Monday 16 March 2015

Out & About: Turning Point quilt exhibition Stirling

Turning Point: Flight
On Saturday, I spent a very pleasurable afternoon in the company of the Turning Point group of quilt artists at the opening of their new exhibition at the Smith Art Gallery in Stirling. 
Turning Point: Poppies

I had been rather surprised and a bit nervous when they had asked me to say a few words at the opening but I also felt honoured. It turned out that it was surprisingly easy to write what I wanted to say as they are such a lovely, friendly, welcoming group. At my first Loch Lomond Quilt Show, they 'adopted' me as I was on my own and we shared the most hilarious dinner.  Since then, I have loved seeing their collections of work, which have been exhibited up and down the country and abroad.  
Turning Point: Pewter

This latest exhibition featured a number of collections of quilts and for the first time the group had invited three others to join them for ‘Elements’ and ‘Pewter’.  Turning Point's standard format is to work to a theme with a common size of quilt but to leave the interpretation completely open to each artist.  This was especially visible in the 'Elements' group, which had a really bright quilt based on the element Bismuth by Alison Drayson as well as Shona McQuistan's human figure containing the 'elements of me'
Alison Drayson 'Bismuth'

The walls of the Smith Gallery are bright red, which shouldn't have worked with the brightly coloured artwork, but did very well. It was also great to see such a turnout of people along to see the work.  And my own little talk got sandwiched between introductions by lots of local dignitaries so I needn't have worried about it!
Turning Point plus dignitaries

The exhibition is on until the end of April and is well worth a visit if you can make it.  There is also a permanent exhibition about Stirling and a temporary exhibit about the Miners Strike at the Smith, making it a fabulous mix of things to see.


Visitors enjoying the quilts at the Smith Art Gallery

More Poppies by Turning Point


Turning Point: Ten



2 comments:

Maggi said...

Some very striking pieces. Red walls seems very unusual for a gallery. Glad it worked with the brightly coloured pieces.

Gillian Cooper said...

Apparently red was the colour the Victorians used on their gallery walls. It is amazing that even the giant red poppy looks good on the red background.

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