Quilter V Artist

I must admit that I'm not keen on quilters' blogs that stray into posts about animals, food, babies, husbands and other non quilt related items.  

But recently I've been learning how to oil paint and am thoroughly enjoying this new experience. This got me thinking about what I am (artist, quilter, textile artist, crafter?) and how all these skills overlap. 

As a contemporary quilter (who also makes traditional quilts) I know that my painting and drawing skills, colour theory etc. are invaluable when designing a new quilt, and mixed media, printing and dyeing can all be termed as 'art'. So the label 'textile artist' seemed to fit the bill... until yesterday, when a friend said that no-one has described Van Gogh an 'oil' artist so why do we bother saying we are 'textile' artists. So I now declare that I am an ARTIST who uses paints, pencils, dyes, fabrics, threads, crayons and much, much more ....

So, getting back to where I started with this post, here is a start-to-almost-finished show of my first oil painting. My teacher, ARTIST Megan Byrne (who is an amazing quilter) is using the old masters' style to teach me the technique and I'm copying 'The Valpinçon Bather' by Ingres (top)