Here I am again but this time to tell you about our current exhibition Marking Our Way at the Broadway Gallery, Letchworth which runs until 31 July.

During the pandemic and lockdowns myself and three other textile artists, Janet Edmonds, Marian Hall and Janet Pullen, met on line to encourage each other creatively.  Inspired by creativity coach Rod Judkins, we each considered how we would design the cover of a fictional biography; the seeds of a project were sown.  As ideas for the book covers evolved and crystallised, we started researching other artists who created autobiographical work with which some personal connection was felt.

 My book cover reflects My Textile Journey until now

I was brought up near St Ives and, although living elsewhere, have remained closely associated with the area.  In my view, all creative work is in a sense autobiographical as unless one relates to an area it is difficult to feel connected.  This led to our own autobiographical work.  I chose the work of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in particular her and her understanding of the forces and layers that give the depth to natural forms.  In pieces like Eight Lines, Porthmeor the essence of the rolling waves is captured.

My response to this Tidelines reflects the natural lines made by the sea as it washes over the sand leaving elements deposited by the sea as it retreats.  It is a digital print from my photograph taken in the early morning.  I have extensively stitched the image although my choice of threads is very subtle and not obvious.

 Tidelines

A second piece, I made from a photograph of deposits left by the sea on a different day, can be considered as Tidelines II or as hung a range of hills.  It is up to the viewer what it represents to them, hence is Untitled.

 Untitled

Spending more time at home was an opportunity to take stock we were able to address the questions: Who am I?  What do I do?  What do I like?  Why do I like them? and How do I work?

My own autobiographical work again reflected the part of St Ives Bay where I grew up.  I always take a lot of photographs during my early morning walk sometimes with magical results.  Early Morning on Porth Kidney was a beautiful sunrise in the autumn.  It is a small quilt that is made of raw edge appliqué pieces and felt which has been machine quilted.

 Early Morning on Porth Kidney

Another early morning photograph of the tidal estuary near Porth Kidney led to my own autobiographical work.

The photograph was manipulated and had paper cords applied and then the resulting image was digitally printed onto fabric.  The resulting fabric was quilted and hand stitched to create A Spectra of Reflections.

 A Spectra of Reflections

Although we did not set out to write a book, the act of writing helped to clarify thoughts and to share ideas amongst ourselves.  The book can be viewed on line via https://www.marianhallart.com/marking-our-way.

Textile work makes use of the head, heart, and hands.  Through this process I have had to think hard about the way I work and what has led me to my work.  I am someone who likes order but enjoys randomness and a degree of serendipity.  Perhaps that is why I like abstracting bits of photographs in paper lamination through an image on a screen to create a pattern on the cloth.  Probably I really like ordered chaos that reaches a point of resolution.

This is perhaps a little late but, if you have found this blog interesting, you can meet the artists at the gallery this Saturday (23 July) between 14.00 and 16.00.  Hope I might see some of you there.

 Once again it is a very long time since I updated my blog.  This does not mean I have been doing nothing, in fact I have been busy with textiles and exhibitions but I won't cover them all only the more recent events.

In the last couple of years I joined the Quilters Guild and the linked Contemporary Quilters.  Quilts is not a medium I explore very often.  However, I recently put quilts into Quilters Guild Region 2 annual event and was part of a small gallery with the other three who make up Fabricata.  The Region 2 challenge required a quilt created using two different fabrics 16inches wide and 40 inches deep.  My stash of fabrics is always growing and I have decided to use them rather than buy or print anything new.  I chose a finely woven cotton that was a breakdown print with shells printed on top and a very loose weave cotton dust sheet which I had used for breakdown printing.  The latter was easy to hand sew but stretched and moved under any form of machine sewing even with a walking foot.  So rather than fix it to another medium, I hand quilted that part of the work.  So a patchwork of images were joined and hand or machine stitched to create Round and Round or Caught in the Net,

 Caught in the Net

In 2022 I also exhibited at Ramster, a lovely historic house with a wonderful garden.  The exhibition was soon after the gales had swept through the southeast and the loss of trees was evident.  It was a very interesting and varied exhibition with a wide variety of work.

Early in 2022 The Worshipful Company of Broderers had an exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, London entitled 'The Art of Embroidery'.  My piece Underfoot was included.  It is a paper lamination of the path under my feet as I take a regular walk along the estuary to a beach on St Ives Bay.  The work was machine embroidered and hand stitched with some pebbles highlighted with darning.

 Underfoot

In October 2021 I decided to enter the Contemporary Quilters Challenge to produce a quilt that could be viewed from both sides and was 30cm wide at the top and 150cm long.  Much of my textile art is created as paper laminations from my photographs.  I put together a patchwork of photographs of footprints and sand patterns between high and low water taken over many years on the beach on St Ives Bay.  I made two long laminations of these images to create Between Tides.  Joints were raw edged with fine paper laminated linen between the back and front panels in places.  The whole was hand stitched and then machine quilted.   I was amazed and delighted when this won the Ann Tuck prize which I am happily spending on courses to increase my knowledge of quilting techniques.     

        Between Tides - back and front

In September 2021 I was part of the team that organised a two week exhibition at Denbies Vineyard, Dorking for the NEG.  This was a curated exhibition and I had two pieces selected.  Roots without Branches is a breakdown print on linen which was quilted by machine and hand stitched.  Unlike most of my work it is not based on the sea shore and does not use blue,

 Roots without Branches

I returned to my usual tones with blue and terracotta piece that was created from a mono print on linen off glassine (a very shiny surface that breaks up applied liquid dye).  It is mainly heavily hand stitched with some machine stitching - Shallow Waters was the result.

 Shallow Waters

At that exhibition the President's Challenge had to involve flowers.  My piece was a digital print of an image I had created from my work on line.  It was machine quilted with raw edge appliqué flowers.

 Floating Tulips