Maharajah's Garden Exhibition

via Australian Textile & Surface Design Association (ATASDA)

The Maharajah's Garden Exhibition will started in Sydney, Australia in March 2010 and travels for two years around Australia. Our them was "Maharajah's Garden" and we had to let our inspiration roam free and come up with something unusual. My very first thought went to elephants, and to the festival I'd seen online where the elephants are painted fabulously wild and bright colours, adorned with bells and baubles, and this truly captured my imagination.

Once our artwork was submitted and accepted, the exhibition pieces were packed in two beautifully handpainted normal-sized suitcases, and will be on display in art galleries, exhibition spaces and schools across Australia.

One of the suitcases is shown here >>

Each item is accompanied by an A3-sized Artist's Statement & Techniques Board, bound together in a large folder, to show how the pieces were created and what the inspiration was for each Artist.

Here is my contribution - the Maharajah's Elephant:

Details of the Silk Painting

Size of silk:  40x60cm/15.75x23.62inches

Type of silk: Sandwashed silk, white

Dyes: Silk Dyes

Outliner: Abfab seaweed outliner

Artist: Teena Hughes

For more information on the journey of the Exhibition and all the whistle-stops along the way, plus a history of the suitcases, pop over to the ATASDA website >>