British artist Wendy Kirwood takes her inspiration from her environment and local area. Originally trained in fine art she later started using fabric, and more recently stitch. She often combines found objects with natural dyes to create work in beautiful tones and textures.

Where are you from and where do you live now?

Currently, I live with my family; husband, two children, a dog and a rabbit, in Cumbria close to the Scottish border. However, I grew up on Guernsey in the Channel Islands. I moved to the UK to study fine art at Portsmouth University and from there, I’ve moved several times around the UK and have lived in London, Hull and Sussex. 

Where do you work?

I’m very fortunate to be able to make use of a spare room in our house which my husband and I recently redecorated to include a studio area for me as well as for him as he works with digital music. However, for years and while our children were young, I worked wherever I could find a space which invariably was the kitchen table or the sofa!

What is your background in textiles?

My love of working with textiles started early while I was still at school. I studied art at A-Level and explored printing on paper and textiles. However, I went on to complete a degree in fine art and then taught in a secondary school for several years. It was around 10 years ago that I first really started working with fabric again; exploring the possibilities of dying and stitching onto felt. 

Last year, I decided that I really wanted to explore stitch more and embarked on Sue Stone’s brilliant online course called ‘Exploring Texture & Pattern’ through TextileArtist.org. This enabled me to experiment with stitch and various techniques including strip weaving and applique. Sue Stone uses a lot of photography as inspiration for her work and this sparked my use of photography and stitching onto my photographs. 

How do you describe your art?

Whilst I love textiles and hand stitching. I’d describe my art as mixed media as I tend to use many various approaches, techniques and media to visualise my creative ideas. My primary inspiration comes from my environment and local area; I found my daily walks over the past months were a great source of inspiration and a starting point for much of my work this year. I prefer to use found items such as lichen, leaves and stones or recycled materials such as teabags which would ordinarily go to waste. 

How long does a piece generally take?

This varies dramatically! If stitching onto a photograph or leaf, I am able to complete a small piece of work in a couple of hours. However, some of my more intricate works such as ‘Allium’ or ‘Memorial Cloth’ have taken many days or even a few weeks to complete. I like to have several pieces going at the same time as this keeps my creative brain going and means that I’m constantly working with various processes which I prefer. 

What is your career highlight to date?

A few years ago, in 2017, I was contacted by an old university friend who invited me to take part in a group exhibition at 5th Base Gallery in London. The exhibition brought together work from artists who mainly studied or taught on the fine art degree course at Portsmouth University. The exhibition title was ‘Cusp’ and we were invited to produce work around this idea. I made a series of five small hand stitched felt pieces. It was an exciting exhibition to be a part of with a great mix of work from all disciplines. It was also great to meet up with people I hadn’t seen for years!

Do you have any tips for people wanting to start embroidery?

Definitely! I’d recommend taking part in some workshops where you are encouraged to explore various approaches and techniques. I’ve recently taken part in some excellent online workshops as part of Stitch Club organised by TextileArtist.org. The workshop leaders include Debbie Lyddon, Sue Stone, Gregory T Wilkins, Emily Tull and Cas Holmes. By experimenting with lots of different techniques and materials you’ll soon realise what really inspires you creatively which will lead to defining your own style and ongoing body of work. Otherwise, think about what really inspires you; it may be colour, nature, texture, your family…and start to think about how you could best record this visually using textiles, stitch or whatever media you feel drawn to the most. 

Is there anything you would like to add? 

This year has been a truly unique one for all of us, no matter where we live or who we are. It’s been a roller coaster ride and one that we’re still experiencing. In being creative and expressing ourselves through our art, we can find a space for refection and solace. Sometimes, the best communication between people of all backgrounds is through art and I hope that in producing the work that we do, we can build bridges and communicate with affection and respect. 

Memorial Cloth will be exhibited later this year at The Herbarium in Lancaster in support of Black Lives Matter. 

https://www.instagram.com/wendykirwoodartist/