August 6–September 11, 2022
Madeleine Hedges, Edwina Mackinnon & Catherine Nicholls
3 textile artists from 3 different corners of the world explore what “this place” means to them. They explore the unique characteristics of where they live and work and their connection to these distinctive settings. Madeleine Hedges from Australia, Edwina Mackinnon from England and Catherine Nicholls from Canada each looks at what connects them to their individual places, how they perceive and experience their environment and the emotional attachments of belonging to “this place.”
Madeleine Hedges
Madeleine lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia. Born in Egypt of Greek and Welsh parentage, she lived in several countries before her family migrated to Australia to make a new life. After finishing a career in Education and Human Services, she studied Visual Arts, with a desire to use fabric and thread to make art that tells a story. Her previous career highlighted many issues facing humanity, about which she continues to be passionate – including our heritage, our understanding and care of the natural world, and the unique contribution of the First Peoples of the world.
She has drawn inspiration for her art work from those same issues, her own heritage and the unique land she now calls home.
Madeleine’s work begins with extensive research and concept development. She strives to include a range of techniques and media relevant to the subject, and often symbolic. More recently, her art has involved collaborating with nature, working with plants, earth pigments and dyes, and mark-making with natural objects.
Madeleine has been exhibiting in Australia for 12 years.
Edwina Mackinnon
Edwina works and lives in Worcestershire , UK. She has stitched or been involved with textiles in one form or another for as long as she can remember.
Edwina’s background is in teaching. She qualified as a primary school teacher in the 1970’s and after having a family she embarked on a City & Guilds Creative Embroidery course that literally changed her life. She went on to teach various City & Guilds courses, assess courses on line and she became assistant editor of Patchwork & Quilting magazine for several years.
Edwina continues to pass on her knowledge to local textile groups but spends more time at home nowadays where she continues to experiment and develop her work.
Her inspiration is drawn mainly from her garden, local countryside and family history but she always enjoys the challenge of a new and interesting theme.
Dyed and printed fabrics have frequently featured in Edwina’s work with a special emphasis on indigo. She enjoys experimenting and has recently discovered the joy of painting with acrylics and ink on paper providing a different source of inspiration for her textile work.
Edwina exhibits regularly with Art Textiles: Made in Britain
Catherine Nicholls
Quilt- Embroidery-Mixed Media-Painting-Art Cloth-Drawing-Stitch
Catherine lives and works in Gibsons, B.C. and draws inspiration from the natural world, her travels and the people she meets along the way. Stories, legends and the history of people, place and culture are the creative raw materials for themed exhibitions worldwide.
Catherine’s work is developed through painting, drawing and collage usually on paper. This careful planning and exploration of ideas allows a more liberated and intuitive approach when it comes to fabric, paint and mixed media techniques.
She works on paper and fabric with discharge, dyeing, drawing, painting and printing. Textile pieces are then densely stitched either by hand or machine and often both.
Catherine has exhibited worldwide and has various pieces tour on an ongoing basis. Teaching has formed a large part of her daily life, with workshops in patchwork and quilting techniques, sketchbooks and journaling, life drawing, design and other passions.
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