In August 2023 my work ‘Interlaced and Fly Stitch Estuary’ was announced as the winner of the Fine Art Textile Award Prize for Innovative Use of Textiles.

The FATA winning and shortlisted works are exhibited at The Festival of Quilts NEC 3-6 August 2023; and the Knitting and Stitching Shows- Alexandra Palace, London 5-8th October 2023, and Harrogate 16-19 November 2023.

The Fine Art Textile Award is an international juried exhibition that recognises the creative talents and skills of a broad community of high-calibre artists using textiles, cloth and thread as their primary medium.

www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk/2023-shortlist

The 62 Group exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Yorkshire included my work ‘Pad Stitch Manipulations’ which explored a stitch commonly used in tailoring, but not usually visible.

Tailored: from the Latin verb to cut and a word associated particularly with suits and suiting.

The specialist stitches themselves, tailor tacking, padding stitches, etc, once isolated from garment construction, become a new language of mark or construction.

This exhibition demonstrates the versatility of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and the great diversity of approaches and individual approaches to textile as an art form. The artists demonstrate great skill in making, alongside a highly attuned sense of the role of their artistic medium in making sense of the world around them.

www.62group.org.uk/exhibitions/tailored

The 62 Group 60th anniversary exhibition at the Knitting and Stitching Shows in London and Harrogate included my work ‘Floating Fly Stitch’.

This exhibition, Essence, explores the diversity, skill, and creativity of textile art within the group in 2022. Members were asked to create work within the size constraints of 30 x 30 x 30cm. Their work conveys what it is that motivates and drives their practice – its ‘essence’. From the intrinsic concept, to processes or materials that are essential to their work this exhibition encapsulates textile art in 2022.

www.62group.org.uk/exhibitions/essence

My work “Cretan Stitch Conversations” was included in the 62 Group exhibition ‘Conversations, People, Places, Materials, Objects’ at St Barbes, Lymington in 2022.

The exhibition explores the working relationship that artists have with the world around them and in particular artwork that investigates the creative dialogue that takes place between the artist/maker and the themes: people, place, materials, objects.

www.62group.org.uk/exhibitions/conversations

An exhibition by the 62 Group of Textile Artists, part of the British Textile Biennial, At The Whitaker Gallery in Rawtenstall, Lancashire.

The theme focuses on the global context of textiles, textile production and the relationships it creates both historically and now.

www.62group.org.uk/exhibitions/connected-cloth-exhibition

My work ’Fly Stitch Autumn Landscape’ was included in the 62 Group exhibition ‘Ctrl/Shift’ which toured to MAC Birmingham; The National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford; and Scunthorpe Visual Arts Centre.

Ctrl/Shift takes shifts and changes as its theme; in particular it is centred on artists whose practice is or has transformed, in small or large ways, especially towards expressions of innovation in textile art. These shifts may be around changing attitudes to control; the introduction of new materials and techniques; and/or the impact of innovative and contemporary themes and ideas, and evolving technologies.

www.62group.org.uk/exhibitions/20-21-visual-arts-centre

‘Construct’ was a 62 Group exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Yorkshire, which included my work ‘Running Stitch Under Construction’

The theme Construct offers a rich seam to mine for inspiration. Works built using a range of textile construction techniques, diverse materials and structural forms, will surely have a focus, alongside pieces inspired by the built environment. Less obvious interpretations around the construction of ideas, arguments and narratives may also be seen.

www.62group.org.uk/exhibitions/construct-exhibition-sunnybanksmills