ABOUT LOIS
STITCH BY STITCH - TAKING THE LINE FOR A WALK
What we ‘see’ as we wander through life is highly personal and is informed by our life experiences. My childhood memories in remote Papua New Guinea are of creativity in the everyday – there were no Art Galleries to view fine art. Instead there were beautifully ‘woven’ walls, bilums (string bags), grass skirts, carvings, drums, and body art of feathers and paint.
My childhood memories also include learning to hand sew under my mothers tuition as she taught the local women to sew. Sewing and art became my passions in adolescence and merged together as textile art in tertiary studies at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
Many years later, and currently residing in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, I am still passionate about textiles and creativity.
My artwork is an interpretation of what I ‘see’ in the natural world around me.
I look for the extraordinary in the ordinary; the shape of a leaf, the colour contrasts in a landscape, the lines in a flower, the patterns within a macro image of nature, etc. These colours, shapes, lines, textures and patterns are then translated into a drawing – often highly stylized or abstracted – and this becomes the basis for a textile art piece or an art quilt.
Central to my image making is the sewing machine and my ability to ‘sketch/draw’ or ‘paint’ freehand using thread. Incorporated into my current work are often multiple techniques; free machine stitching, hand colouring using Inktense pencils, hand painting, printmaking, hand stitching and raw edge applique.
My goal is to celebrate the extraordinary in the ordinary, to capture a moment in time, to explore, to extend, to deconstruct and reconstruct.
My inspiration comes from capturing ordinary moments in my urban wanderings or forest walks and exploring their creative potential.
I love to explore and create using fabric, thread, pencils, paint, printmaking, my sewing machine, hand stitching, photography and a digital design program. I specialise in creating unique and one off textile artworks, using the quilt sandwich as my canvas and drawing with my sewing machine. I also create unique surface pattern designs for fabric or paper.
In my artworks and designs, I explore elements of line, shape, pattern and colour that I see in the natural world, often deconstructing and reconstructing these elements before expressing them through drawing with my sewing machine or designing in a digital design program.
I offer workshops in textile art/art quilt/design techniques.
My artwork is available for purchase or commission.
If you need further information on my work or workshops, or wish to purchase, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
