Shades of Rarotonga

Press, 24 February 1988, Page 20

Shades of Rarotonga

Colour has always been a part of Diana Whitby’s fabric art, but a recent trip to Rarotonga opened her eyes to new possibilities. “The colours were so vibrant and bright I was inspired to come back and make things with those colours,” she says. An exhibition of her garments and bags will open at the Gefn Gallery on Sunday for two weeks. The shirts, blouses, scarves and jackets are in the bright colours she found in Rarotonga. The theme of the exhibition

is coral and reef fish. To follow the theme she has made fish cushions and bags from the painted silk she works with. The bags and cushions have “fins trailing from them, as do some of the scarves.” Her intention for the window display that accompanies the exhibition is to keep the fish moving using a fan. “The movement and colour is what I wanted to capture of Rarotonga,” she says. “I previously worked mainly with pastels so

these colours are something quite different.” She has not changed her method of hand painting silk, simply her choice of colours. Last year Diana Whitby staged a joint exhibition at Gefn with potter Gaynor Thacker. This exhibition is a solo effort to show the new direction her work has taken. She has been handpainting silk and making garments for some years under the label, Diana. All of the garments in the exhibition are for sale.