Olga Walters

I emigrated with my family in 1957 from the Netherlands; we lived in Taree in New South Wales, where I very quickly realised at the tender age of seven that life would be different from then on.

The terrain in the open scrubby areas of coastal New South Wales, was so vastly different from what I had known, although I was looking at it with young eyes, I still did not fail to notice this.

Having always loved drawing and painting, I very quickly found my sketchpad was filling up (usually in preference to doing my homework!)

As an adult, my working life seemed disconnected to my creativity, which was always on the go in my spare time.

Flying for TAA as a hostie gave me the opportunity to see parts of Australia that I had not dreamt I would be able to visit and spend time in. Based in Brisbane the flights I crewed were usually into outback Queensland on smaller aircraft and of course coastal stops of the East Coast of Australia, from Melbourne right up to Cairns.

Nowadays I mostly capture my inspiration using photography quite often at my sister's farm at Smeaton near Ballarat. The surrounding bushland provides me with endless possibilities.

My love of thread and cloth with their tactile qualty seemed to be a natural progression from the sketches and paintings that I had made previously.

I love to start with black cloth, taking the colour out with a discharge agent and then over-dyeing the same cloth to bring out the patterns from foliage which has been laid down onto it. I then spend many hours building up textures using torn up pieces of cloth. The next step is to stitch into these collages over and over to build up the textures. This is rather like drawing back into a painting.

ENDLESS HORIZONS

Discharged cotton fabrics, fused raw-edge collage technique, synthetic threads, free-motion embroidered.

47 cm h x 115 cm w

2010

 The dramatic horizon line against the mountains in the distance were stitched using Australian landscape colours.  I draw using a multitude of embroidery threads in my sewing machine.

EARTH WRAP

Discharged cotton fabrics, piecing technique, synthetic threads, free-motion embroidered

 181 cm h x 141 cm w

2003 

 As an artist working from nature, I seek to interpret dramatic elements from the complex, yet transient life withing the Australian forest.

On the ground over time soft humus forms on the forest floor, creating a soft cradle for the re-generation of plant and animal life. 

          

LEAF LITTER

Discharged and overdyed cotton fabrics, fused raw-edge collage technique, synthetic threads, free-motion embroidered.
90cm h x 44cm w
2013

The forest floor covered with leaves creates interesting colours, patterns and textures. The intensely beautiful world provides me with a visual feast of textures and colours to create cloth for my art quilts.

WINGED FRENZY 

Discharged and overdyed cotton fabrics, fused raw-edge collage technique, synthetic threads, free-motion embroidered.119 cm h x 92 cm w2004

I wanted to capture the frenetic energy of our Australian magpie. These fascinating birds are notorious for swooping down onto unsuspecting passers-by during their nesting season.  The play of light, the movement of air and the call of birds are all woven into these surfaces.