The Art Needlepoint Company Offers Cruise on the Queen Mary 2

The Art Needlepoint Company was founded on the simple idea that art, like good design, should be available to everyone. Their canvasses represent a large variety of artists from nearly all centuries and genres. With a myriad of thread and stitch choices, stitchers can unleash their creativity to make each canvas their own.

Now, stitchers can come together on the Company’s first cruise aboard the Queen Mary 2 sailing from NYC on July 27th 2011 on a six day crossing – a time for unwinding and relaxation and when the weather is most often ideal to travel across the pond. Lorna Bateman, one of England’s better known embroidery and needlepoint instructors will be onboard and there will be technique instruction every day with chances beyond class time to stitch together and learn from one another. A variety of topics will be covered. The cruise vacation will culminate at the Royal School of Needlework in London and for those who wish to stay on for an extra few days, there is a planned a tour of the tapestries at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Calmady Children by Sir Thomas Lawrence

During the cruise, stitchers will learn how to stitch a face, enliven an abstract image with a variety of stitches or give dimension to a landscape by shading with thread. We’ll teach them how to select a masterpiece canvas to match their skill level or learn how and why to select fiber best suited for particular canvases. The Art Needlepoint Company’s cruises and retreats have an educational component to them; both an art history education or cultural review of a particular destination (cruise) as well as an educational component of needlepoint focused on stitches and ways to interpret paintings with threads.

Plums, Walnuts and Jasmine

The QM2 is a trip of a lifetime. The Queen Mary has many beautiful attributes as well as a wide variety of activities available on board for people to do in addition to needlepoint. The ship sets the tone for the experience. It is a gorgeous vessel and we hope that everyone who joins us completes or near to completes a gorgeous canvas! If any one would like more details on what canvases are offered or course syllabus they are welcome to phone or email us. A second cruise is planned for December on The Ruby Princess which travels the Eastern Caribbean – Princess’ private island, St. Martin, St. Thomas, Grand Turk.

In the works for 2011 are several one-two or three day retreats for those who want to share that needlepoint community experience but prefer a shorter, land-based adventure. As Doreen Finkle explains, “To replicate the cruise experience on land, all of our retreats will be based at spas and luxury hotels around the country. For both the cruises and retreats, particpants are welcome to bring a canvas from home. However, we will have a special selection of canvases, keyed to either the cruise or retreat theme, which participants can view and select at the Art Needlepoint site.

Collies

“This year we are planning a retreat in Raleigh NC . This will be a retreat in the fall. We will have one day at the Raleigh Museum of Art with a specially developed tour of the American painters collection and modern paintings with another day of classes. The canvases we would like people to bring with them to class will be either a portrait (American painter) a landscape (American painter) or a modern canvas. We will discuss how to stitch faces and skin so that they are realistic, as well as other technique points. There will always be a one on one opportunity to ask for specific assistance on whatever the individual requests.

“We also have a retreat planned for the late summer in Boston. We will gather together at the Colonnade Hotel, which is in walking distance to the MFA, Boston where we will have a private specially developed tour of their magnificent newly built Art of the Americas wing. Our class format will follow the day after the tour and will focus on portraits and landscapes. We will talk about techniques for creating light and dark with different threads, as well as rendering realistic faces and skin. There will always be a one on one opportunity to ask for specific assistance on whatever the individual requests.”

For further cruise details, contact Doreen at the Art Needlepoint Company, or by telephone (978) 226-8271.