Artists team up to share their passion for textiles and host major exhibition

Alison Holt and Suzette Smart have joined forces to organise a major exhibition for established and emerging textile artists from across the country.

Stitch by Stitch, which is running at The Willow Gallery in Oswestry until August 19, features more than 100 pieces of artwork and is part of a growing movement that is bringing fine art textiles to a wider audience.

"We were motivated to put Oswestry firmly on the textile art map because we already have a strong art scene here.

"So many major exhibitions are London based and we wanted to redress the balance.

"We have been overwhelmed by the response, it is obviously something textile artists wanted to be involved in," she explains.

They have spent 15 months planning the contemporary fine art textiles exhibition which has attracted esteemed artists including Jan Beaney, Jean Littlejohn, Anne Kelly, Cas Holmes, Carol Naylor and Emily Tull.

"It was Suzette's idea to have an exhibition and she approached me and asked if I would like to be involved," explains Alison.

"We held an open call for artists to promote the show to as many people as possible and we were blown away by the response. We ended up with over 100 applications. It was so exciting.

"We have work from all over the UK, including Cornwall, Yorkshire and Shropshire, as well as southern Ireland."

Alison, who specialises in freehand machine stitching, completed a Foundation Course at Shrewsbury School of Art in 1976 and went on to study Fine Art Embroidery at Goldsmiths College, London qualifying in 1979.

She taught textiles at Wrexham College of Art for three years before starting her own studio near Chester in 1982. Since 2000, she has worked and taught in her Garden Studio.

Using a basic Bernina sewing machine and just two stitches - straight stitch and zig-zag - she makes embroidered pictures of landscapes, seascapes, flowers and garden scenes, influenced by the Shropshire Wales border near Oswestry where she lives and by her travels.

"People think my work is either a photograph or a painting until they get up close and see it's actually stitches. I paint on silk first and that gives me a guide to work on with freehand stitches. There's a thrill in creating something that looks 3D," explains Alison.

She hopes Stitch by Stitch will "open people's minds to what textiles can be". "I think they are going to blown away. The quality is fabulous and the range of subjects and techniques used is incredibly broad," adds Alison.

Suzette, who specialises in stitched books and stories, studied textile design at The University of Ulster, Belfast, from 1990 to 1993.

She teaches workshops that combine layers of mixed media, fabric collage, and free machine and hand stitching throughout the UK.

Describing her work, she says: "The natural world outside my door as well as the familiar journeys along the towpath close by, are my greatest source of inspiration for stitching and storytelling.

"I’m not a light stitcher and I never manage to tell all in the first layer but prefer to build a story through collage, thread and a little mixed media.

"My work often includes hidden histories in the inherited or found fabrics and repurposed embroideries I choose to use for collage and sometimes as my foundation layer.

"I mainly use free machine embroidery but the finishing stitches are often by hand."

Suzette, who along with Alison is a member of Borderland Visual Arts, hopes the Stitch by Stitch exhibition will help to challenge some of the common preconceptions surrounding textiles.

"I hope people see textiles in a new light art and as a fine art. I think textiles is seen in a domestic setting as craft. Some people think that fine art is just paint or oil, we want to show that it's more than that and bring textiles to a wider audience," she tells Weekend.

During the exhibition's run, there will be a series of events giving people the opportunity to see some of the artists demonstrating their work and to also have a go at some of the textile techniques themselves.

"We didn't want to just hang the exhibition and walk away," says Alison. "Fourteen of the artists who are exhibiting are coming one by one to the gallery to talk about their work, give demonstrations and hold workshops.

"It's all very informal and there is free entry to the events. People can just turn up and enjoy chatting to the artists and find out more about their work. We would love to see a lot of visitors enjoying the exhibition."

For more information about the events, visit www.alisonholt.co.uk/stitchbystitch or call the gallery on 01691 657575.