Cornelia Weinmann: Portfolio

March 22, 2016

Design: furniture

Found at a yard sale in the Coquitlam area near Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, this piece was originally painted pink and missing one of the large drawers. The owner worked on the local Search and Rescue team, I turned that into a title for this chest.
My never failing cabinet maker, Alex Marcuzzi from North Vancouver, replaced the missing drawer, and Ted Martin in Pitt Meadows realised my design idea of triangles added to the back of this piece of furniture.
I wasn't really thinking of a connection between triangles and mountains, but looking at the title - why not...

Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish, metal knobs. 1999
107x51x91cm

March 20, 2016

Design: furniture

I was asked to contribute a painted chair to an event celebrating re-using and upcycling at the local primary school in Coupar Angus. An old school chair was given to me and I decorated it with pencils - everybody needs pencils in class. When preparing the chair for painting I found the obligatory chewing gum stuck to the underside of the seat. So hard I couldn't get all of it off. Oh well, it's now sealed with paint - home made chalk paint.


Painting the chair in my studio

Finished chair
acrylic primer, paint and varnish. 2016

Design: furniture

This design was created by masking off successive parts of the beech wood tabletop and painting it in different colours. I wasn't thinking of a particular motive, but I began to see an image:

Deserted place,

trees stretching toward the horizon.

Dust on the sidewalk, dappled with sunlight.

Curtains drawn to block out the heat.

Branches yearning for the cool of concrete.

This image reminds me of a still and brooding Sunday Afternoon, which I chose as the name for this table.

Beech wood, acrylic paint, varnish. 1999
64x64x74cm

November 10, 2015

Winter Market on Nov 14

You are invited to explore our trail of Christmas markets in and around Coupar Angus.
Browse local arts and crafts, enjoy refreshments and wander through an illuminated garden!

If you don't know where the studios are, click here for a map!

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

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