When I was very young,
my parents thought I should have art lessons and they signed me up
for a Saturday morning class at the old Art Gallery at McMaster
University in Hamilton Ontario. I was NOT amused, even though I
think I was born holding a pencil or a paintbrush. It is just that I
am NOT a “now we’ll all...” sort of a girl! Sitting on a cold
floor making a small part of an ugly mural with a group of unhappy
and/or pushy children was NOT my idea of a good time. I did not do
well.
Hello everybody. My
name is Carolynn McMillan and I live in Burlington Ontario. I am a
self-taught, artistic Lone Wolf, not a groupie and I do my own thing,
my own way. My good husband and I just celebrated 46 years of
marriage - a long time with one man, as a dear friend of ours once
said!! Very true, but we are still good friends after all that time
and Bruce is my best help and my best critic. Everyone should be so
lucky. We have one daughter who is married and lives in Tennessee
where she is a graduate student, almost finished her PhD in
Archaeology. I repeat - everyone should be so lucky! |
| Westport Sunset (big version, scroll down) |
Bruce and I live on the
edge of a lovely woodland where a LOT of my inspiration comes from.
Natural forms are my chief muse. I love colour and texture and am a
self-confessed Colour Junkie! I am also addicted to travel and use
my own photographs to make my fibre art creations. Bruce and I are
our families’ genealogists. A current project is to create a
series of impressions based on photos I have taken of our travels in
Kintyre, Scotland where the the McMillans came from long ago.
Kintyre is definitely a land of inspiration for painters,
photographers, poets and even quilters!
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| Elf (more 3d art) |
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| Fatsia Project (the beginning) |
Quilting has been a
sort of passion for a long time although I gave up traditional
quilting a few years ago. We live in a small house with only two
beds so, after making several quilts for them, for friends and
relations, I turned to making Art Quilts. MUCH more satisfying! I
have also recently reconnected with my sketchbook after a long
hiatus. Drawing, designing quilts, Zentangling and more recently,
printmaking have all been keeping me out of trouble lately. Once, in
another incarnation, I did a LOT of Batik dyeing: wall hangings and
silk scarves. I had several solo exhibitions of my work in that
medium. That was before our daughter was born and I have decided
just in the past few months, to do my own dyeing once again. Enough
with the commercial fabrics, already - except maybe for those yummy
Kaffe Fassett prints! ( I AM a Colour Junkie, don’t forget!) Hand
dyeing has provided me with a whole new springboard for my work. I
am having a ball and my poor patient husband drives me way up to
Guelph to buy the lovely fine pure cotton I am using to make my
delicious hand dyes. I have just finished my first completely hand
dyed quilt, The Fatsia Project.
I have really enjoyed
participating in the WIP Wednesday project on The Needle and Thread
Network. It is lovely to see the work of and to “meet” so many
other creative people from all across Canada. Pass the word and let’s
get others involved too. We all learn from each other. It has been an
honour to be asked to do a Friday Feature post. Thanks! As well as WIP
Wednesday, I participate in Every Inchie Monday and SketchbookChallenge. Have a look at the Inchie and Sketchbook posts on my blog and check out those
two “fun” sets of posts. The Golden Inchies I did so long ago are still one of my favourites.
There is always something going on my blog and
plenty of archived posts as well at…rtquilter.blogspot.com