I was excited to visit the Buda Contemporary Textiles Award & Exhibition at Buda House in Castlemaine last weekend. It was a cold, rainy day in Castlemaine, but the weather did not detract from the fascinating exhibition in the slightest.
The Award and Exhibition is held every second year at Buda House (beautiful and worth a visit all on its own!), and it has been running since 2008. I love the fact that it makes a special point of displaying the work of student textile artists alongside professional and emerging artists.
There were 50 exhibits on display, the majority of a very high standard of presentation. Many different textile disciplines were on display – I saw pieces that used embroidery, quilting, tapestry weaving, needle felting, nuno felting, crochet, and bobbin lace, and many more besides. I’m looking forward to adding some more weaving to the mix in the next Exhibition!
It was the first time I’d gone to see this exhibition, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable visit. Colourful and varied, the works were all very different, with their own characters.
My partner and I are famous for having opposing tastes in art, but for once we were drawn to the same piece. We both loved Teresa Poletti Glover’s ‘Before the Storm 2′, so we arranged to buy it right away. It was difficult to get a good picture of the piece, and these pictures do not do it justice!
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The second place winning entry was mesmerising. Catherine O’Leary’s Secrets, wet felted and hand stitched, just made me want to look at it all day. It was already sold by the time we got there – on the first day of the Exhibition.
The Student/Apprentice Encouragement Award winner was one of my standout favourites in the whole exhibition. In fact, it would have won my vote for People’s Choice if it hadn’t already won the encouragement award. The artist was Lucy Carroll, a student in Queensland, and her quilted and hand embroidered piece Eucalyptus Melliodora was incredibly striking. I loved the colour palette she used.
I’ve somehow managed not to capture a picture of it, but you can see the work on the Buda page here.
The exhibition runs 1 – 15 June 2014. $7 entry per person, and $5 for a program.
**I asked for and was granted permission by the Exhibition staff, to take and post photographs of the art on display at the exhibition, however I will certainly take pictures down if requested by the artists.**