About the artist

 

I'm a stitcher.  I've been stitching for longer than I can remember, but my mother (who was a talented needlewoman) told me I was adept with needle and thread pre-school.

​

School was conventional state schools, then art college - foundation course in Coventry, Fine Art (Sculpture) at the Central School in London  and teacher training at Bretton Hall, in Yorkshire, where I started to produce sculptural pieces and installations using ceramics and textiles.

​

Then a long, long gap before I began to produce art again, and the desire to do that was sparked by a visit to Bretton (now Yorkshire Sculpture Park) in 2017, the first time I'd been back there since leaving in 1976.

​

My work is mostly inspired by the natural forms of Umbria, where I live, and the north east of England, my roots and the area I return to as often as possible.  I work with fabrics that I've collected over the years, mainly silks but also linen, cotton and jute.  I use quilting, embroidery and applique', but I don't consider myself to be either embroiderer or quilter; there are many who work in these crafts with more skill than I have.  

​

I stitch by hand because the process is slow and meditative and the relationship with the fabric is tactile and sensuous.  The fabric dictates how a piece will evolve, the stitching adds the form and texture, the light and shade.