Contemporary Stitch Artist 

 Drawing With Thread 

"My artwork combines my passion for textiles, drawing, painting and design, and is realised through a combination of techniques associated with these creative disciplines" 

 A career in stitches...

Creativity through art, fashion, textiles and stitch, has always played a fundamental role in my life, from my early childhood growing up in the North West of England, through to my working life both in the UK and New Zealand. Through experimentations with free motion stitch as a creative drawing medium, combined with paint and collage, my artwork entwines my love for figurative drawing and painting, with my passions for stitch, and textile arts. I am inspired by experiences and aspects of life that create an emotive response in my psyche; more often depicting icons in popular culture ranging from music, film and fashion, as well as the natural world and wildlife around me.

My creative process, usually centred round a particular subject or collective, evolves from research and experimentation with fabric, stitch and colour sampling. This inevitably enables me to draw upon my skills developed in my earlier careers as a designer / patternmaker in the fashion industry, alongside teaching art, fashion and textiles in higher education.

Creating art works with free motion stitch has become a central focus in my work. I strive for fluid movement when drawing with stitch so that the process is relaxed and almost meditative, more so when working on a larger scale.

Since migrating to New Zealand in 2010, I have been successful in receiving multiple awards for both wearable and visual art works, including WoW (The World of Wearable Art), the NZ Embroiders Guild National Exhibition, the Franklin Arts Festival and, several other exhibitions around New Zealand. My artworks have been sold both in New Zealand and internationally.