During 2020, Effie was laid low with Covid 19 which became Long Covid. A year later in 2021 she still had little energy for quilt making. However she found her way to watercolours and started painting at a small size. In this gallery you will find her Postcard Paintings which all reflect her memories of the Western Isles. The paintings are drawn from sketches, memories and photographs.
There are only three new pieces in this gallery. It sounds as though output has been low, however Effie's main energies have gone into producing her book Patterns in Landscape, over the last couple of years and making sure people know what is included in it and that it is available.
The three pieces offered here are totally different.
In this gallery you will find images of Effie's work depicting a variety of the many aspects of landscapes on the Isle of Lewis: Peatlands, Standing Stones, Beaches, Machair and more. They all add to the character of this unique place.
Photos of work by Dominic Hewitt. www.needlevision.co.uk
Images of work in this gallery include scenes from the Isle of Harris to the Uists, Skye to Coll and Tiree, and including Wester Ross and Argyll on mainland Scotland.
Photos of work by Dominic Hewitt. www.needlevision.co.uk
Squares triangles and hexagons are more what is expected when the word quilt is mentioned. This gallery includes images of a more traditional sort. There are lap quilts, bed quilts and children's quilts.
Photos of work by Dominic Hewitt. www.needlevision.co.uk and Effie Galletly.
There is only one piece in this gallery. After a great deal of thinking and worrying about cutting into finished work, Effie decided to change her two pieces, Lazy Beds 1 and 2, made earlier this year.
The focus for 2015 has been the shape and form of the lazy beds in Lewis and the dazzle of the machair when it blooms. Lazy beds are marks of cultivation in the land from centuries past. No one really knows quite how long ago the people who lived here used these. And it is probably the case that those lines found higher on hills, as in Harris, are likely to also have been lines for drainage. One way or another the lines are still, even now, very evident in the landscape, very green in the summer and sometimes lined with machair (wild flower). They are wonderfully sculptural.
The machair is profuse in fields behind sandy shores, where the sand thrown up on the peaty fields makes an ideal medium for the extraordinary mix of wild flowers.
The gallery for Summer 2014 shows work made when time has been very limited. Other parts of life have encroached. So lateral thinking has had to come into play to keep being able to offer work. ie the pieces are a bit smaller which of course makes the prices smaller too. It makes an original piece more affordable.
Autumn in the north was sensational in 2013 and memories of the brilliant colour live on in the mind. Some of the pieces in this gallery are inspired by those colours. A few are much smaller landscape patchworks prepared in mount board ready to be framed. These smaller patchworks are a new kind of work for the galleries. There may be more to come.
All photographs by Effie Galletly.
On arriving in Lewis in February 2013 after a discombobulating few months, Effie discovered that unwittingly she had put together a series of work relating to the Clisham, the highest point on the Outer Hebrides. She had been looking at it from many different angles fascinated by the shape and form. The results are in the gallery.
Photos of the work by Effie Galletly.
As this piece, Carlaway Panorama, is very wide and not very high, this gallery has been set up so that it is possible to see the skyline broken down into six overlapping slices. It is possible therefore to see it in more detail.
The content of this work is still centred on the Hebridean Islands. It is only smaller in scale.
Photos of work by Dominic Hewitt. www.needlevision.co.uk
Effie works from sketches, painting and photos for her chosen pieces. However there are many places, topics and views which lend themselves more to being photos, rather than being suitable for a textile project. In this gallery are a few of those and they will be added to from time to time.
All photos in this gallery by Effie Galletly.
