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Self Portrait with Bear and Masks

Inspired by a visit to the Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

Size 18.5 x 19.5 cms

hand and machine stitch with appliqué

From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond

From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond • photo by Yeshen Venema

Materials :Linen and recycled clothing fabrics,cotton threads, InkTense pencils,acrylic paint

Techniques: Hand and machine stitch.appliqué, piecing, drawing, painting

A visit to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York sparked the idea for this work in which the emphasis shifts slightly away from people, and towards place, a specific place, New York and a snapshot of a specific time period 21/12/16 to 3/01/17. Another small shift is in the use of materials, black thread was used abundantly in this piece this is a new departure as was the use of Derwent InkTense pencils to draw and colour the background fabric.

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

There are a multitude of references in this work; to the atmosphere and fast pace of New York City to the areas and places visited and to great beer, coffee and food consumed. Also referenced are a selection of the many street artists in Greenpoint and Bushwick including Faille, a Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller and there’s tribute paid to particular artworks, ‘Jawbone of an Ass’ by Jean-Michel Basquiat and ‘The Mermaid’ a sculpture by Liz Craft at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan.

Studies for Collected Memories

Virginia and her Mum

Beryl’s Gran and her Friends 2018 Study for Collected Memories Hand/machine stitch with paint.

Randi and Mr Bunny 2018 for Collected memories Hand/machine stitch with appliqué .

Carmel and Dora 2018 for Collected Memories Hand/machine stitch with paint.

Study for 6 Little Girls 2018 for Collected Memories machine/hand stitch, ink pencils and paint.

New Handling Samples 2018

Handling sample

This is the first of a series of posts documenting the work I have made since 2002 when I started working as an artist after 28 year career designing womenswear.

Thornton Abbey Series
In 2002 I began working from a series of photographs of Thornton Abbey given to me by my friend Alf Ludlam who had visited the Abbey with his daughter, Lucy ,also a stitcher. She thought the photos would inspire me to start stitching again and they did. I later went to the Abbey and took my own photographs . The series of work I have produced is inspired by the beautiful tiles that have been preserved in the Abbey ruins and the gargoyles in and around the gatehouse.
The enormous fortified gatehouse of Thornton Abbey is among the finest surviving in Britain. It is an early example of brick building and was one of the wealthiest English Augustinian monasteries. Built in the years following the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 it provided lodgings for the abbot and his guests. Within its grounds stand the remains of the monastic buildings.

Self Portraits 2006 I made five self-portraits, one for each decade of my life at that time. The composition is based on Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting. I love the simplicity of the two figures in front of the distinctive Gothic window of the cottage. The painting shows a farmer standing beside his spinster daughter. The models were the artist’s dentist and sister.

The Wigwam portrays me with my sister, Jean during the 1950s. We are in our garden with our one-eyed cat, Tiddles outside our wigwam.

The Wigwam

The Holiday features me with best friend Olwen on holiday in Polperro, Cornwall in 1967.

The Holiday

The Wedding shows me with my husband, David on our wedding day in 1975. Unfortunately no photographs exist of the event so it is done from my own memory of the day.