Cornelia Weinmann: Portfolio

April 8, 2015

Exhibition at Duke's Corner, Dundee

Visit me at the first Art on the Corner exhibition at Duke's Corner, Dundee.
My work is on display at this once a month showcase of local art talent in Dundee's favourite pub.

Duke's Corner, 13 Brown St, Dundee DD1 5EF
Sunday April 12, 12pm - 6pm

October 17, 2014

Exhibition

My next exhibition:

September 2, 2014

Perthshire Open Studios

Over 220 artists will be displaying their work in 138 venues all over Perthshire. Our studio guide is available in many public and artsy places - pick one up and start exploring. The guide is also available online:

click here

July 17, 2014

Painting: Oil

This painting is part of a series that I have created for the Perthshire Open Studios event in September this year. I had needed a picture for my new kitchen in Kettins - it is site specific so it shows food and kitchen paraphernalia. After finishing it I found I had an appetite (excuse the pun) for more foody images. So I did a few more.

Aubergines on Platter

oil on canvasboard. 2014

46 x 61cm

Design: utensil container

Arguably a silly photo angle, but it appealed to me all those years ago when I painted my first piece of furniture in Canada (I had done similar work before as a teenager, but only in single-colour). There is still a lot of neutral grey in my colour scheme, this changed within a very short time. I also realised that using artists' paint for the backround is quite a waste of prime material - I started brushing on good emulsion paint instead.

Plywood, acrylic primer, paint, varnish. 1996

28x20x28cm, 41x21x28cm

February 27, 2014

Design: painted chair

A Canadian client of mine, an interior decorator in Vancouver, British Columbia, had a comfortable wooden office chair which she thought needed livening up. She told me that she had been a puppeteer for a while, so I painted the chair with a pair of figures from Punch and Judy plays.

Here is a close up of the Punch and Judy chair seat,
and beneath you can see the original unfinished chair.

Punch and Judy chair. 2000

Acrylic paint, acrylic varnish on wood.

May 27, 2013

Fabric design: T-shirt

This motif was part of a custom order. I only remember vaguely that the name of my customer had somehow to do with a toad. Toad and water lilies were cut out from linoleum, carved and inked up with fabric paint, then printed on top of a hand dyed, hand painted T-shirt. The eyes of the amphibian are emphasized with gold paint.

Toad on Water Lily. 1997.

Setacolor fabric paint and Procyon fabric dye on cotton

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