Olivia knits up some colour!

This is my mother Olivia in front of a painting of mine that seems to echo the horizontal and vertical timber detailing so prevelant in these older Qld style homes. Below are a few projects of Olivia's which are very colourful. She is primarily passionate about music... singing in particular..... mostly classical music, but has always loved sewing and creating all kinds of things for her home and others.

This is the back verandah, which is rather a pleasant place to paint. The cloth hanging over the rail was made at my studio in Melbourne many years ago when I was doing a lot of textile work. This cloth was something of a collaboration between Olivia and myself from a time long ago when she was holidaying  and looking for a creative project. I had a lot of lino-cut tiles and templates and set her up with paints and went off and came back now and then to add some colour or another layer of print. Built up rather like a patchwork quilt it has been the perfect table cloth for this tropical climate... so is well loved and has been  brought out for a great many special dinners over the years.

 
These 2 knitted rugs are the colourful result of a past time for Olivia where she uses wool collected here and there, then assembled into some interesting colour combinations, knitted in panels , and finally sewn up and lined. They are then given away to organisations needing donations of blankets and clothing. I had decided to purchase these 2 after falling for the one on the left. However I wasn't quick enough. Once the one on the right was completed they were bundled off as a winter contribution to hopefully someone with a love of colour as well as a need for a lovely new warm blanket. When these knitted works started evolving I could see how the influence of certain abstract paintings had wandered across to these rugs.