Cornelia Weinmann: Portfolio

November 6, 2015

Design: furniture

Eighteen drawers - perfect storage! After painting the piece I added strips of copper foil for extra sparkle, and the tiny drawer pulls were decorated in different colours to help finding things quickly.
The Green Tower was a custom order by my Vancouver friend Debra Drayton who later moved to Mexico, couldn't take this piece with her and had to sell it on. So I lost track of it.

Wood, acrylic paint, copper foil. 1999
120x30x20cm

Linoprint competition

My linocut Angel has been selected as a runner-up in Jackson's Linocut Christmas Cards competition - open the link and scroll down.


Angel Linoprint on paper. 2015 15x15cm

October 25, 2015

Exhibition Dundee

I have work in a group show at St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Dundee. The cathedral celebrates the 150th anniversary of its consecration with numerous events, this art exhibition is one of them.

St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral Dundee
1 High Street, Dundee DD1 1TD
October 17 - November 8, Tue - Sun, 11am -3pm

Town in the Hills. 2011
Watercolour and mixed media on Yupo paper.
59x40cm

July 11, 2015

Design: Furniture

My dresser Red Nose is one of those pieces of furniture that have done service for generations. I found it in the basement of an elderly couple’s house in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They did not want to bring it to their new downsized place. The straightforward proportions of this chest of drawers have influenced my design. Its name derives from the new round knobs that I chose because they make a perfect match for the red circles of my design.

Wood, acrylic paint. 1997
99x51x84cm

July 7, 2015

Painting: Mixed media

Poppies add a riot of colour to my garden, just before the roses open their blossoms. Poppy flower heads aren't long lived, their soft petals fall off quickly in wind or rain and turn into mushy blobs on the garden path. I wanted to record their beauty and did this painting using watercolours and wax resist.

Oriental Poppies
Mixed media on paper. 2015
55x42cm.

Design: Furniture

This vintage chest was one of the first pieces of furniture that I painted. It illustrates my idea of recycling furniture, giving it a new life by painting it and by finding stylish matching hardware for it.
I had found the piece at a garage sale in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It appealed to me with its clean proportions. I named it Double Breasted because I arranged the knobs like on a men's suit.

Wood, acrylic paint, brass hardware. 1998
Size: 76x46x84cm

Drawing: Crayons

Hawkweed grows in my rockery. It's a wild flower, sometimes considered a weed because it spreads furiously. I let it grow though because I love the variety of orange hues on the petals, the flowers really stand out. When they start going to seed I pull them out, and because of this I decided to draw a few Hawkweed stalks in full bloom because they are very pretty.

Hawkweed
Crayons and pencil on paper. 2015
16x23cm.

About my work

I have always been a maker of things, for as long as I can think back. My innate sense for colour, shape and balance first found expression in painting on glass, making linocuts and collages, assembling three-dimensional scenes in cigar boxes, sculpting with papier mâché and weaving. All these creative skills were put aside when I embarked on a career in the ivory towers of university. However, the call to be a maker rather than a university teacher did not remain unheard. I integrated academic experience with creativity and started working as an exhibit designer in my birthplace Munich, Germany. Making things became my profession after moving to British Columbia in Western Canada, where I opened a home based studio for functional art in the Upper Fraser Valley near Vancouver. I started painting furniture and fabrics. My work was part of the rapidly growing trend to refinish and reuse creatively: I mainly used vintage furniture and transformed it into bright focal points for unique interiors, complemented by my hand dyed, hand printed fabrics. These pieces, with bright colours and abstract designs, were shown in exhibitions and window displays.

I have since moved back to Europe and lived for a long while in the West of Ireland before taking up residence in Wales, and since 2014 in Perthshire, Scotland. During that time my focus shifted from functional art to more decorative work, to printmaking and painting applying a variety of techniques.

Then came the moment when I was asked to help promote the idea of reusing and repurposing materials by running classes in vintage furniture painting. This task reconnected me with expertise acquired in the past and led to many contacts with organisations and projects advocating waste reduction, recycling, the need to introduce new economic models of sustainability and circularity.

Learning how the fashion industry that we are familiar with harms the environment and fashion workers rights, and how much waste we produce because we treat clothing as throw-away items gave me a veritable shock. My response was to start altering some of my clothes rather than buying new ones - and I rediscovered my love of sewing. I attended sewing and embroidery classes and eventually decided to make textile art the new direction in my creative practice.

Now I hand-tailor unique garments made mainly from repurposed fabric and contribute to the production of sustainable fashion of high quality, and thus to a section of the circular economy. I feel proud that I was able to transition my small business in this direction, and I definitely like being noticed when I wear my own creations showing flamboyant colours and contemporary designs in my unique signature style.

My studio is located near Coupar Angus in Perthshire (check the business hours on my Facebook page). I sell from my studio, from my own web shop and and from my Perthshire Artisans shop.

For an easy overview of my work visit my website:
www.corneliaweinmanndesign.com
www.perthshire-artisans.scot

Or my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CorneliaWeinmannArtist