Retrospective – an archive of work made in 2022

A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour version 1 30 x 30 cms & version 2 • 33 x 28 cms

Version 1 was shown at the Uk Knitting & Stitching shows in the 62 Group of Textile Artists Essence exhibition celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Group.

These are very poignant pieces which capture the essence of my creative practice: textural stitch, appliqué and paint combine to create the allusion of a journey to another place and time. It is a poignant work depicting the visit of grandmother to a grandson she never met. He was born 3 weeks after she died. The Grimsby girl, my Mum, Muriel is shown as a child in this piece. She never had the opportunity to travel outside the UK in her lifetime; here she travels to Copenhagen where her grandson, Sam currently lives with his wife, Eliana.

A Step into the Unknown 2022 – revamped version • mixed media • 74 x 52 cms

Lost in a Strange World 2022 • mixed media – 74 x 52 cms

A selection of samples made for my Cast of Characters workshop for Textileartist.org

A selection of samples made for my Off the Grid workshop for Textileartist.org

A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour • Copenhagen 2022

A Grimsby Girl’s world Tour • Copenhagen 2022

This is a very personal piece which captures the essence of my creative practice: textural stitch, appliqué and paint combine to create the allusion of a journey to another place and time. It is a poignant work depicting the visit of grandmother to a grandson she never met. He was born 3 weeks after she died. The Grimsby girl, my Mum, Muriel is shown as a child in this piece. She never had the opportunity to travel outside the UK in her lifetime; here she travels to Copenhagen where her grandson, Sam, now a grown man, currently lives with his wife, Eliana.

This work is part of my Grimsby Girl’s World tour series. She has previously visited Bogota, Colombia, Outer Space, Tokyo, Japan, Madrid, Spain, Brooklyn, NYC, USA, & Vancouver, Canada. All places either myself or my work has visited.

Size: 30 x 30 cms

Materials: Linen fabric, cotton & linen threads, applied silk fabric, acrylic paint

Techniques: Hand & machine stitch, painting, appliqué

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I am honoured and delighted to have had In Another Life and Another Time, Another Place selected for the Broderers exhibition The Art of Embroidery.

The exhibition will be held at Bankside Gallery, Thames Riverside,48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH and runs from 22 – 27 February 2022.

Opening hours Tue 22 – Sat 26 Feb 11:00-18:00  and Sun 27 Feb 11:00-17:00. Due to Covid 19 restrictions please check before traveling.

Free Admission

In Another Life 2021 continues a Grimsby Girl’s world tour with a stopover in Madrid . Size 48.5 x 59 cms • Hand/machine stitch with applied fabrics

In Another life

Born in 1913 she was not able to travel during her lifetime and had very few opportunities in life to pursue her artistic and musical interests. She left school aged 13 and was apprenticed to a tailor. It was a hard life with no recognition of her skill as a seamstress. She loved singing and was a talented contralto. Here in another life, alongside her best friend she travels to Madrid to study music, dance and theatre.

Another Time, Another Place 2021 • Size: 48.5 x 59 cms

Hand/machine stitch/applied fabrics.

Another Time, Another Place

Born in a time when women had no right to vote and many left school at 13 or 14 years old. Ordinary women without opportunities to work after marriage or to travel abroad. Combining images of unknown people from the family album with images from the Alcázar Real in Seville, Spain; symbols of heritage combine with memories to make the composition and bring together an imagined journey to another time and place.

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2 new works

In Another Life 2021

Size 48.5 x 59 cms

Hand and machine stitch with applied fabrics

In Another Life 2021 continues a Grimsby Girl’s world tour with a stopover in Madrid.

Born in 1913 she was not able to travel during her lifetime and had very few opportunities in life to pursue her artistic and musical interests. She left school aged 13 and was apprenticed to a tailor. It was a hard life with no recognition of her skill as a seamstress. She loved singing and was a talented contralto. Here in another life, alongside her best friend she travels to Madrid to study music, dance and theatre.

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  Detail of In Another Life

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  Detail of in Another Life

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  Detail of In Another Life

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  In Another Life 2021

Another Time, Another Place 2021

Size: 48.5 x 59 cms

Hand and machine stitch with applied fabrics.

Born in a time when women had no right to vote and many left school at 13 or 14 years old. Ordinary women without opportunities to work after marriage or to travel abroad. Combining images of unknown people from the family album with images from the Alcázar Real in Seville, Spain; symbols of heritage combine with memories to make the composition and bring together an imagined journey to another time and place.

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  Detail of Another Time, Another Place

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  Detail of Another Time, Another Place

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  Detail of Another Time, Another Place

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  Another Time, Another Place 2021

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Imagined journeys: new work in progress August 2021

Hand and machine stitch with applied fabrics.

Combining images of unknown people from the family album with images from the Alcázar Real in Seville, Spain; symbols of heritage combine with memories to make the composition and bring together an imagined journey to another time and place.

There’s still a fair way to go but it seems to be coming together!

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Featured in Selvedge Magazine

I am delighted that my work will be featured in the January issue of Selvedge magazine.

A detail of my work  From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond is part of the article Text-ile Messaging by Doctor Nicola Donovan. 

The magazine is due to be published on December 14th. 
Buy your copy here

If you’d rather see it ‘in the flesh’ then head off to Sleaford for the 62 Group Ctrl/Shift exhibition where it will be shown in the main gallery at the National Centre for Craft & Design from 2 February to 22 April 2019.

Inspired by a visit to Greenpoint, Brooklyn the emphasis in this piece shifts slightly away from people, and towards place and contains a multitude of references from a specific place, New York and a specific time period 21/12/16 to 3/01/17.

A new approach and a move away from control in the design process meant the work evolved and had several incarnations during the making process rather than being pre-planned.

From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond

A Flavour of Vancouver

In September I had a fantastic trip to Vancouver, Canada to teach at and give a talk at the  wonderful place that is Maiwa School of Textiles.

These images give just a flavour of the trip.

Read about Maiwa  and if you get the opportunity go and see for yourself.

Maiwa Loft

Maiwa Loft

Maiwa Loft

A Focus on Faces – 2 day workshop.

Work by my brilliant students at Maiwa School of Textiles, Vancouver

Work by a student at Maiwa

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

3 Day Workshop – Every Picture Tells a Story.

All work by my fantastic students at Maiwa School of Textiles, Vancouver

work by a student at Maiwa

work by a student at Maiwa

work by a student at Maiwa

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

Work by a student at Maiwa, Canada

A trip to the Museum of Anthropology, at University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Museum of Anthropology UBC

English Bay day and night

English Bay, Vancouver

A Residential Workshop at Chateau Dumas with Sue Stone

Sue Stone – Personal Narratives and Creative Characters

4 – 11 August 2018

In August I am delighted to be teaching a workshop at Chateau Dumas in SW France in conjunction with Selvedge . Booking is open now 

In this residential workshop I will introduce you to the many ways of working figuratively. We will look at a series of different artists and the various methods they use to depict the human figure from the substantial and serious to the light-hearted and whimsical.

During the week we will create some characters, and make some small studies using figurative and narrative elements and look at ways to incorporate your own narratives and memories using images and text.

I will guide you through quick & easy ways to get started and share the simple processes I use myself. There will be a focus on hand stitch, layering and appliqué with an option to add machine stitch if you wish.

I will advise you on how to use your own drawings, photographs or vintage illustrations to convey ideas, thoughts and memories. You’ll  quickly gain the confidence to stamp your own personality on your work.

Fate – photo by Sue Stone

Detail of From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond – photo Yeshen Venema

Detail of I Am Me – photo Sue Stone

Detail Family Tree – photo Sue Stone

Detail of From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond – photo Yeshen Venema

Detail Family tree – photo Sue Stone

We will take a break from the course mid-week to enjoy a day of dyeing with the original blue dye from the woad plant, grown in the Toulouse area since medieval times. You can bring things to dye from home, pick items up at local markets or buy natural fabric from Chateau Dumas.
During the week there is also a visit to the nearby atmospheric Sunday morning food and craft market in St Antonin-Noble-Val, the medieval town where the films Charlotte Gray and The Hundred Foot Journey were filmed.

The workshop is suitable for all abilities. For those who are worried about their drawing ability I will provide some simple black & white guides and some vintage illustrations as a base from which to work and a collection of my own handling samples to inspire you. By the end of the workshop you will have new ideas with which to work and the necessary skills to develop your own work further.

About the Chateau
Chateau Dumas

Every year, Selvedge hosts several all-inclusive residential craft workshops at Chateau Dumas, a private estate with 18th century interiors, a large pool and glorious panoramic views – set amongst rolling hills in peaceful, scenic countryside less than an hour north of Toulouse international airport. Owned and run by Lizzie Hulme the Chateau is a place you can relax, unwind and be truly creative in.

 

A New Home for Girl’s Day Out

A Girl’s Day Out in the East End for Hilda, Nellie and Ida 
mixed media • hand and machine stitch with acrylic paint
size 128 x 102 cms

Yesterday I delivered this piece to its new home in the North East of England. I was sad to see it go so I decided to revisit how I made it, however, I am very happy that it has gone to such a good home with new owners who love it so much. It was made in 2012 for one of the 50th Anniversary exhibitions by the 62 Group of Textile Artists ’62@50′ at the Holden Gallery at Manchester School of Art.

This is my Artist Statement for that exhibition.
Exploring displacement using old family photographs, images of distant relatives I never knew, cut into to a modern day environs, Girls Day Out enquires into and questions, the sense of belonging/not belonging whilst referencing the passing of time and the transience of life itself.

Image of Grimsby St E2

3 Sisters walk down the prom in Cleethorpes

Hilda, Nellie and Ida were 3 sisters and Ida, the tall, elegant one on the right was my sister’s mother-in-law. This piece combined the then, the now and alludes to a journey in-between. The street art in the background is by an artist called Stik and was found in Grimsby St London, E2 in 2011. The images above are the original images I combined to make the work and those below are of the work in progress.

work in progress

work in progress

work in progress

 

 

A Taste of Seville – Part 2

The Tiles of the Alcazar Real

The Alcázar Real of Seville encapsulates the historical evolution of the city during the last millennium, amalgamating influences starting from the Arabic period, late Middle Ages Mudéjar right through to the Renaissance, Baroque and the XIX century.

The tiles at the Alcazar Real are incredible and they are everywhere floors, walls, ceilings,and also outside in the gardens!. Here is just a flavour of what we saw. Truly inspirational.

Read more about this incredible Palace here 

Tiles Alcazar Real, Seville