Hollis Chatelain - Textile Artist

Many people ask me what I am working on, where my work is being exhibited and how I am spending my time. This is a new addition to the website that will be updated monthly with the latest things that are happening in my life.

Wow! It is the third week in October already! I was gone most of September and October so I didn’t get a newsletter out the first week of the month.

We are finally getting rain for the first time in months in Hillsborough. Durham is down to only 60 days of water reserves. Hopefully the rain will help the reservoirs and people will continue to conserve. Water is our most precious resource.

I leave for Houston and the wonderful International Quilt Festival in just a few days so I am packing and preparing.

Enclosed you will find the October newsletter. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

I have started research and drawings for a new piece. This is from a dream I had about 18 months ago and is about refugees and Darfur. It will be part of my traveling exhibit “Hope For Our World”.

Two of my pieces have been accepted into the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX. They are "Hope For Our World" and "The Gift". This show takes place October 31^st – November 4^th, 2007. Click here for more information.

“Antiques to Abstracts” opened October 5^th at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. The show will be exhibited at this amazing facility until January 19th, 2008. There are 12 abstract pieces inspired by photographs of antiques that my son took. The show is beautifully hung and the photographs are also displayed. Click here for more information, and click here to see the pieces.

The Tim’s Art Quilt Gallery in La Veta, Colorado is hosting a show called “Figuratively Speaking” that features art from Pamela Allen, Marilyn Belford, Lori Lupe Pelish, Joan Sowada and myself. This is an invitational show featuring the human image in quilts. The work will be up from August 31^st – December 1^st, 2007. Click here for more information.

In September, I taught in a beautiful spot called Waterville in New Hampshire. The trees were just beginning to change and we had five days of intense color lessons. This is year number four in the extended art course for this wonderful group. We had a great class, lots of laughs, hard work and the most amazing food I have ever eaten at a retreat. Thank you Michele for organizing it.

October took me to Boone, NC where I taught a 5-day dye-painting/quilting class. Another beautiful area with lots of talented quilters.

I also went back to Berkeley, CA where we are on class number six in the extended art course. This was a new Color Challenge II workshop that is all about designing with fabrics. We had some amazing work with lots of depth and risk taking. I commend the members of this group for their willingness to take on the challenges I dream up for them (cause they are downright difficult!!). I feel like they are my sisters and love going back to be with them each year. Next year will be Class #7. How fun!!

As I said before, I will be traveling to Houston, TX. on Monday where I will be giving a Marketing seminar, teaching 2 dye-painting workshops and 2 quilting design workshops. Click here for more information.

The Drawing I classes in Raleigh are almost full. There are two time slots available. The dates are April 7^th-9^th and April 14^th-16^th, 2008. Click here for the contact person.

We will also be visiting my studio and taking a field trip to the exhibit “Hope For Our World” that will be hung at the chapel at Duke University during the time of the workshops.

If you would like to know more about these courses, here is a little bit of information:

Drawing is my passion and I have been teaching how to draw for 17 years. It started when I lived in Africa. My students have been from all nationalities and from ages 7 to 86. If you can write your name and have a desire to learn to draw, I guarantee that you will learn to draw in my classes. We started these classes eight years ago here in the states, and it has been growing ever since.

Once a year I go to an area and teach a workshop that lasts from 3-5 days (we now have groups ongoing in Berkeley, New Hampshire, & San Antonio, but I have also taught groups in Los Angeles, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Illinois, Atlanta, & Oregon). The first year is three days of drawing, second year is again three days of drawing, third year is three days of drawing-portraiture, fourth year is five days of color, and fifth/sixth years are four day design classes where everyone works independently creating quilts (based on a challenge from me). We don’t even touch fabric until year #5.

These classes are organized by individuals (not guilds or conferences) and have a maximum of fifteen students. They are intense and you really learn. They are my favorite classes to teach because they give students the confidence and skills to move forward and do what is in their hearts.

If you are interested in joining one of these courses, please check my website. We are going into our second year in San Antonio (it is possible to join on year #2), click here for the contact person. Also click here for the contact person for the Raleigh course.

Don’t hesitate to write quickly to the contact people because the classes fill fast!

We now have giclee prints of “Hope For Our World”, “The Gift”, “The Grandfather”, “Sahel”, "Ecuadorian Girls", "Precious Water", "Fatima’s Son", "School: It’s Never Too Late to Learn"," Nature’s Gift", "Blue Men", "Burkinabe Mother" and "Untold Secrets", and they are all beautiful. click here to check out all the prints and to learn more about giclee prints.

All of the threads that I designed for Superior Threads are for sale on the website. They are sold in packs of 25 because I have found that quilters use threads in a more unique and exciting way when they have the opportunity to “audition” a number of different colors (just like we do with fabrics) before making their final choices. Click here