Award-winning artistic quilter Leslie Forbes (right) was invited by Gail Howard (left) to speak to the members of the Sunshine Ridge Art Group on Monday. Howard has been teaching art skills to the members for the past several months. The members made this lovely wall hanging to give to Forbes as a thank you for her presentation to them. Also seen is Sunshine Ridge manager Tracy Harfman. (Keith Lacey photo)
An acclaimed artistic quilter who has gained national attention for her impressive and colourful work paid a visit to a group of aspiring senior artists in Osoyoos on Monday.
Leslie Forbes and her husband moved from Vancouver to Osoyoos last September to retire from their working careers, but it hasn’t stopped Leslie from continuing to produce remarkable artistic quilts.
On Monday, Forbes was the special guest of the newly-formed Sunshine Ridge Art Group, which features a group of about a dozen seniors who live at the Osoyoos retirement residence.
Local artist Gail Howard has volunteered her time and artistic skills over the past several months teaching members of the art group the basics as many of them had never painted or engaged in artistic endeavours before.
Several members of the Sunshine Ridge Art Group put together their inaugural show, featuring all original paintings, last fall.
Howard is a friend of Forbes’ and invited her to talk to the group and show off some of her art quilts and Forbes gladly accepted.
Born and raised in New Brunswick, Forbes was introduced to weaving and quilting as a very young girl by her mother and her grandmother and she has been “hooked” ever since.
“It has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember,” said Forbes.
While she greatly respects traditional quilting and quilters, Forbes stressed that her main passion is “artistic quilting” which involves using multiple colours and materials to create vivid images similar to what you would observe in a painting.
Some of the artistic quilts she showcased on Monday included spectacular skylines in Montana, grain elevators that are so prominent in small towns across western Canada, detailed flower collections and much more.
Forbes’ work is recognized in the artistic quilting community as a recent work claimed second prize in the national Canadian Quilting Association competition and she also has work on display at two different shows in Washington State.
While retired after a long career as a teacher, Forbes doesn’t have any plans on retiring from artistic quilting.
“I work almost every day … how much depends on how I feel and what I’m working on,” she said. “I have a studio in our home in Osoyoos and I’m in there pretty much every day.”
Forbes invited members from the Sunshine Ridge art group to visit her studio if they wanted to learn more about this particular art form.
Several members of the group also took the time to create a lovely wall hanging they presented to Forbes for volunteering her time to speak to them.
Forbes has travelled extensively throughout her life and says much of her quilting work is inspired by the people, places and memorable sites she’s visited around the world.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
