We enjoyed a great talk today from textiles and mixed media artist Hellen Edwards. It was exciting to see her artwork out on display ready for the afternoon with us. Her pictures have a colourful style that appears like a painting from afar but are even more beautiful and detailed up close. Textiles can offer so much depth and texture and capture the essence of place or subject matter.
Helen shared her varied style of art with us today, enjoying the freedom to move across medias. She mainly works with felt, creating her surface with wet felting and later embellishing with free motion machine embroidery. These colourful and painterly images really draw you in and are uplifting and vibrant, sometimes with luminescent hues. Understandably, Helen's artwork is very popular at shows such as Art in The Pen and Yarndale to name a few. She is selected year on year for these events and has also had art on show at The Biscuit Factory, Number Four and RHS Harlow Carr Bath House. She has also featured in Stitch Magazine. Her felt textile work is soft and nature based, often floral and sometimes including animals such as cats and foxes.
Helen also draws on the industrial shoreline and rugged landscape of the North East. She likes the beauty in the collision between the natural and manufactured environment She states "the seductive, tactile, jewel-like colours and surfaces are intended to conjure the vitality, atmosphere and a sense of a place". These works are painted, often with oil, sometimes over a crackled and grained texture to depict the rugged landscape such as exposed rock. Her embellishment with free-machine embroidery is so delicate and brings each piece to life.
Helen's story from student to successful artist was really enjoyable to listen to. She really gives credit to her local art college in Cleveland for her inspiration and teaching where she was first introduced to textiles and the sewing machine. This piece of equipment is central to her practice of which she has a few favourites. She notes the toll on her machines stitching through multilayered surfaces which need regular needle changing and servicing. Her machine style is very free and she boasts that she has never unpicked a stitch in her life! Well that is something I don't think any of us can claim at Harrogate Creative Stitchers!
Thank you so much Hellen for your lovely talk and sharing your art, story and techniques with us. We'll certainly be looking out for her pieces at local shows and upcoming workshops. For more information about Hellen's work go to her website at https://hellenedwardsartist.co.uk/ and Instagram @hellenedwardsartist
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