Anne Bellas made a few traditional quilts and then discovered art quilts. She creates her textile paintings with her hand-dyed fabrics. Working in a series, she explores new designs and color palettes.
How did you get started making fiber art?
I started in 2016, after having met a woman who made beautiful patchwork bedspreads. I had no experience of that medium but knew right away that I had a bond with textiles.
I made a couple of traditional quilts and was not satisfied with the lack of creativity. I didn’t want to have to follow a pattern and work to the millimeter, so I was on the verge of giving up. At that point, I discovered art quilts while surfing on Pinterest and found what I was looking for.
Why did you choose that medium?
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I’m not an artist in the pictorial sense of the word, I can’t draw and when I paint, for example, I’m afraid I won’t be able to go back if a brushstroke is unfortunate for the composition or not what I wanted. With fabric, I can always cut, sew and re-sew.
How does your environment influence your creativity?
My mood of the day influences what I want to work on when I enter my studio. I always have several paintings on the go, at different stages, and I often choose intuitively which one I want to move on to. Depending on the day, but also on the time of day: I tend to create in the morning, do the jobs that don’t involve too much decision-making in the afternoon, like quilting, and in the evening I do the boring technical jobs, like preparing facings or sleeves.
Do you do series work?
I started working on series in 2019: for example, I’ve created my “Arc en ciel” (rainbow) series of 12 paintings of the same size and structure, but each with a different dominant color.
Then I created other series “Window views”, “Chacun sa vue” (each their own view). In 2022, I created “12 textile cathedrals”, which were exhibited at the Sainte Croix cultural center in Nantes last March.
And in 2023, I worked on “Du fleuve à l’océan (from river to ocean), 22 paintings which were exhibited in May in a gallery in Delaware, and which will be shown again next September, this time in France, at the Carrefour européen du patchwork.
How does that affect your approach?
I love working on series. It gives me the opportunity to delve deeper into a subject, to approach it in different ways, with different colors. I “grow”, I can see the progression, the progress. It’s like a kind of kaleidoscope, allowing you to see an image from a variety of points of view, which is very exciting. When I do a painting that doesn’t belong to a series, I hesitate between leaving it on its own, orphaned so to speak, and continuing by developing it and giving it “brothers and sisters”.
Do you plan your work out ahead of time, or do you just dive in with your materials and start playing?
Neither nor, it depends. Sometimes I have an idea in my head and I make a few sketches on paper. Other times, I choose fabrics that speak to me and get started. In any case, the end point isn’t at all what I’d imagined at the outset. This means I’m faced with a wide range of possibilities that don’t lock me into a decision.
Are you a “finisher”? How many UFOs do you think you have?
I hate leaving a painting hanging and tend to concentrate on finishing it. Sometimes I let it “marinate” for a while on my design wall when I feel stuck. But most of the time, the solution comes pretty quickly, it’s a matter of days or weeks.
I still have a few pieces that aren’t finished, because I can feel they don’t work. When I’m in the middle of a series, I don’t think about anything else, I stay focused on it so these pieces wait in the cupboard. When I give myself a few days of respite between two paintings from the same series, I take the opportunity to “pick up” an old piece to see if I have evolved and if I can make something from it. I happened to cut an UFO quilt into pieces to make several smaller ones that worked.
Describe your creative space.
I have my own room in the apartment where we live. But it is very small, only 90 sq ft. I have to fit everything in this space: my desk with my computer, my sewing machine, my cutting table and my ironing area, my shelves for threads, fabrics and other materials, a cupboard to store finished paintings and a free wall that serves as a design wall. I even have a tiny sink that allows me to dye my fabrics.
Scraps. Saver? Or be done with them?
I keep the leftovers, which I use from time to time to make smaller paintings.
Do you use a sketchbook or journal? How does that help your work develop?
I have a sketchbook where I write down my ideas and make my sketches in pencil. But I don’t use it a lot.
When you travel, do you create while on planes and in waiting areas? What is in your creative travel kit?
When I travel by car (as a passenger since I drive very little) or by train, I take the opportunity to do finishing work which does not require great concentration. For example sewing hems. But in order to create, I need my environment, my tools…which I don’t have at my disposal when traveling.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
I create 2 or 3 paintings per month, and I work on them every day for several hours a day. I like being in my studio room, surrounded by my tools, my colors, my projects. It gives me a lot of joy and energy.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
When I created my first cathedral, I had not thought of a cathedral. I just wanted to use 2 fabrics that I had screen printed and that looked great together. I cut, sewed, assembled and improvised for about forty hours…and it was disappointing because it didn’t work, despite all the variations I made on the design wall.
And then one morning, I caught a glimpse of the cathedral that seemed to emerge, and I then consciously worked on the constituent elements of a cathedral, namely a portal, a rose window, towers, and pointed windows. This is how the “Cathedral of 1000 Suns “came out, and it was exhibited in a tour of the USA in 2022-2024.
It was a cathedral of light, in broad daylight, resplendent and I then decided to create a mirrored cathedral in a nighttime atmosphere. Other ideas quickly sprouted…
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?
Creation and composition is what excites me the most. Quilting is the part that is the most difficult for me, because I am not skilled enough, I don’t have enough experience and I don’t have the space to install a long arm.
How do you know when a piece or project is finished and needs no additional work?
When I am happy with the result, I stop, the pleasure of the journey is enough for me.
How has your creativity evolved over the years? What triggered the evolution to new media/kinds of work/ways of working?
I’m a piecer at heart, but I quickly felt the need to dye and print my fabrics, especially after inheriting the pile of cotton sheets and tablecloths from my great-grandmother’s dowry. These excellent quality vintage cottons (they are between 100 and 130 years old) are white, and take Procion dyeing very well. I have tried other techniques, appliqué, picture editing through various apps…but I prefer to deepen a technique rather than try everything.
Do you enter juried shows? Do you approach your work differently for these venues?
Until last April, I was the SAQA representative for the Europe and Middle East region, so I am very close to this association which promotes our art. I have applied and been selected numerous times for group exhibitions or virtual exhibitions offered by SAQA. I am also a member of the group of artists “20 perspectives”, with whom I exhibit regularly. And since last year, I have been trying to show my work in solo exhibitions (4 in 2024, 2 in France and 2 in the USA)
What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
I don’t need to do anything to be motivated, I’m passionate.
Do you critique your own work? What is your process?
Yes, although I have no formal artistic training (I am a linguist by trade), I systematically critique my paintings, checking that they meet the different artistic criteria of a composition such as line, shape, scale, movement, color, proportion, value, texture, repetition, variety, unity, rhythm, balance…
Where can people see your work?
Some of my paintings have been purchased by private collectors, but my works are visible on my website, which I try to keep up to date: annebellas.com
Interview posted July 2024
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