I belong to the Artist’s Programme run by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich. The group, run by the wonderful education department, encourages artists through a programme of workshops and regular meetings to consider issues around a range of practice related topics. Although I love the built environment of the displays there are not many objects that relate …
In the autumn of 2014 I booked a last minute fortnight trip from Bristol Avonmouth up the coast of Norway and back. It was a great trip, I saw the northern lights (awesome), the Alta petroglyphs (stunning), the first snow of the season in Honningsvag (magical), the military museum in Narvik (sobering), the receding Svartisen Glavier (sadly receding), stave churches, …
One of the defining things about being British is our obsession about the weather. It is a safe topic of conversation and a source of constant interest. But our climate is also generally benign so it’s rarely more than an inconvenience (more of that in another post…) For the last few years an important component of my practice has been …
I’ve used some related imagery I’ve been working on for a while to loosely illustrate this traditional song about a whaling voyage in book form. I used a combination of digital printing on fabric and fabric paint for the lyric pages. The images were made using transfer dyes, layering burnt sheer fabrics and freehand machine embroidery. The pages run in a …
Transfer dye on grey textile. 2015. Orca skeleton based on one at Bergen Natural History Museum
Quilted gold satin freehand machine embroidered Right Whale with skeleton, 2015
Digitally printed freehand machine embroidered textiles, 2014. The skulls are based on ones at Tromso Polar Museum, the maps and charts relate to where those specific species can be found. They are approximately life sized.
Digitally printed textile and freehand machine embroidery. 2014 Life sized. Skull is based on the one at Hull Maritime Museum and the chart is Bjornoya (Bear Island) off the north coast of Norway.
In October of 2014 I voyaged again to Norway, calling at several places with whale and whaling related collections in particular Bergen, Honningsvag and Tromso, As often happens it is the unexpected things that often inspire me the most. The seal skulls at Tromso (sealing was an important part of arctic whaling) and the rock carvings at Alta of ships …
In 2013 on my month long voyage around various Arctic Seas I saw five different species of whale and visited several whale centres, heritage whaling sites and museums with skeletons of whales on display. A series of quilted textile pieces evolved from sketches and photographs of the skeletons, maps both current and historic of the locations where I saw the …