she bought another of her works.”
Janet Budge and Rod Primrose: "The work's an invitation." Rod Primrose and Chris Mooney are now the proud custodians of “Woodlands Walk”. Rod is a puppeteer who appreciates the effort and skill in the work. Like Janet, material talks to him. He says the work produced an unexpected emotional reaction in him. “It’s a joyous memory. We know that place. It could be the west coast of Ireland, Northern Tasmania or out the back of Grantville. You could walk into it. It’s an invitation.”
“You see gum trees everywhere you go,” Janet says as she surveys the walls of the home she shares with husband Andy and three dogs. Her textiles are in her sewing room. She has five different machines and cupboards and drawers stuffed with material. She initially sorts the pieces into piles according to colour, then into lights and darks. Then fits the pieces as she plays with ideas and detail.
“I love playing with material. I try to use wee pieces, no bigger than my palm and no smaller than my thumbnail.”
“You see gum trees everywhere you go,” Janet says as she surveys the walls of the home she shares with husband Andy and three dogs. Her textiles are in her sewing room. She has five different machines and cupboards and drawers stuffed with material. She initially sorts the pieces into piles according to colour, then into lights and darks. Then fits the pieces as she plays with ideas and detail.
“I love playing with material. I try to use wee pieces, no bigger than my palm and no smaller than my thumbnail.”
A work in progress The piece she is working on is on a shelf in the living room. She likes to work on her pieces through the day. Her canvas is a select piece of material that forms the background. Once she knows where the light in the scene is coming from she builds up the background as she works out what the foreground is – it might be an animal, sand or a path between trees.
She can spend 30 hours assembling a collage which might require up to another 30 hours of sewing. Then there is hanging, maybe framing ... and the next one. She needs to keep at it.
She is an admirer of the great Gippsland textile artist Annemieke Mein. She likes the simplicity of Mein’s backgrounds where a few delicate threads create an intimate and passionate spotlight for the subject. She is beginning to incorporate elements of that style into her own works.
By the end of the Woodland Exhibition, Janet had also won the People’s Choice award and both her entries had gone to new homes. “Now, because you believe in me, I'll believe in me,” she said quietly, to loud applause.
During and after the exhibition several people inquired about her work, asking where they could see more of it.
The response has given Janet the confidence to start planning an exhibition. She is enjoying thinking about ideas and playing with materials on a broader scale.
“For me, the pleasure from my work comes from the people who enjoy and appreciate the work I have tried to envay.”
She can spend 30 hours assembling a collage which might require up to another 30 hours of sewing. Then there is hanging, maybe framing ... and the next one. She needs to keep at it.
She is an admirer of the great Gippsland textile artist Annemieke Mein. She likes the simplicity of Mein’s backgrounds where a few delicate threads create an intimate and passionate spotlight for the subject. She is beginning to incorporate elements of that style into her own works.
By the end of the Woodland Exhibition, Janet had also won the People’s Choice award and both her entries had gone to new homes. “Now, because you believe in me, I'll believe in me,” she said quietly, to loud applause.
During and after the exhibition several people inquired about her work, asking where they could see more of it.
The response has given Janet the confidence to start planning an exhibition. She is enjoying thinking about ideas and playing with materials on a broader scale.
“For me, the pleasure from my work comes from the people who enjoy and appreciate the work I have tried to envay.”