The members from Queenstown, Glenorchy, Garston, Wanaka, Alexandra and Lawrence meet regularly to share ideas and resources and critique each other's work. They usually exhibit every two years, often as part of the Festival of Colour over the Crown Range.
As the exhibition Upstream of the Herd was being installed in the gallery of the Lakes District Museum this week, Queenstown member Wendy Ward said members responded to a set challenge with their own limitless interpretation.
A photograph of an artistically arranged woodpile in Liechtenstein prompted artists to cut, stitch, dye, sew and assemble fabric to create more than a dozen pieces focusing on warmth for the winter, memories and the tree of life.
However, the majority of the 73 pieces on display featured a broad variety of topics, styles and approaches, realist and abstract. The price range was $150 to $1300.
Amanda Hasselman, of Glenorchy, re-created the style of early tourism posters, which promoted a slower pace of travel, with the use of recycled blankets appliqued with brightly coloured hand-dyed silk and silk velvet and densely stitched, to oppose the controversial Milford Dart tunnel proposal.
The Coots exhibition ''Upstream of the Herd'' was previewed by invited guests last night and opens to the public today. It runs until April 7.
