I was invited by the painter, Tim Allen, represented by Defiance Gallery, to join an artist trip in May 2022 exploring the beautiful Blue Moutains. Creating plein air works inspired by being in the landscape was a breath of fresh air, a time to reflect and experiment with new approaches in responding to the bush. I brought minimal materials including an old sheet, fabric and fabric paints, which I tore, reassembled and painted with calligraphic marks, approaching fabric as I would a painting. I really like the insitu images of the fabric assemblages suggesting prayer mats in the landscape. Continuing this I photographed drawings produced on site. Rolling up the fabric works to create a bundle, I then unrolled and hand stitched the works at home. The completed work became, ‘Repair and Mending Time’. The lines of fabric when stitched became an abstracted drawing at the back of the work, creating a two sided piece, with the addition of cutting through the layers of fabric to further create abstracted shapes. Finally introducing sequins and beads as additional marks and texture.

I have just completed a new work experimenting with textiles and stitching. Continuing on from my large textile work part of my installation at the North Sydney Art Prize, 2022, at the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, ‘Shrine to Aqueous Depths’, I have been sewing a collage of textiles that I created on a recent artists trip to the Blue Mountains.

Inspired by the Meroogal House, a Historic Houses property in Nowra, NSW, and created for the Meroogal Art Prize, 2022, the work is inspired by this historical setting. Hand stitched fabric echoes generations of women within this house, repairing and mending over time, acknowledging the essence of making do, using whats at hand, and a love of fabric and the domestic sphere. The work can be showen either side, both sides revealing a traditionally concealed back, where stitching becomes unleashed from a pragmatic functionality to an abstracted contemporary drawing, with exposed cuttings and embellished with sequins. It is a commemoration to the simplicity of the everyday. 150 x 150 cm, Fabric, stitching, sequins and beads, 2022.