Textile Landscape: Painting with Cloth in Mixed Media

Product Information

The pre-felted scales took many weeks to make, their bases left unfelted so that they could be seamlessly joined to the base rug at the end. As she worked intuitively, she decided on a dense structure, using resists to keep the raised parts separate from the base felt. After the wet felting process she unfolded the scales to give the three-dimensional view. Dagmar saw that combining many scales together would create a dynamic linear pattern, and decided to let the scales, fins and lamellae reach out over the edge of the base rug, avoiding the use of a frame and letting the object grow into space. Textile Landscape is ideal for anyone who wants to broaden their personal creativity and explore landscapes as a subject matter. Nature is a constant source of inspiration if you want to use it, and this book gives you practical tips in how to produce textile work across a range of media with a natural focus. Content The contents reveal the balance of technique and theory First, select a landscape that has personal meaning. Think about how you are emotionally connected with this chosen landscape. Is it the colours or the textures? The atmosphere, the geology, or the weather? Or is it a personal connection, maybe a memory or a narrative, that links you to the place? Harlem-born artist and activist Ringgold began working with textiles after a trip to Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseumin 1972. There, a gallery guard introduced her to Tibetan thangkas—traditional Buddhist paintings on cloth, surrounded by silk brocades. Returning home, Ringgold enlisted the help of her mother, a professional dressmaker, to make politically minded thangkasof her own, sewing frames of cloth around depictions of brutal rape and slavery. In 1980, Ringgold crafted her first quilt—again, with some sewing help from her mother—called Echoes of Harlem(1980) ,portraying 30 Harlem residents in a mandala-like composition.

Plant and Loy Yang Power Station: Textile Landscape by Cas Holmes is published by Batsford. Artworks by Cas Holmes, photographed by Jacqui Hurs Buildings feature strongly in my works at the moment. I am passionate about landscapes, but often an old croft or bothy will find its way in there. Maybe I’m trying to convey a sanctuary within my work. A place that creates a feel good factor where the onlooker can create their own story within.I am extremely proud of being a writer for Batsford, and as a result, my writing and creative arts practice has grown in confidence. Working with the editorial team is a partnership which not only allows but also encourages, my ‘vision’ and specific ‘take on the world.’ Cas Holmes: Studio Cas Holmes is world-renown for her ability to combine the worlds of stitch and painting to create incredible textile landscapes. So when she published her book Textile Landscape: Painting with Cloth in Mixed Media last October, it’s no surprise it was met with great excitement. Textile artists were eager to gain an inside look into her creative process and “stitch-sketching” techniques. There’s something about woollen felt that appeals to the senses. Is it the warmth, the colours, the texture, or something else? Textile Landscape by Cas Holmes is published by Batsford. Artworks by Cas Holmes, photographed by Jacqui Hurst

Developing your artistic narrative is an individual journey. There is no short cut or easy way. I spend considerable time thinking through ideas and developing the processes behind them, both as an artist and a teacher. Why do I consider the act of drawings and keeping a record is important?This is one of the most difficult questions to answer. I find the Australian landscape inspirational, full of texture and amazing flora and fauna, but alien. It tells its own story and it is one where I can only, as yet, find the most transient of connections. For the Aboriginal artist, the landscape tells its own complex stories of place and connection to people. European settlers brought with them Western conventions of pictorial landscape painting to interpret the land. At best my experience is only ‘fleetingly felt’ as I travel and feels ‘borrowed.’ Finding a more solid connection to place takes time, if it comes at all.

The chapter ‘Painting with Cloth’ especially explores the various ways in which paint and print processes can be combined with textiles. Methods presented include straight-forward techniques to colour cloth in which colour or dye is directly applied to cloth. But I also share tips on using printing and resist techniques that can be layered on top of coloured clothWhile the field of landscape art (pun intended) has been explored many times, the real pleasure in this book comes from Cas’ curation of the textile techniques you can try, and the involvement of other artists. Artists like Jane Fairweather are included for further inspiration Our relationship with the local and global environment is a fragile one. No one who has grown up in the flat Norfolk landscape as a child can fail to make connections between change and man’s impact on the land through farming, building and use of world resources. Medway Gap: Textile Landscape by Cas Holmes is published by Batsford. Artworks by Cas Holmes, photographed by Jacqui Hurst As you’d expect with an author as experienced as Cas, there is a mix of the informative and the practical. Cas explores the history and context of landscape-focused textile art, with a good amount of time spent on the skills needed.