The Artist
Vickie Newington, SCA
9847 Palistone Road S.W.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2V 3W1Phone - 403-281-1182
Email - Vickie@VickieNewington.com
Website - www.vickienewington.com
Biography
I am an experienced and accomplished fibre artist, whose love of creating started as a small child. To this day, my favourite media are glass, fibre and mixed media, as they are versatile and very expressive.
In 2000, I enrolled in the very intense City and Guilds of London Design and Embroidery program, and graduated in 2004 from Part I. Fibre-based, the course taught me to experiment with different materials such as Tyvek (a fibrous material that bubbles when heated), tissue paper made stitchable, and Timtex (a very stiff kind of felt) in a contemporary fashion, pushing the limits of what they could do. I cannot help but explore further with fibre. The City and Guilds course gave me the confidence to put my work up where others could see and enjoy it. Since then, I have been very active in various organizations and groups, exhibiting, and selling my work. I joined the Society of Canadian Artists in 2003.
Travelling to other provinces and countries make me realize how much I enjoy architecture, and gardening makes me appreciate Mother Nature. Anything visually textural is interesting to me, it gets me thinking about how I could render it with fabrics and glass.
Today, I work full time as a fibre artist. I exhibit regularly and my work appears in private collections in Canada and the United States. My dream for the future is to continue growing and learning as I create my art, and share my knowledge with others, which satisfies my soul.
Artist Statement
Working with textiles has been a lifelong pleasure for me, and fusing glass is a new love. I have a passion for trying new techniques and concoctions that can be adapted for my use as a glass and fibre artist. I am fascinated by the richness of layering – the way an image appears and disappears underneath another image that is partially visible - that allows the viewer to make up their own stories about what the images are or what has happened to them. I approach design in a painterly fashion, being aware of contrasts, leading the viewer’s eye around, and using other “guidelines” of painting.
I work with lines, form and most especially texture. My new pieces are inspired by the colours and waves of water ruffled by the wind in a Yukon lake, tiny insect holes in the ground, weathered corrugated metal, or the drop-dead gorgeous changing hues of an Aurora Borealis.
After quickly sketching out some ideas, I enlarge the image to use as a pattern. Then I begin the piece by fusing some glass together, using sheet glass for the bulk of the design, and incorporating fine bits of glass called frit to add more colour and texture. Choosing appropriate fabrics to complement the glass, be they smooth or nubbly, shiny or matte, I then apply a “basecoat” of colour. When this layer has dried, I stamp, stencil, or silkscreen to give me an all-important texture, and then the real fun starts with embellishment – beading, stitching by hand or machine, applying other fabrics, or a myriad of other possibilities.
The most important aspect of a successful piece of art is that it must first and foremost be a good design. Then, it must exhibit skilled craftsmanship, and the techniques used must be appropriate to getting the point of the work across to the viewer. My methods are labour intensive, and sometimes unorthodox, but chosen to work well with my vision, and maintain a high quality of craftsmanship.Fabric is tactile – it is warm, versatile, and very flexible. Depending on the final look I’m after, I can create a look that is hard and shiny, fuzzy and squishy, or crumbling due to age. Sometimes leaving the edges raw and unfinished makes my work livelier, more spontaneous, with threads at the edges dangling off the piece. Glass is just the opposite - it is hard, shiny, and does not "give" at all. It provides a lovely contrast to the fibre.
The sizes of my pieces vary from miniatures to very large works, and most of them hang on a wall. They are sold in galleries and through commissioned orders.
Curriculum Vitae
SOLO SHOWS
Sechelt Art Gallery, confirmed Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada 2012
Terrace Gallery Terrace, British Columbia, Canada 2010
Allied Arts Council Gallery Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
FibreEssence Gallery Vancouver, British Columbia., Canada 2007
Alberta Craft Council Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 2000
SELECTED JURIED AND CURATED EXHIBITIONSWestern Showcase Silent Auction Stampede Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2011
Women of Fibre, Whyte Museum, Articulation Banff, Alberta, Canada
Textiles show, Airdrie Library Airdrie, Alberta, Canada
3-person show, Jubilee Auditorium Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2010
International Contemporary Masters,
Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Arts Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Women Rock, Articulation, Canadian Quilters' Association Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Urban Textures, Articulation, McMullen Gallery Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 2009
Urban Textures, Articulation, Mennonite Centre Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Cherry Blossoms, Friends of fibreEssence, fibreEssence Gallery Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 2008
Meta Incognita, Articulation, Mary E. Black Gallery Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Changes, Free Spirits, Akokiniskway Gallery Rosebud, Alberta, Canada 2007
Meta Incognita, Articulation, Banff Centre for Performing Arts Banff, Alberta, Canada
Fantasy, Grand National, Kitchener/Waterloo Art Gallery Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
A Sense of Place, Society of Canadian Artists, Leighton Art Foundation Millarville, Alberta, Canada
Changes, Free Spirits, Leighton Art Foundation Millarville, Alberta, Canada
Meta Incognita in conjunction with the Calgary Opera Company,
Articulation, Jubilee Auditorium Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Members’ Show, Society of Canadian Artists,
Art Gallery of Northumberland Coburg, Ontario, Canada 2006
Still Related, 2-woman show, Sidestreet Gallery Wellington, Ontario, Canada
InSeries, Alberta Craft Council Travelling, Alberta, Canada
Just For Fun, Focus on Fibre Arts Association Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Changes, Free Spirits, Cityscape North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Changes, Free Spirits, McMullen Gallery Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Related, 2-woman show, Sidestreet Gallery Wellington, Ontario, Canada 2005
West Coast Textures, fibreEssence North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Badlands, Articulation, the Station Okotoks, Alberta, Canada
Spring Grandeur, Society of Canadian Artists, Gallery on the Grand Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
All About Alberta, Alberta Craft Council Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
texture of time, 2-woman show, Alliance Francaise, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Members' Show, Society of Canadian Artists Juried Exhibition Guelph, Ontario, Canada 2004
City and Guilds Graduation Exhibition Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Elemental Inspiration – Out of the Wildfire, Whyte Museum Banff, Alberta, Canada
Constructions of Canada, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Canadian Landscapes, Invitational Show, Quilt Museum La Conner, Washington U.S.A.
Pan Canadian Quilt Show Hawaii, U.S.A.
New Members’ Show, Society of Canadian Artists, Heliconian Hall Toronto, Ontario, Canada
City and Guilds of London Show, Cultural Centre Gallery Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Fantasy in Fibre, Free Spirits, Bowman Centre Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada 2003
Appleby Gallery Oakville, Ontario, Canada 2002
Avens Gallery Canmore, Alberta, Canada
AWARDS AND COMMISSIONS
Floral Sunshine - Private Commission Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2007
I See the Sea - Private Commission Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2005
Empty Nest - Best of category, Focus on Fibre Arts Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Barn I - Honorable Mention, Society of Canadian Artists Show Guelph, Ontario, Canada
The Healing Tree - Best in Show, Focus on Fibre Arts, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 2004
Hilltop Town - Private Commission East Wallingford, Vermont, U.S.A. 2002
RESIDENCIES
Ted Harrison Artist Retreat Yukon, Canada 2009
Banff Center Banff, Alberta, Canada
Banff Center Banff, Alberta, Canada 2008
ARTICLES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONMeta Incognita Explores Frobisher, by Vickie Newington, Summer Issue, Canadian Quilters’ Association, 2007
Contemporary Calgary Fibre Art by Vickie Newington, Summer Issue, Canadian Quilters’ Association, 2005
Profiles by Chuck Ruff, St Albert Gazette, Alberta, Canada, 2003
Gallery Exhibition Wide-Ranging by Christopher Nash, Stony Plain Reporter, Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada, 2003
A Woman’s Work is Never Done by Mary-Beth Laviolette, Calgary Herald Interview, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2002
Free Spirits Exhibition, Shaw Television Interview, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2002
Alberta Winter Games 2000 Calendar, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, 1999
EDUCATIONCity and Guilds Embroidery and Design, under Gail Harker, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2000-2004
Studied painting weekly with David Kitler at the Jon Williams’ Studio, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 1997-2000
Independent studies, 1978 to present including Techniques Only with Gail Hunt, Frescoes & Fragments and Raising the Surface with Maggie Grey, Pyrotextiles with Amanda Jones , Surface Embellishment with Glenys Mann, Designing from Nature with Ruth Mc Dowell, and many others.
College of Art and Design, Calgary Alberta, Canada, Foundation Year, 1984
BSc in General Studies, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 1973-1977
AFFILIATIONSSociety of Canadian Artists
Alberta Craft Council
Visual Arts Alberta Association
Articulation
Leighton Art CentreCAR/FAC
Warm Glass Guild
Home The Artist Her Work Her Associates
Calgary, AB, Canada
Phone 403-281-1182 - Vickie@VickieNewington.com
© Vickie Newington. All rights reserved