I am an artist working in mixed media, collage and textiles. I have travelled extensively (pre-Covid 19) with two very memorable trips to Antarctica in 2002 and 2020. I fell in love with this cold but beautiful place and it is a continuing influence in my work. I try to capture the moment, memory or feeling that creates a sense or spirit of place. My work travels in time and place taking inspiration from local walks, Antarctic icebergs through to mapping imaginary places.
I build my work in layers starting with a base fabric and adding collage, paint and stitch to develop my ideas. I reuse and recycle a lot, whether this is donated clothing, family textiles or the scraps and threads left over from previous work. I like to include evidence of former use (buttons, unpicked seams, darts etc) as I go along and dye and print my own fabric. Currently I'm experimenting with cutting and rearranging - creating an initial collage then turning it over and cutting from the back so that I can't control where the cuts will take me. This gives me a fresh eye on the resulting pieces which I can then develop with further collage and stitch.
I moved to Worcester in 2018. This has made a huge difference to my creative practice, not to mention being able to corral all my materials, fabrics, books into one place and organise my work. In November 2022 I joined Yew Trees Artists Studios and have a studio upstairs in the Coach House at Bevere Gallery in Worcester.
I also regularly exhibit with the Midlands Textile Forum with exhibitions in 2023 at Southwell Workhouse, Nottingham Society of Artists and Nature in Art, Gloucester; On the Surface Group – see our work at Birmingham Open Studios; Together Textiles – we’ll be exhibiting at The Core, Solihull in September 2023.